Emailing PROBLEM: Emails will send to certain addresses, but not others?!?

[nfriend21]

I am having a strange problem where OsCommerce will send order/password request emails to certain email addresses (such as [email protected]) without any problems, HOWEVER, it will not send to certain email addresses such as [email protected]. It seems that Yahoo, Hotmail, Cox, and some other email providers are blocking these emails completely -- they are not even going in the Junk/Bulk Folder. PLEASE HELP!!

[MaBiSmAd]

I am having a strange problem where OsCommerce will send order/password request emails to certain email addresses (such as [email protected]) without any problems, HOWEVER, it will not send to certain email addresses such as [email protected]. It seems that Yahoo, Hotmail, Cox, and some other email providers are blocking these emails completely -- they are not even going in the Junk/Bulk Folder. PLEASE HELP!!

 

Is this a new problem or has it been occurring for a time?

 

My 1st thought is that your email server does not have an SPF record (find out about this here -

http://www.openspf.org/)

 

Most of the main email providers (yahoo, hotmail/msn) check this record when you send email to them. If you don't have an SPF record or it is not set properly, your email might be discarded. There is typically no error back to you, because your email server sent the mail, but it was discarded on the receiving end.

 

You can check your server and find out a lot of information about it here - http://www.dnsreport.com/

[nfriend21]

It has been occurring for some time, only it was hard to finally realize that there was a problem since most developers arent testing using yahoo/hotmail or other accounts rejecting the emails. So now that we have isolated the problem -- in realizing that only SOME providers are rejecting the emails -- we are seeking the help of this forum to try to help us resolve our issue.

 

I will look into your suggestions asap though any more help from anyone is appreciated. I am hoping that someone else must have experienced this issue as well.

 

Is this a new problem or has it been occurring for a time?

 

My 1st thought is that your email server does not have an SPF record (find out about this here -

http://www.openspf.org/)

 

Most of the main email providers (yahoo, hotmail/msn) check this record when you send email to them. If you don't have an SPF record or it is not set properly, your email might be discarded. There is typically no error back to you, because your email server sent the mail, but it was discarded on the receiving end.

 

You can check your server and find out a lot of information about it here - http://www.dnsreport.com/

[MaBiSmAd]

It has been occurring for some time, only it was hard to finally realize that there was a problem since most developers arent testing using yahoo/hotmail or other accounts rejecting the emails. So now that we have isolated the problem -- in realizing that only SOME providers are rejecting the emails -- we are seeking the help of this forum to try to help us resolve our issue.

 

I will look into your suggestions asap though any more help from anyone is appreciated. I am hoping that someone else must have experienced this issue as well.

 

Another possibility, that you hope doesn't exist, is that your email server has been blocked/banned/black listed by these other email systems, due to excessive spam. All email coming from a web hosting company typically passes through a single mail server with one IP address. If your web hosting company has or has had a number of spammers using it, or if your email server is being used to relay spam, then the IP address of your mail server might be blocked by these other systems.

 

You can find out if your mail server is on some of the spam databases here - http://www.dnsstuff.com/

[Guest]

Another possibility, that you hope doesn't exist, is that your email server has been blocked/banned/black listed by these other email systems, due to excessive spam. All email coming from a web hosting company typically passes through a single mail server with one IP address. If your web hosting company has or has had a number of spammers using it, or if your email server is being used to relay spam, then the IP address of your mail server might be blocked by these other systems.

 

You can find out if your mail server is on some of the spam databases here - http://www.dnsstuff.com/

 

I've had that happen to a few of my clients' sites. Most likely, your host has been banned.

[nfriend21]

Ok so the IP address I see being used to send my emails is this: 70.84.3.14

 

When I typed it into the "spam databse lookup" (this is the first time I have done this), it showed 261 out of 263 results. I scrolled down and found one of these entries in RED. The site explains that "Rows with a RED background indicate a problem (listed in a spam database)."

 

Does this mean my host is the problem, and in order to solve this problem I need to change hosts?

 

thanks,

 

Nick

 

I've had that happen to a few of my clients' sites. Most likely, your host has been banned.

[MaBiSmAd]

Ok so the IP address I see being used to send my emails is this: 70.84.3.14

 

When I typed it into the "spam databse lookup" (this is the first time I have done this), it showed 261 out of 263 results. I scrolled down and found one of these entries in RED. The site explains that "Rows with a RED background indicate a problem (listed in a spam database)."

 

Does this mean my host is the problem, and in order to solve this problem I need to change hosts?

 

thanks,

 

Nick

 

Just one or a couple in red do not indicate a huge problem, but it does indicate that enough people have complained or that an ISP has received enough spam that they have reported it to that spam database.

 

It is best to ask your hosting company if they can check with specific ISP's to see if your mail server has been banned by them. Typically, bans only last for a specific period, then are lifted, until the spam level or complaints get them reinstated. If the abuse is excessive, their system administrator simply enters your IP address into a table and the ban becomes permanent, until someone at your ISP sweat talks someone at the other ISP to remove the ban. If this is what is occurring, your hosting company has a responsibility to you to end the abuse by others on their server so that you don't suffer.

 

Did you find out anything about the existence of the SPF record for your mail server?

 

Here is a possibility concerning the SPF (your domain probably needs one in addition to your hosting company's domain.) Your hosting company has its domain (call it hostingcompany.com.) They should have an SPF record that says that mail from their mail server, can come from hostingcompany.com (email with a from address like [email protected] is OK)

 

If the mail you send out from OSC has a from address like - [email protected], then there needs to be an SPF record for your domain that says that mail from the mail server can come from yourdomain.com.

 

Let me describe my situation to help clarify this - if you don't understand, don't worry.

 

I have a domain at a hosting company. To make the hosting company appear anonymous, and that mail is sent by my domain and received by my domain, I have set up some DNS zone records (don't attempt this unless you understand and have a hosting company that can help you out.) All of the following is done within a DNS Zone Editor within your hosting account control panel.

 

1) To make it appear that I have my own mail server, the following record creates a DNS name - mail.mydomain.com - with the IP address of the host's mail server -

Record Type: A (Host Record)

Record Name: mail

Record Data: IP address of host's mail server goes here

This says - if you ask me the IP address of mail.mydomain.com, I will give you back the IP address of the host's mail server. Email servers only talk to each other using IP addresses.

 

2) An MX record is needed so that email systems that send mail with a "to" address at my domain (to: [email protected]) can find my mail server's name -

Record Type: MX (Mail Exchange Record)

Record Name: @

Record Data: mail.mydomain.com.

The @ refers to the root domain name (mydomain.com)

This says if you ask me for the email server name for mydomain.com, I will give you back mail.mydomain.com (then item #1 above is used to get the IP address for this.)

 

3) An SPF record is needed to tell receiving email systems (when they check - some do check, some don't) what FROM domains are allowed to send email from this mail server -

Record Type: TXT (Text Data Record)

Record Name: @

Record Data: v=spf1 a mx ptr mx:mail.mydomain.com~all

The @ refers to the root domain name (mydomain.com)

This basically says that the mail server mail.mydomain.com is allowed to send mail with mydomain.com in the from address ([email protected])

 

These three things create a mail server name and give it an IP address, tell other email systems what your mail server name is, and let email systems that you send mail to, check what domains are allowed to send mail from your mail server.

 

Wow, don't anyone ask for an explanation of this again... ever...