I'm trying to get to the bottom of why Hotmail is refusing emails from my server. Users are not able to receive emails from my website if they try to register with a Hotmail account. I'm sure there are some other email clients that have the same issue. Gmail works, Yahoo works ... it's Hotmail that's my biggest concern at this time.
I ran some reports on DNSstuff.com to see if it can help me find areas of concern. I'm not sure what a couple of these messages mean or how to resolve them. I hope that someone will be able to point me in the right direction. I have contact EV1 regarding issue #3 because I could not add the SPF record for the domain's zone. Any suggesions for 1 and 2 would be greatly appreciated.
ISSUE #1: WARN Single Point of Failure WARNING: Although you have at least 2 NS records, and they appear to point to different physical servers, it appears that they block the ICMP packets used as part of our test, which means that they may share the same firewall. If they share the same firewall, this results in a single point of failure, which could cause all your DNS servers to be unreachable.
ISSUE #2: WARN Mail server host name in greeting WARNING: One or more of your mailservers is claiming to be a host other than what it really is (the SMTP greeting should be a 3-digit code, followed by a space or a dash, then the host name). If your mailserver sends out E-mail using this domain in its EHLO or HELO, your E-mail might get blocked by anti-spam software. This is also a technical violation of RFC821 4.3 (and RFC2821 4.3.1). Note that the hostname given in the SMTP greeting should have an A record pointing back to the same server. Note that this one test may use a cached DNS record.
mail.mywebsite.com claims to be non-existent host plesk.ev1servers.net:
220 plesk.ev1servers.net ESMTP
ISSUE #3: WARN SPF record Your domain does not have an SPF record. This means that spammers can easily send out E-mail that looks like it came from your domain, which can make your domain look bad (if the recipient thinks you really sent it), and can cost you money (when people complain to you, rather than the spammer). You may want to add an SPF record ASAP, as 01 Oct 2004 was the target date for domains to have SPF records in place (Hotmail, for example, started checking SPF records on 01 Oct 2004).
Full Version: DNS help ... trying to resolve mail server problems
Greetings:
#2 and #3 can be of more impact than #1.
To resolve #2, set up your SMTP greeting statement to match your "mail.mywebsite.com" name.
If my memory is correct, plesk uses qmail; and if so, then set up /var/qmail/control/smtpgreeting and restart qmail. Otherwise, research the requirements of your MTA (mail transport agent -- aka mail server) for setting up the SMTP greeting.
To resolve #3, set up a correct SPF record for your mail server domain name, and the corresponding machine names including the domain name from which mail can be sent.
See http://www.openspf.org/ for more information about SPF.
Thank you.
#2 and #3 can be of more impact than #1.
To resolve #2, set up your SMTP greeting statement to match your "mail.mywebsite.com" name.
If my memory is correct, plesk uses qmail; and if so, then set up /var/qmail/control/smtpgreeting and restart qmail. Otherwise, research the requirements of your MTA (mail transport agent -- aka mail server) for setting up the SMTP greeting.
To resolve #3, set up a correct SPF record for your mail server domain name, and the corresponding machine names including the domain name from which mail can be sent.
See http://www.openspf.org/ for more information about SPF.
Thank you.
I'm still having the same issues. I've talked to several of the server guys at my job about this and they have lots of suggestions but the Plesk server setup seems to be an issue for those not familiar with it. My site uses Qmail. I'm still receiving the same errors despite the work done this past week. Here are the screen shots of what my setups are.
Local DNS settings in Plesk:
DNS Zones in my servercommand.net account:
I found other posts where dynamicnet suggested to "modify or create" the smtpgreeting file. It wasn't at /var/qmail/control/smtpgreeting so I created the file per his suggestion in another thread.
EV1Servers responded to a trouble ticket that they had resolve the PTR record issue:
Which was in response to this request that I sent:
Local DNS settings in Plesk:
DNS Zones in my servercommand.net account:
I found other posts where dynamicnet suggested to "modify or create" the smtpgreeting file. It wasn't at /var/qmail/control/smtpgreeting so I created the file per his suggestion in another thread.
EV1Servers responded to a trouble ticket that they had resolve the PTR record issue:
QUOTE
1/4/2007 1:31:09 AM
WebTech
Ryan Yzquierdo
What would you like the PTR records changed to?
AndrewM
EV1Servers
Webhosting Technical Support
1/4/2007 12:19:29 PM
WebTech
Dear Ryan Yzquierdo
Please supply us with a domain that resolves to the IP address of each server you provided that you want the reverse entry to be. The domain must resolve to the specific IP. You may wish to use the hostname of the server as your reverse entry. This will cover all domains hosted on that specific server. We await your response.
Thank You
KevinS
EV1 Servers
Webhosting Technical Support
1/4/2007 4:18:55 PM
WebTech
Dear Ryan Yzquierdo,
Your reverse DNS / PTR changes have been made. Please allow sufficient time (6-12 hours) for our DNS servers to reload and for the changes to be reflected. Thank you.
RandallK
EV1Servers
Webhosting Technical Support
WebTech
Ryan Yzquierdo
What would you like the PTR records changed to?
AndrewM
EV1Servers
Webhosting Technical Support
1/4/2007 12:19:29 PM
WebTech
Dear Ryan Yzquierdo
Please supply us with a domain that resolves to the IP address of each server you provided that you want the reverse entry to be. The domain must resolve to the specific IP. You may wish to use the hostname of the server as your reverse entry. This will cover all domains hosted on that specific server. We await your response.
Thank You
KevinS
EV1 Servers
Webhosting Technical Support
1/4/2007 4:18:55 PM
WebTech
Dear Ryan Yzquierdo,
Your reverse DNS / PTR changes have been made. Please allow sufficient time (6-12 hours) for our DNS servers to reload and for the changes to be reflected. Thank you.
RandallK
EV1Servers
Webhosting Technical Support
Which was in response to this request that I sent:
QUOTE
I would like to have reverse DNS setup for my server with EV1 (67.15.221.15). I am trying to resolve some issues with various email clients like Hotmail blocking emails from my priAccount Management website, SEIBERTRON.com.
Is there anyone that can help me with this issue? Am I posting in the wrong forum?
I am posting another screen capture ... this time from http://www.mxtoolbox.com/diagnostic.aspx?H....seibertron.com:
http://www.seibertron.com/images/misc/dns004.jpg
This screen capture shows that mxtoolbox.com isn't finding the greeting banner at all. It keeps timing out searching for the record after 10 seconds.
I am posting another screen capture ... this time from http://www.mxtoolbox.com/diagnostic.aspx?H....seibertron.com:
http://www.seibertron.com/images/misc/dns004.jpg
This screen capture shows that mxtoolbox.com isn't finding the greeting banner at all. It keeps timing out searching for the record after 10 seconds.
Have you filled out a ticket to support yet?
Also, if you're running WHM, you might want to take a look at this: http://knowledge.phirefast.com/?q=node/13
Also, if you're running WHM, you might want to take a look at this: http://knowledge.phirefast.com/?q=node/13
QUOTE (markcausa)
Have you filled out a ticket to support yet?
Also, if you're running WHM, you might want to take a look at this: http://knowledge.phirefast.com/?q=node/13
Also, if you're running WHM, you might want to take a look at this: http://knowledge.phirefast.com/?q=node/13
I'm not sure what WHM is ... I'm using Plesk 8.0 on my httpd server.
So you're thinking that these are issues that EV1 needs to resolve for me and not things that I have access to change?
QUOTE (Seibertron)
I'm trying to get to the bottom of why Hotmail is refusing emails from my server. Users are not able to receive emails from my website if they try to register with a Hotmail account. I'm sure there are some other email clients that have the same issue. Gmail works, Yahoo works ... it's Hotmail that's my biggest concern at this time.
I ran some reports on DNSstuff.com to see if it can help me find areas of concern. I'm not sure what a couple of these messages mean or how to resolve them. I hope that someone will be able to point me in the right direction. I have contact EV1 regarding issue #3 because I could not add the SPF record for the domain's zone. Any suggesions for 1 and 2 would be greatly appreciated.
ISSUE #1: WARN Single Point of Failure WARNING: Although you have at least 2 NS records, and they appear to point to different physical servers, it appears that they block the ICMP packets used as part of our test, which means that they may share the same firewall. If they share the same firewall, this results in a single point of failure, which could cause all your DNS servers to be unreachable.
ISSUE #2: WARN Mail server host name in greeting WARNING: One or more of your mailservers is claiming to be a host other than what it really is (the SMTP greeting should be a 3-digit code, followed by a space or a dash, then the host name). If your mailserver sends out E-mail using this domain in its EHLO or HELO, your E-mail might get blocked by anti-spam software. This is also a technical violation of RFC821 4.3 (and RFC2821 4.3.1). Note that the hostname given in the SMTP greeting should have an A record pointing back to the same server. Note that this one test may use a cached DNS record.
mail.mywebsite.com claims to be non-existent host plesk.ev1servers.net:
220 plesk.ev1servers.net ESMTP
ISSUE #3: WARN SPF record Your domain does not have an SPF record. This means that spammers can easily send out E-mail that looks like it came from your domain, which can make your domain look bad (if the recipient thinks you really sent it), and can cost you money (when people complain to you, rather than the spammer). You may want to add an SPF record ASAP, as 01 Oct 2004 was the target date for domains to have SPF records in place (Hotmail, for example, started checking SPF records on 01 Oct 2004).
I ran some reports on DNSstuff.com to see if it can help me find areas of concern. I'm not sure what a couple of these messages mean or how to resolve them. I hope that someone will be able to point me in the right direction. I have contact EV1 regarding issue #3 because I could not add the SPF record for the domain's zone. Any suggesions for 1 and 2 would be greatly appreciated.
ISSUE #1: WARN Single Point of Failure WARNING: Although you have at least 2 NS records, and they appear to point to different physical servers, it appears that they block the ICMP packets used as part of our test, which means that they may share the same firewall. If they share the same firewall, this results in a single point of failure, which could cause all your DNS servers to be unreachable.
ISSUE #2: WARN Mail server host name in greeting WARNING: One or more of your mailservers is claiming to be a host other than what it really is (the SMTP greeting should be a 3-digit code, followed by a space or a dash, then the host name). If your mailserver sends out E-mail using this domain in its EHLO or HELO, your E-mail might get blocked by anti-spam software. This is also a technical violation of RFC821 4.3 (and RFC2821 4.3.1). Note that the hostname given in the SMTP greeting should have an A record pointing back to the same server. Note that this one test may use a cached DNS record.
mail.mywebsite.com claims to be non-existent host plesk.ev1servers.net:
220 plesk.ev1servers.net ESMTP
ISSUE #3: WARN SPF record Your domain does not have an SPF record. This means that spammers can easily send out E-mail that looks like it came from your domain, which can make your domain look bad (if the recipient thinks you really sent it), and can cost you money (when people complain to you, rather than the spammer). You may want to add an SPF record ASAP, as 01 Oct 2004 was the target date for domains to have SPF records in place (Hotmail, for example, started checking SPF records on 01 Oct 2004).
1. This is because you dns servers report from the same Ip subnet/network, you need to use dns servers at different locations.
2. You reporting the incorrect name due to a bad hostname on the server, change your servers hostname also make sure you set your hostname correct in httpd.conf, i see your running RHEL, your hostname will not change by running the hostname command alone, you also need to edit /etc/sysconfig/network file to change it permanately.
3. I wouldnt worry to much about a SPF record right now, hotmail i doubt will block your mail because of it, i dont run it and dont have any issues with SPF as long as its not being reported by ppl to their ISP's as spam.
I'm still getting this error
after I did this:
QUOTE
ISSUE #2: WARN Mail server host name in greeting WARNING: One or more of your mailservers is claiming to be a host other than what it really is (the SMTP greeting should be a 3-digit code, followed by a space or a dash, then the host name). If your mailserver sends out E-mail using this domain in its EHLO or HELO, your E-mail might get blocked by anti-spam software. This is also a technical violation of RFC821 4.3 (and RFC2821 4.3.1). Note that the hostname given in the SMTP greeting should have an A record pointing back to the same server. Note that this one test may use a cached DNS record.
after I did this:
QUOTE
2. You reporting the incorrect name due to a bad hostname on the server, change your servers hostname also make sure you set your hostname correct in httpd.conf, i see your running RHEL, your hostname will not change by running the hostname command alone, you also need to edit /etc/sysconfig/network file to change it permanately.
You would need to post a failed email report here so i can see exactly why its failing.
If your using a control panel for your server, i would chk that also for a incorrect hostname, also chk your conf file for your mail program and see what hostname its set with.
If your using a control panel for your server, i would chk that also for a incorrect hostname, also chk your conf file for your mail program and see what hostname its set with.
Well, here's the catch ... I don't get any bouncebacks to my admin email account for messages going to Hotmail. The same email will go to my Gmail account, SEIBERTRON.com account and my work account but it doesn't go to Hotmail.
I also just noticed that the DNS Server (BIND) service is not running on my server. I received an error when I tried to start the service to see what it does since a few of my coworkers keep asking me if I'm running this on my server.
I also just noticed that the DNS Server (BIND) service is not running on my server. I received an error when I tried to start the service to see what it does since a few of my coworkers keep asking me if I'm running this on my server.
QUOTE
ERROR: PleskFatalException Create shortcutCreate shortcutUp LevelUp Level
Unable to make action: Unable to manage service by dnsmng: dnsmng: Service named failed to start
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: /usr/local/psa/admin/plib/common_func.php3:172
psaerror(string 'Unable to make action: Unable to manage service by dnsmng: dnsmng: Service named failed to start')
1: /usr/local/psa/admin/htdocs/server/restart_services.php:30
Unable to make action: Unable to manage service by dnsmng: dnsmng: Service named failed to start
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: /usr/local/psa/admin/plib/common_func.php3:172
psaerror(string 'Unable to make action: Unable to manage service by dnsmng: dnsmng: Service named failed to start')
1: /usr/local/psa/admin/htdocs/server/restart_services.php:30
I just discovered that if I CC my Gmail account, the email will go through to Hotmail. If I removed the CC: line, it doesn't go through. If I removed the email address from the CC: line (an empty CC:), it doesn't go through. If I put a Gmail address in the CC line, it DOES go through. Now it's getting interesting ...
The "myemailaccount123456" is fake so that the SPAM bots don't pick up on my real email addresses.
>From: SEIBERTRON.com
>To: Ryan Yzquierdo
>CC: myemailaccount123456@gmail.com
>Subject: Test message from SEIBERTRON.com website (1168369795)
>Date: 9 Jan 2007 13:09:55 -0600
>
>This is a test message that was sent from http://seibertron.com/
>
>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam ipsum. Sed pharetra ipsum tempor velit. Nulla pretium varius urna. Nam luctus venenatis nulla. Etiam ac libero. Sed et nunc. Aenean congue odio viverra magna. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Nullam auctor dui. Nam interdum imperdiet sem. Integer dui nunc, molestie nec, nonummy id, lobortis aliquet, lorem.
>
>Maecenas in eros sed risus egestas vehicula. Nulla quam. Quisque at urna id sapien molestie dapibus. Nullam dolor lacus, vehicula sit amet, tincidunt at, tempus eu, massa. Phasellus quis massa. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Maecenas ullamcorper. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Integer dapibus, sapien quis sollicitudin vulputate, magna urna blandit augue, et condimentum velit eros in nisl. Donec non orci. Cras feugiat eros rhoncus felis. Quisque non lacus sed dolor elementum scelerisque. Aliquam ut velit. Duis et diam quis arcu scelerisque pellentesque. Praesent hendrerit bibendum odio. Nam consectetuer dapibus lorem.
>
>Nam ipsum odio, scelerisque nec, iaculis eget, hendrerit eu, felis. Duis nisl. Fusce odio. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Donec tellus. Donec vel massa et sem cursus tempor. Sed erat. Phasellus tincidunt odio nec justo. Vivamus gravida metus sed lectus. Fusce ac risus. Sed in dolor vel elit adipiscing aliquam. Donec nec pede vel metus pharetra condimentum. Aenean eleifend. Donec rutrum, mauris quis viverra vehicula, sem est lacinia nulla, ut lacinia felis ipsum vitae neque. Donec libero nisi, vestibulum vel, suscipit et, commodo et, risus.
>
>Phasellus eu libero. Vestibulum in magna. Fusce euismod, mauris non lacinia condimentum, pede massa euismod odio, quis tincidunt felis nibh in ipsum. Maecenas ultricies tincidunt magna. Ut porttitor. Aliquam nec pede et tellus dapibus elementum. Nam tellus. Aliquam quam ligula, pulvinar a, mollis viverra, malesuada eu, justo. Vivamus malesuada, lorem nec laoreet ullamcorper, erat lectus adipiscing est, vitae feugiat erat nisl ac lectus. Aliquam erat volutpat. Phasellus nec mauris.
>
>Praesent nec odio. Nullam pulvinar lectus a massa. Fusce vitae pede. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Curabitur scelerisque. Fusce porttitor pellentesque elit. Aenean a mauris ac dui molestie tincidunt. In ultrices, orci sed lobortis facilisis, mi libero mattis est, eget tincidunt orci arcu in nulla. Cras adipiscing nibh at urna. Pellentesque purus risus, egestas in, pellentesque in, elementum ac, ante. In pellentesque. Aenean lorem nisi, feugiat vitae, commodo vitae, cursus accumsan, dolor. Quisque auctor tincidunt purus. Curabitur sodales.
>
>
The "myemailaccount123456" is fake so that the SPAM bots don't pick up on my real email addresses.
>From: SEIBERTRON.com
>To: Ryan Yzquierdo
>CC: myemailaccount123456@gmail.com
>Subject: Test message from SEIBERTRON.com website (1168369795)
>Date: 9 Jan 2007 13:09:55 -0600
>
>This is a test message that was sent from http://seibertron.com/
>
>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam ipsum. Sed pharetra ipsum tempor velit. Nulla pretium varius urna. Nam luctus venenatis nulla. Etiam ac libero. Sed et nunc. Aenean congue odio viverra magna. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Nullam auctor dui. Nam interdum imperdiet sem. Integer dui nunc, molestie nec, nonummy id, lobortis aliquet, lorem.
>
>Maecenas in eros sed risus egestas vehicula. Nulla quam. Quisque at urna id sapien molestie dapibus. Nullam dolor lacus, vehicula sit amet, tincidunt at, tempus eu, massa. Phasellus quis massa. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Maecenas ullamcorper. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Integer dapibus, sapien quis sollicitudin vulputate, magna urna blandit augue, et condimentum velit eros in nisl. Donec non orci. Cras feugiat eros rhoncus felis. Quisque non lacus sed dolor elementum scelerisque. Aliquam ut velit. Duis et diam quis arcu scelerisque pellentesque. Praesent hendrerit bibendum odio. Nam consectetuer dapibus lorem.
>
>Nam ipsum odio, scelerisque nec, iaculis eget, hendrerit eu, felis. Duis nisl. Fusce odio. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Donec tellus. Donec vel massa et sem cursus tempor. Sed erat. Phasellus tincidunt odio nec justo. Vivamus gravida metus sed lectus. Fusce ac risus. Sed in dolor vel elit adipiscing aliquam. Donec nec pede vel metus pharetra condimentum. Aenean eleifend. Donec rutrum, mauris quis viverra vehicula, sem est lacinia nulla, ut lacinia felis ipsum vitae neque. Donec libero nisi, vestibulum vel, suscipit et, commodo et, risus.
>
>Phasellus eu libero. Vestibulum in magna. Fusce euismod, mauris non lacinia condimentum, pede massa euismod odio, quis tincidunt felis nibh in ipsum. Maecenas ultricies tincidunt magna. Ut porttitor. Aliquam nec pede et tellus dapibus elementum. Nam tellus. Aliquam quam ligula, pulvinar a, mollis viverra, malesuada eu, justo. Vivamus malesuada, lorem nec laoreet ullamcorper, erat lectus adipiscing est, vitae feugiat erat nisl ac lectus. Aliquam erat volutpat. Phasellus nec mauris.
>
>Praesent nec odio. Nullam pulvinar lectus a massa. Fusce vitae pede. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Curabitur scelerisque. Fusce porttitor pellentesque elit. Aenean a mauris ac dui molestie tincidunt. In ultrices, orci sed lobortis facilisis, mi libero mattis est, eget tincidunt orci arcu in nulla. Cras adipiscing nibh at urna. Pellentesque purus risus, egestas in, pellentesque in, elementum ac, ante. In pellentesque. Aenean lorem nisi, feugiat vitae, commodo vitae, cursus accumsan, dolor. Quisque auctor tincidunt purus. Curabitur sodales.
>
>
I've since discovered other people having the same problem with emails not arriving at a Hotmail account but it will if a non-Hotmail account is CC'ed.
Here's an interesting quote from Slashdot that describes my problem exactly ... http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/...6/06/22/2248253
Here's an interesting quote from Slashdot that describes my problem exactly ... http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/...6/06/22/2248253
QUOTE
I sent several messages to my brother's Hotmail account over the past five months. For some of those messages, I also sent them to his Gmail account.
Surprisingly, only the messages that were sent to Gmail at the same time managed to be delivered to his Hotmail inbox.
If you send a message to a Hotmail user only (no other recipients), don't expect to find it. If you want it to be delivered, CC the message to at least one other account with another mail provider, and voila -- it's magic.
Maybe the competition with Gmail is keeping Hotmail honest.
Surprisingly, only the messages that were sent to Gmail at the same time managed to be delivered to his Hotmail inbox.
If you send a message to a Hotmail user only (no other recipients), don't expect to find it. If you want it to be delivered, CC the message to at least one other account with another mail provider, and voila -- it's magic.
Maybe the competition with Gmail is keeping Hotmail honest.
You need to chk your mail log and find the reason it was rejected by hotmail.
QUOTE (AnthonyG)
You need to chk your mail log and find the reason it was rejected by hotmail.
The email is getting to Hotmail. EV1 already checked the logs. It has to do with the SPF record and the banner greeting which I've mentioned above.
Please post a email that was sent only to hotmail, not cc'd with anything.
If the email was getting to hotmail, then i dont think we would be talking here about why its failing for a spf or banner.
If the email was getting to hotmail, then i dont think we would be talking here about why its failing for a spf or banner.
Here's what Ev1 did to test the Hotmail issue:
QUOTE
I can see that you have basic connectivity to hotmail, so that's not the problem either:
[root@plesk named]# telnet mx1.hotmail.com 25
Trying 65.54.245.8...
Connected to mx1.hotmail.com (65.54.245.
.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 bay0-mc9-f16.bay0.hotmail.com Sending unsolicited commercial or bulk e-mail to Microsoft's computer network is prohibited. Other restrictions are found at http://privacy.msn.com/Anti-spam/. Violations will result in use of equipment located in California and other states. Tue, 9 Jan 2007 11:53:56 -0800
Connection closed by foreign host.
So, I check the logs:
Jan 9 05:02:51 plesk qmail: 1168340571.869903 starting delivery 5475: msg 575626 to remote joshuaj57@hotmail.com
Ok, email going to hotmail. 'Delivery 5475' is the queue id of sorts, so we look for that again:
Jan 9 05:02:55 plesk qmail: 1168340575.804281 delivery 5475: success: 65.54.245.40_accepted_message./Remote_host_said:_250__< 23cb5b948dc973eba8a4adf9d677bdb3@www.seibertron.com> _Queued_mail_for_delivery/
And it was accepted by the remote host.
So hotmail is getting the email, but doing something else with it. Perhaps it is ending up in the spam folder or being filtered for different reasons? I can't tell from this information, but I don't think its anything on your server's side anymore, its Hotmail dropping your email. Normally if you email is getting filtered for spam, it would just outright reject you if you are blocked, so I suspect it is some sort of filtering on their side.
[root@plesk named]# telnet mx1.hotmail.com 25
Trying 65.54.245.8...
Connected to mx1.hotmail.com (65.54.245.
.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 bay0-mc9-f16.bay0.hotmail.com Sending unsolicited commercial or bulk e-mail to Microsoft's computer network is prohibited. Other restrictions are found at http://privacy.msn.com/Anti-spam/. Violations will result in use of equipment located in California and other states. Tue, 9 Jan 2007 11:53:56 -0800
Connection closed by foreign host.
So, I check the logs:
Jan 9 05:02:51 plesk qmail: 1168340571.869903 starting delivery 5475: msg 575626 to remote joshuaj57@hotmail.com
Ok, email going to hotmail. 'Delivery 5475' is the queue id of sorts, so we look for that again:
Jan 9 05:02:55 plesk qmail: 1168340575.804281 delivery 5475: success: 65.54.245.40_accepted_message./Remote_host_said:_250__< 23cb5b948dc973eba8a4adf9d677bdb3@www.seibertron.com> _Queued_mail_for_delivery/
And it was accepted by the remote host.
So hotmail is getting the email, but doing something else with it. Perhaps it is ending up in the spam folder or being filtered for different reasons? I can't tell from this information, but I don't think its anything on your server's side anymore, its Hotmail dropping your email. Normally if you email is getting filtered for spam, it would just outright reject you if you are blocked, so I suspect it is some sort of filtering on their side.
Yes and that looks like a good test, hotmail is receiving the email, is it ending up in the spam folder for the account?
If its not making it into the spam folder for hotmail and they are nuking it, you should get a response back from them as to why they nuked the email and didnt deliver it.
You can create the spf record and see if that solves your issue, but so far hotmail claims they accepted the email.
Do you have reverse dns "PTR" records for your vhosting accounts on that server as well?
I highly doubt that hotmail is nuking the email based on the banner.
If its not making it into the spam folder for hotmail and they are nuking it, you should get a response back from them as to why they nuked the email and didnt deliver it.
You can create the spf record and see if that solves your issue, but so far hotmail claims they accepted the email.
Do you have reverse dns "PTR" records for your vhosting accounts on that server as well?
I highly doubt that hotmail is nuking the email based on the banner.
EV1 claims they've setup the PTR record and the SPF record to no avail.
The email to Hotmail is not going to the SPAM folder. I wish that was the problem my users were having and that I have with my Hotmail account. Unfortunately it's not ... Hotmail is, as you put it, "nuking" the email with no notification about what's happening.
The email to Hotmail is not going to the SPAM folder. I wish that was the problem my users were having and that I have with my Hotmail account. Unfortunately it's not ... Hotmail is, as you put it, "nuking" the email with no notification about what's happening.
Just sent a message to Hotmail ... hopefully someone will respond regarding this frustrating problem.
Yes, without a bounce msg as to why they are nuking them, you really have no idea what the issue is, i highly doubt its anything to do with the spf/ptr/banner as i dont use either for one server and never have changed the banner for exim as its a cpanel server.
Unless hotjunkmail is willing to help you, you may not solve it anytime soon.
Unless hotjunkmail is willing to help you, you may not solve it anytime soon.
QUOTE (AnthonyG)
Yes, without a bounce msg as to why they are nuking them, you really have no idea what the issue is, i highly doubt its anything to do with the spf/ptr/banner as i dont use either for one server and never have changed the banner for exim as its a cpanel server.
Unless hotjunkmail is willing to help you, you may not solve it anytime soon.
Unless hotjunkmail is willing to help you, you may not solve it anytime soon.
Are you able to send email to hotmail without any problem? If so, would you mind posting the function or code that you use to send an email via PHP?
I've used a variety of different versions of the following code to no avail.
CODE
$headers = "To: ".$to_name." <".$to_email.">n";
$headers .= "From: ".$from_name." <".$from_email.">n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: ".$from_name." <".$from_email.">n";
$headers .= "CC: n";
//$headers .= "CC: mypersonalemail123456@gmail.comn";
//$headers .= "BCC: mypersonalemail123456@workemail.comn";
//$headers .= "Return-Path: Ryan Yzquierdo <mypersonalemail123456@gmail.com>n";
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0n";
$headers .= "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1n";
$headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bitn";
$headers .= "Message-ID: <".mktime()." TheSystem@".$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'].">n";
//$headers .= "X-Mailer: PHP v".phpversion()."n";
ini_set(sendmail_from, $from_email); // the INI lines are to force the From Address to be used !
if (mail("", $sSubject, $sMessage, $headers)) {
$SendSimpleMail = true;
}
else {
$aErrorList[] = "Apparently, the e-mail failed.";
}
ini_restore(sendmail_from);
$headers .= "From: ".$from_name." <".$from_email.">n";
$headers .= "Reply-To: ".$from_name." <".$from_email.">n";
$headers .= "CC: n";
//$headers .= "CC: mypersonalemail123456@gmail.comn";
//$headers .= "BCC: mypersonalemail123456@workemail.comn";
//$headers .= "Return-Path: Ryan Yzquierdo <mypersonalemail123456@gmail.com>n";
$headers .= "MIME-Version: 1.0n";
$headers .= "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1n";
$headers .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bitn";
$headers .= "Message-ID: <".mktime()." TheSystem@".$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'].">n";
//$headers .= "X-Mailer: PHP v".phpversion()."n";
ini_set(sendmail_from, $from_email); // the INI lines are to force the From Address to be used !
if (mail("", $sSubject, $sMessage, $headers)) {
$SendSimpleMail = true;
}
else {
$aErrorList[] = "Apparently, the e-mail failed.";
}
ini_restore(sendmail_from);
Hey, You're in luck.... kinda.... I've had the same problems and been doing heavy reading on mail deliverability and all related for the past 3 days and just happened on your thread... now for the bad news... there's so much contradicting information out there I have no idea what's going to work and as DNS changes are slow it's a pain to do the testing.... anyway:
To add SPF records, you'd use something like:
"v=spf1 a mx ~all"
but that causes a softfail with hotmail and ends up in junk mail folder, and yahoo bounces it back, meanwhile e.g. Google's mails go directly to hotmail inbox, and they are sent with status neutral:
"v=spf1 a mx -all"
So this is one thing you could try, but will probably take like 72 hours to find out if it's gonna improve the situation, another thing is the MicroSoft's SenderID that MSN and Hotmail are using:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_id
According to wikipedia you'd have to replace the spf1 with one of these:
spf2.0/mfrom
spf2.0/mfrom,pra
spf2.0/pra,mfrom
spf2.0/pra
haha, don't ask me which one
Now while all the 20 something e-marketer articles i read claimed that you should use both SPF and SenderID, and also DomainKeys authentication together for the best results, reading the SPF website http://www.openspf.org/SPF_vs_Sender_ID
I got the impression it causes some kind of problems if you use SPF and SenderID together... confusing huh? Well it gets better... next I go to the official MicroSoft SPF Record Wizard to create a SenderID record and it creates
"v=spf1 a mx ......"
not spf2.0/**** like described in wikipedia and openspf.org website. So is MS using SPF instead of SenderKeys?
I also ran the same DNS test as you and am having the same problem,
my hostname is www.domain.com at IP1, mail.domain.com is at IP2... so they don't match and I have a feeling it's gonna cause problems if I change the hostname on the main server from www.domain.com to mail.domain.com
I could direct the mail.domain.com to www.domain.com's IP, but i think the 72DNS change would cause problems with mail deliverability/receiving, so alternative is to order a separate server for mailing.
The only suggestion I can give you at this moment is... drop the Plesk and go plain RHEL
But seriously, lets try to get in contact with MS/yahoo/gmail and get some feedback from them. There's gotta be some official tutorials from ESP's, as they're the ones who are pushing it the hardest.
To add SPF records, you'd use something like:
"v=spf1 a mx ~all"
but that causes a softfail with hotmail and ends up in junk mail folder, and yahoo bounces it back, meanwhile e.g. Google's mails go directly to hotmail inbox, and they are sent with status neutral:
"v=spf1 a mx -all"
So this is one thing you could try, but will probably take like 72 hours to find out if it's gonna improve the situation, another thing is the MicroSoft's SenderID that MSN and Hotmail are using:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender_id
According to wikipedia you'd have to replace the spf1 with one of these:
spf2.0/mfrom
spf2.0/mfrom,pra
spf2.0/pra,mfrom
spf2.0/pra
haha, don't ask me which one
Now while all the 20 something e-marketer articles i read claimed that you should use both SPF and SenderID, and also DomainKeys authentication together for the best results, reading the SPF website http://www.openspf.org/SPF_vs_Sender_ID
I got the impression it causes some kind of problems if you use SPF and SenderID together... confusing huh? Well it gets better... next I go to the official MicroSoft SPF Record Wizard to create a SenderID record and it creates
"v=spf1 a mx ......"
not spf2.0/**** like described in wikipedia and openspf.org website. So is MS using SPF instead of SenderKeys?
I also ran the same DNS test as you and am having the same problem,
my hostname is www.domain.com at IP1, mail.domain.com is at IP2... so they don't match and I have a feeling it's gonna cause problems if I change the hostname on the main server from www.domain.com to mail.domain.com
I could direct the mail.domain.com to www.domain.com's IP, but i think the 72DNS change would cause problems with mail deliverability/receiving, so alternative is to order a separate server for mailing.
The only suggestion I can give you at this moment is... drop the Plesk and go plain RHEL
But seriously, lets try to get in contact with MS/yahoo/gmail and get some feedback from them. There's gotta be some official tutorials from ESP's, as they're the ones who are pushing it the hardest.
I got a response from Hotmail, much to my surprise! Not sure if it's a templated email or a real email, but either way the message provides a few more keys to this troublesome problem.
QUOTE
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: MSN Hotmail Support
Date: Jan 11, 2007 12:39 AM
Subject: RE: SRX1027336083ID - MSN Hotmail:Cannot Send Mail:Cannot send mail to speci
To: myemailisthecoolestintheworld123456@gmail.com
Hello Ryan,
Thank you for writing to MSN Hotmail Technical Support. My name is Margarett and I gather that Hotmail accounts are unable to receive messages from your website, http://www.seibertron.com. I realize the importance of having your concern addressed immediately.
Ryan, in order to help you with your issue, please advise the e-mail provider of your website to visit our Postmaster site at http://postmaster.hotmail.com/Troubleshooting.aspx. This site provides troubleshooting information to those who are having issues sending e-mail messages to Hotmail. If your e-mail provider needs further assistance with their e-mail delivery issues, they will have to click on the second "here" link under "Sender services, tools, and issue submission" or submit the necessary information at:
http://support.msn.com/eform.aspx?productK...mail&ct=eformts
You are valuable at MSN and we look forward to providing you with consistent and effective service. Thank you for using MSN Hotmail.
Sincerely,
Margarett S.
MSN Hotmail Technical Support
From: MSN Hotmail Support
Date: Jan 11, 2007 12:39 AM
Subject: RE: SRX1027336083ID - MSN Hotmail:Cannot Send Mail:Cannot send mail to speci
To: myemailisthecoolestintheworld123456@gmail.com
Hello Ryan,
Thank you for writing to MSN Hotmail Technical Support. My name is Margarett and I gather that Hotmail accounts are unable to receive messages from your website, http://www.seibertron.com. I realize the importance of having your concern addressed immediately.
Ryan, in order to help you with your issue, please advise the e-mail provider of your website to visit our Postmaster site at http://postmaster.hotmail.com/Troubleshooting.aspx. This site provides troubleshooting information to those who are having issues sending e-mail messages to Hotmail. If your e-mail provider needs further assistance with their e-mail delivery issues, they will have to click on the second "here" link under "Sender services, tools, and issue submission" or submit the necessary information at:
http://support.msn.com/eform.aspx?productK...mail&ct=eformts
You are valuable at MSN and we look forward to providing you with consistent and effective service. Thank you for using MSN Hotmail.
Sincerely,
Margarett S.
MSN Hotmail Technical Support
Here's the latest message I received from Ev1servers (just to share it with everyone in case others are having the same problem). Before I do this, does anyone have any recommendations now? Should I make the changes? This message from Ev1 is in response to the Hotmail message that I added to my trouble ticket.
QUOTE
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: EV1Servers Support
Date: Jan 11, 2007 5:23 PM
Subject: EV1Servers.net Trouble Ticket - 1389607 - CustomerID: RS-63874-3 - Date: 1/11/2007 5:23:46 PM
To: myemail123456@gmail.com
The Trouble Ticket you entered into Server Command of EV1Servers.net has been modified. The following notes have been made to your ticket.
------------------------
Description of the Resolution:
1/11/2007 5:23:46 PM
WebTech
Dear Ryan Yzquierdo,
To send emails to hotmail.com, you will need to have a reverse pointer on your IP address that matches your server''s hostname, as most of the larger email providers (yahoo, hotmail, etc.) require that the reverse pointer of the IP match the server''s hostname as an anti-spam measure. You can make this change by sshing to the server as root and running the command hostname follwed by what you would like the server''s hostname to be (ex: srv.seibertron.com, server.seibertron.com). Once the hostname is set, you will need to edit the files /etc/hosts and /etc/sysconfig/network to reflect these changes. The server''s hostname will need to have it''s own A record in DNS so that the hostname can resolve properly. Once the hostname is fully set, you will need to edit the reverse pointer on the IP to match that of the server''s hostname. One the DNS has had time to propagate, you should be able to send email messages to hotmail without issue. If you have any problems sending emails to hotmail once the DNS has been given sufficient time, please contact us again regarding the issue. The domain http://www.openspf.org/ should help you with setting up the SPF record.
RussellK
EV1Servers
Webhosting Technical Support
From: EV1Servers Support
Date: Jan 11, 2007 5:23 PM
Subject: EV1Servers.net Trouble Ticket - 1389607 - CustomerID: RS-63874-3 - Date: 1/11/2007 5:23:46 PM
To: myemail123456@gmail.com
The Trouble Ticket you entered into Server Command of EV1Servers.net has been modified. The following notes have been made to your ticket.
------------------------
Description of the Resolution:
1/11/2007 5:23:46 PM
WebTech
Dear Ryan Yzquierdo,
To send emails to hotmail.com, you will need to have a reverse pointer on your IP address that matches your server''s hostname, as most of the larger email providers (yahoo, hotmail, etc.) require that the reverse pointer of the IP match the server''s hostname as an anti-spam measure. You can make this change by sshing to the server as root and running the command hostname follwed by what you would like the server''s hostname to be (ex: srv.seibertron.com, server.seibertron.com). Once the hostname is set, you will need to edit the files /etc/hosts and /etc/sysconfig/network to reflect these changes. The server''s hostname will need to have it''s own A record in DNS so that the hostname can resolve properly. Once the hostname is fully set, you will need to edit the reverse pointer on the IP to match that of the server''s hostname. One the DNS has had time to propagate, you should be able to send email messages to hotmail without issue. If you have any problems sending emails to hotmail once the DNS has been given sufficient time, please contact us again regarding the issue. The domain http://www.openspf.org/ should help you with setting up the SPF record.
RussellK
EV1Servers
Webhosting Technical Support
Adding both is good, if hotmail isnt delivering your email to the mail account it was sent to, they should of sent a reject message stating why.
Seibertron
Your SPF record is set incorrect.
You have the TXT record set using mail.Seibertron.com like this:
mail.Seibertron.com. TXT "v=spf1 a mx ~all"
but for it to be recognized as valid by hotmail and gmail it should read:
Seibertron.com. TXT "v=spf1 a mx ~all"
Without the mail.
Also don't forget the "." AFTER the "com" as in "com."
Once you do that all your troubles will go away.
For a better wizard for SPF records go to microsoft's SPF wizard.
Also if you have the IP address of the server then ad it as an authorized outgoing mail server in your SPF record using the SPF wizard from Microsoft and they will stop bouncing the e-mails because the server will be an authorized mail sender for your domain as per your SPF record's instructions.
Augusto.
Your SPF record is set incorrect.
You have the TXT record set using mail.Seibertron.com like this:
mail.Seibertron.com. TXT "v=spf1 a mx ~all"
but for it to be recognized as valid by hotmail and gmail it should read:
Seibertron.com. TXT "v=spf1 a mx ~all"
Without the mail.
Also don't forget the "." AFTER the "com" as in "com."
Once you do that all your troubles will go away.
For a better wizard for SPF records go to microsoft's SPF wizard.
Also if you have the IP address of the server then ad it as an authorized outgoing mail server in your SPF record using the SPF wizard from Microsoft and they will stop bouncing the e-mails because the server will be an authorized mail sender for your domain as per your SPF record's instructions.
Augusto.
QUOTE (Augusto)
Seibertron
Your SPF record is set incorrect.
You have the TXT record set using mail.Seibertron.com like this:
mail.Seibertron.com. TXT "v=spf1 a mx ~all"
but for it to be recognized as valid by hotmail and gmail it should read:
Seibertron.com. TXT "v=spf1 a mx ~all"
Without the mail.
Also don't forget the "." AFTER the "com" as in "com."
Once you do that all your troubles will go away.
For a better wizard for SPF records go to microsoft's SPF wizard.
Also if you have the IP address of the server then ad it as an authorized outgoing mail server in your SPF record using the SPF wizard from Microsoft and they will stop bouncing the e-mails because the server will be an authorized mail sender for your domain as per your SPF record's instructions.
Augusto.
Your SPF record is set incorrect.
You have the TXT record set using mail.Seibertron.com like this:
mail.Seibertron.com. TXT "v=spf1 a mx ~all"
but for it to be recognized as valid by hotmail and gmail it should read:
Seibertron.com. TXT "v=spf1 a mx ~all"
Without the mail.
Also don't forget the "." AFTER the "com" as in "com."
Once you do that all your troubles will go away.
For a better wizard for SPF records go to microsoft's SPF wizard.
Also if you have the IP address of the server then ad it as an authorized outgoing mail server in your SPF record using the SPF wizard from Microsoft and they will stop bouncing the e-mails because the server will be an authorized mail sender for your domain as per your SPF record's instructions.
Augusto.
Thank you Augusto. Do I need to remove the SPF record for mail.seibertron.com or can I leave it there if I have added Seibertron.com. TXT "v=spf1 a mx ~all".
I can see that today dnsreport.com reports you having now an SPF record so you now did it correctly.
I myself leave both records because I suspect some ISPs might actually check that one instead. Just make sure they both contain the same information.
I myself leave both records because I suspect some ISPs might actually check that one instead. Just make sure they both contain the same information.
QUOTE (Augusto)
I can see that today dnsreport.com reports you having now an SPF record so you now did it correctly.
I myself leave both records because I suspect some ISPs might actually check that one instead. Just make sure they both contain the same information.
I myself leave both records because I suspect some ISPs might actually check that one instead. Just make sure they both contain the same information.
That didn't do it. The mail is still not going through. No bounceback from Hotmail either. It just doesn't show up. If I CC my gmail account, it will go through.
QUOTE (Seibertron)
Here's the latest message I received from Ev1servers (just to share it with everyone in case others are having the same problem). Before I do this, does anyone have any recommendations now? Should I make the changes? This message from Ev1 is in response to the Hotmail message that I added to my trouble ticket.
I just made these changes that ev1 told me to make a few posts back. We'll see if that makes a difference. I setup server.seibertron.com. ** crosses fingers **
You still haven't added the hostname server and its IP to the SPF record so you still fail this test:
If you have an IP-based site for seibertron.com whose IP is different from the server's ip and your e-mail's headers identify the host server as the one sending the e-mails then you still fail the test.
You need to add the server's hostname to it. For instance lets say your server's hostname name is server.seibertron.com and it's ip is 111.111.111.111 then the SPF record that adds the server and its ip to the authorized servers that can mail from your domain is:
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.seibertron.com ip4:111.111.111.111 a:server.seibertron.com ~all
Also make sure that the hostname has an A entry in the DNS.
QUOTE
WARNING: One or more of your mailservers is claiming to be a host other than what it really is (the SMTP greeting should be a 3-digit code, followed by a space or a dash, then the host name). If your mailserver sends out E-mail using this domain in its EHLO or HELO, your E-mail might get blocked by anti-spam software. This is also a technical violation of RFC821 4.3 (and RFC2821 4.3.1). Note that the hostname given in the SMTP greeting should have an A record pointing back to the same server. Note that this one test may use a cached DNS record.
mail.seibertron.com claims to be the host at IP mail.seibertron.com [but that IP is not the one we connected to, 67.15.221.15].
mail.seibertron.com claims to be the host at IP mail.seibertron.com [but that IP is not the one we connected to, 67.15.221.15].
If you have an IP-based site for seibertron.com whose IP is different from the server's ip and your e-mail's headers identify the host server as the one sending the e-mails then you still fail the test.
You need to add the server's hostname to it. For instance lets say your server's hostname name is server.seibertron.com and it's ip is 111.111.111.111 then the SPF record that adds the server and its ip to the authorized servers that can mail from your domain is:
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.seibertron.com ip4:111.111.111.111 a:server.seibertron.com ~all
Also make sure that the hostname has an A entry in the DNS.
QUOTE (Augusto)
You still haven't added the hostname server and its IP to the SPF record so you still fail this test:
If you have an IP-based site for seibertron.com whose IP is different from the server's ip and your e-mail's headers identify the host server as the one sending the e-mails then you still fail the test.
You need to add the server's hostname to it. For instance lets say your server's hostname name is server.seibertron.com and it's ip is 111.111.111.111 then the SPF record that adds the server and its ip to the authorized servers that can mail from your domain is:
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.seibertron.com ip4:111.111.111.111 a:server.seibertron.com ~all
Also make sure that the hostname has an A entry in the DNS.
If you have an IP-based site for seibertron.com whose IP is different from the server's ip and your e-mail's headers identify the host server as the one sending the e-mails then you still fail the test.
You need to add the server's hostname to it. For instance lets say your server's hostname name is server.seibertron.com and it's ip is 111.111.111.111 then the SPF record that adds the server and its ip to the authorized servers that can mail from your domain is:
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.seibertron.com ip4:111.111.111.111 a:server.seibertron.com ~all
Also make sure that the hostname has an A entry in the DNS.
I made this change to my DNS settings with EV1. Is this correct?
http://www.seibertron.com/images/misc/dns005.jpg
The extra spf record for server.seibertron.com is not required. The A record for server.seibertron.com is correct as long as that is the ip.
To verify run:
cat /etc/hosts
and
cat /etc/sysconfig/network
look at the content and see if the server IP matches the one you added to the SPF record and the A record. Also make sure the hostname is actually the one you listed.
To verify run:
cat /etc/hosts
and
cat /etc/sysconfig/network
look at the content and see if the server IP matches the one you added to the SPF record and the A record. Also make sure the hostname is actually the one you listed.
I removed the extra SPF record for server.seibertron.com. Here are the results from the commands you told me to perform:
CODE
[root@server admin]# cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
67.15.221.15 server.seibertron.com server
[root@server admin]# cat /etc/sysconfig/network
HOSTNAME=server.seibertron.com
NETWORKING=yes
GATEWAY="67.15.221.1"
GATEWAYDEV="eth0"
FORWARD_IPV4="yes"
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
67.15.221.15 server.seibertron.com server
[root@server admin]# cat /etc/sysconfig/network
HOSTNAME=server.seibertron.com
NETWORKING=yes
GATEWAY="67.15.221.1"
GATEWAYDEV="eth0"
FORWARD_IPV4="yes"
you seem to be ok now.
Give it a couple of days for the DNS changes to propagate and see if fixes your problem
Give it a couple of days for the DNS changes to propagate and see if fixes your problem
Any help and suggestions greatly appreciated!
When I ordered the server EV1 assigned it with IP#1, I decided to use that IP for SSH only and added A records with IP#2 (IP#1 is not assigned to anything in my servercommand zone management):
www.domain.com > IP#2
domain.com > IP#2
mail.domain.com > IP#3
then added MX records:
domain.com > 10 mail.domain.com
mail.domain.com > 10 mail.domain.com
now when I send e-mail, the headers show:
Received: from www.domain.com ([IP#1])
but cat /etc/hosts shows IP#2
127.0.0.1 localhost.domain localhost
IP#2 www.domain.com www
and cat /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=www.domain.com
my current SPF record is:
v=spf1 a mx ~all
Should I replace it with one of the below, and which one:
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.domain.com ip4:IP#1 a:www.domain.com ~all
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.domain.com ip4:IP#2 a:www.domain.com ~all
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.domain.com ip4:IP#3 a:www.domain.com ~all
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.domain.com ip4:IP#1 ip4:IP#2 a:www.domain.com ~all
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.domain.com ip4:IP#2 ip4:IP#3 a:www.domain.com ~all
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.domain.com ip4:IP#1 ip4:IP#2 ip4:IP#3 a:www.domain.com ~all
Or one of the above examples with "~all" replaced with "-all"
When I ordered the server EV1 assigned it with IP#1, I decided to use that IP for SSH only and added A records with IP#2 (IP#1 is not assigned to anything in my servercommand zone management):
www.domain.com > IP#2
domain.com > IP#2
mail.domain.com > IP#3
then added MX records:
domain.com > 10 mail.domain.com
mail.domain.com > 10 mail.domain.com
now when I send e-mail, the headers show:
Received: from www.domain.com ([IP#1])
but cat /etc/hosts shows IP#2
127.0.0.1 localhost.domain localhost
IP#2 www.domain.com www
and cat /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=www.domain.com
my current SPF record is:
v=spf1 a mx ~all
Should I replace it with one of the below, and which one:
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.domain.com ip4:IP#1 a:www.domain.com ~all
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.domain.com ip4:IP#2 a:www.domain.com ~all
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.domain.com ip4:IP#3 a:www.domain.com ~all
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.domain.com ip4:IP#1 ip4:IP#2 a:www.domain.com ~all
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.domain.com ip4:IP#2 ip4:IP#3 a:www.domain.com ~all
v=spf1 a mx mx:mail.domain.com ip4:IP#1 ip4:IP#2 ip4:IP#3 a:www.domain.com ~all
Or one of the above examples with "~all" replaced with "-all"
I just tried applying to a whitelist and it said all IPs without a reverse DNS record will be automatically rejected, I'm assuming it means all IPs without a reverse DNS record pointing to my domain.
Problem is the domain.com and www.domain.com are set to IP#2 and mail goes out from IP#1 as described above, so what should I set the reverse DNS for IP#1, can it be anything.domain.com or do I have to reconfigure for domain.com and www.domain.com to point at the IP#1 and set IP#2 to randomname.domain.com
Problem is the domain.com and www.domain.com are set to IP#2 and mail goes out from IP#1 as described above, so what should I set the reverse DNS for IP#1, can it be anything.domain.com or do I have to reconfigure for domain.com and www.domain.com to point at the IP#1 and set IP#2 to randomname.domain.com
Even after everything that I did, it still wasn't going through. So I decided to tinker around with the various fields in the extra headers.
The only way Hotmail accepts the message is if I use a "seibertron.com" email address in the "From:" header. If I use any other email address (such as the person the message is actually coming from if this was a contact form that sent to multiple recipients on my site's staff), then Hotmail won't accept it. However, I can fake it passing one of my domain email addresses as the user's email address and just use the user's real email address in the "reply-to" field.
This works:
This DOES NOT work:
This seems really stupid. Anyone got some suggestions?
The only way Hotmail accepts the message is if I use a "seibertron.com" email address in the "From:" header. If I use any other email address (such as the person the message is actually coming from if this was a contact form that sent to multiple recipients on my site's staff), then Hotmail won't accept it. However, I can fake it passing one of my domain email addresses as the user's email address and just use the user's real email address in the "reply-to" field.
This works:
QUOTE
>From: John Smith <*********@seibertron.com>
>Reply-To: John Smith
>To: Ryan Yzquierdo
>Subject: Test message sent at 12:51 PM
>Date: 13 Jan 2007 12:51:48 -0600
>Received: from mail.seibertron.com ([67.15.221.15]) by bay0-mc12-f10.bay0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.2444); Sat, 13 Jan 2007 10:51:49 -0800
>Received: (qmail 23207 invoked by uid 48); 13 Jan 2007 12:51:48 -0600
>X-Message-Info: txF49lGdW41nBjKq1Q8nEOnw4ypsg8m4XKJfpxokLPU=
>X-Mailer: PHP/4.3.9
>Return-Path: *********@gmail.com
>X-OriginalArrivalTime: 13 Jan 2007 18:51:49.0311 (UTC) FILETIME=[E1BF84F0:01C73743]
>
>This is a test message that was sent from http://seibertron.com
>
>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam ipsum. Sed pharetra ipsum tempor velit. Nulla pretium varius urna. Nam luctus venenatis nulla. Etiam ac libero. Sed et nunc. Aenean congue odio viverra magna. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Nullam auctor dui. Nam interdum imperdiet sem. Integer dui nunc, molestie nec, nonummy id, lobortis aliquet, lorem.
>Reply-To: John Smith
>To: Ryan Yzquierdo
>Subject: Test message sent at 12:51 PM
>Date: 13 Jan 2007 12:51:48 -0600
>Received: from mail.seibertron.com ([67.15.221.15]) by bay0-mc12-f10.bay0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.2444); Sat, 13 Jan 2007 10:51:49 -0800
>Received: (qmail 23207 invoked by uid 48); 13 Jan 2007 12:51:48 -0600
>X-Message-Info: txF49lGdW41nBjKq1Q8nEOnw4ypsg8m4XKJfpxokLPU=
>X-Mailer: PHP/4.3.9
>Return-Path: *********@gmail.com
>X-OriginalArrivalTime: 13 Jan 2007 18:51:49.0311 (UTC) FILETIME=[E1BF84F0:01C73743]
>
>This is a test message that was sent from http://seibertron.com
>
>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam ipsum. Sed pharetra ipsum tempor velit. Nulla pretium varius urna. Nam luctus venenatis nulla. Etiam ac libero. Sed et nunc. Aenean congue odio viverra magna. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Nullam auctor dui. Nam interdum imperdiet sem. Integer dui nunc, molestie nec, nonummy id, lobortis aliquet, lorem.
This DOES NOT work:
QUOTE
>From: John Smith
>Reply-To: John Smith
>To: Ryan Yzquierdo
>Subject: Test message sent at 12:51 PM
>Date: 13 Jan 2007 12:51:48 -0600
>Received: from mail.seibertron.com ([67.15.221.15]) by bay0-mc12-f10.bay0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.2444); Sat, 13 Jan 2007 10:51:49 -0800
>Received: (qmail 23207 invoked by uid 48); 13 Jan 2007 12:51:48 -0600
>X-Message-Info: txF49lGdW41nBjKq1Q8nEOnw4ypsg8m4XKJfpxokLPU=
>X-Mailer: PHP/4.3.9
>Return-Path: *********@gmail.com
>X-OriginalArrivalTime: 13 Jan 2007 18:51:49.0311 (UTC) FILETIME=[E1BF84F0:01C73743]
>
>This is a test message that was sent from http://seibertron.com
>
>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam ipsum. Sed pharetra ipsum tempor velit. Nulla pretium varius urna. Nam luctus venenatis nulla. Etiam ac libero. Sed et nunc. Aenean congue odio viverra magna. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Nullam auctor dui. Nam interdum imperdiet sem. Integer dui nunc, molestie nec, nonummy id, lobortis aliquet, lorem.
>Reply-To: John Smith
>To: Ryan Yzquierdo
>Subject: Test message sent at 12:51 PM
>Date: 13 Jan 2007 12:51:48 -0600
>Received: from mail.seibertron.com ([67.15.221.15]) by bay0-mc12-f10.bay0.hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.2444); Sat, 13 Jan 2007 10:51:49 -0800
>Received: (qmail 23207 invoked by uid 48); 13 Jan 2007 12:51:48 -0600
>X-Message-Info: txF49lGdW41nBjKq1Q8nEOnw4ypsg8m4XKJfpxokLPU=
>X-Mailer: PHP/4.3.9
>Return-Path: *********@gmail.com
>X-OriginalArrivalTime: 13 Jan 2007 18:51:49.0311 (UTC) FILETIME=[E1BF84F0:01C73743]
>
>This is a test message that was sent from http://seibertron.com
>
>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam ipsum. Sed pharetra ipsum tempor velit. Nulla pretium varius urna. Nam luctus venenatis nulla. Etiam ac libero. Sed et nunc. Aenean congue odio viverra magna. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Nullam auctor dui. Nam interdum imperdiet sem. Integer dui nunc, molestie nec, nonummy id, lobortis aliquet, lorem.
This seems really stupid. Anyone got some suggestions?
The following link I found via Google explains what's happening exactly on my server. Is this standard practice now?
http://support.positive-internet.com/scrip....php?page=print
http://support.positive-internet.com/scrip....php?page=print
QUOTE
We recently added fairly strict anti-SPAM measures to all our shared servers. This was necessary in order that we could properly manage out going e-mail, to be certain who's code was sending e-mail, and to avoid excessive bounces and/or loops. The changes also close up an exploit in use widely with formmail.cgi
The rules that any script or code sending out e-mail from a shared server are as follows:-
1) e-mail addresses in BOTH the To: and the From: headers must contain valid e-mail domains, ie. with valid DNS MX Records.
2) One of EITHER the To: OR the From: e-mail addresses must be using a domain name known to the shared server. This in most cases will be the domain name you use with your web site.
In some cases point 2) may be a problem if your domain e-mail is not handled by us but by a third party and we have no known domain on our server. In this case we can add a particular domain to be allowed, please ask.
Point 2) may also require that some scripts which need to send e-mail from an unknown user to an unknown user (something which effectively provides an Open mail relay and is fairly bad practise anyway, but is often used with e-postcard type scripts) to be altered so that the From: header contains your own domain related e-mail address but the Reply-To: header contains the address you wish replies to go to.
Please note that prior to us making these changes an unqualified address (ie, one with no @ sign or domain name) would have been automatically qualified with the full server name (@proton.positive-internet.com for example). These addresses will no longer work, all e-mail addresses in the From: and the To: header must be fully qualified (ie. have an @ sign and a domain)
We appreciate that this is by no means a perfect solution and could still potentially allow 3rd party abuse to continue, however it does reduce the likelyhood of abuse and also ensures that we can identify and correct any source of outgoing e-mail from PHP or CGI scripts. An alternative to this would have meant a complete audit of all PHP and CGI code on our servers and then enforced control and vetting of all scripts prior to their use in the future. We felt the methods we have chose provide the maximum flexibility and at the same time protect all shared users from the serious issue of total e-mail blacklisting affecting all outgoing and incoming e-mail.
If you would like us to examine any particular form or script to advise on where changes could be made or why you are now getting a particular error we will be happy to do so. Please provide us with the full URL and path to both the form and the code in question.
Suggestions and hints
Ideally your code should have within it "hard coded" e-mail addresses. If you know that the script will always be sending an e-mail to your info@mydomain.com address for example, then rather than reading this address from any hidden HTML form variables this address should be put within a script configuration file or within the actual mail sending code itself.
Likewise where the From: field is known and is not likely to change, this should not be passed to a script via hidden HTML directives but again hard coded within the code or the codes configuration files.
If you are using PHP's mail functions, it does not by default add a valid From: header to outgoing e-mail. This is important since otherwise all PHP scripts run on the server in Apache module mode would generate the same From: headers and tracking down the source of any particular e-mail would be extremely difficult.
When using PHP's mail function therefore you need to manually code in the From: header using the functions extra header parameters.
Since our server is very forthcoming and loud about the SPAM protection error, sending the output of the error with a Content MIME header, to standard out and standard error, it's very likely that your site visitors will see it's output if they provide an incorrect e-mail address or their service provider is having DNS/MX record problems.
We suggest that you choose a form script or code which does it's own e-mail address error checking and can intercept the problem before calling our sendmail program in order to provide users with a more friendly and perhaps understandable output either explaining that they may have mistyped their e-mail address or that their service provider may be experiencing DNS problems and to try a different e-mail address or try again later.
You or your developers may also be able to simply add extra checking to existing code.
In Perl the best module to use for this kind of checking is called Email::Valid (type perldoc Email::Valid from the command line for detailed instructions. With PHP you can make use of the getmxrr() function to check the DNS MX records for the domain part of an e-mail address, (explode the address variable using the @ sign to get the domain part or use substr). Search the PHP manual at http://www.php.net/ for getmxrr to get more details.
If you are using Java, dnsjava may be of interest for checking MX records, see http://www.xbill.org/dnsjava/
The rules that any script or code sending out e-mail from a shared server are as follows:-
1) e-mail addresses in BOTH the To: and the From: headers must contain valid e-mail domains, ie. with valid DNS MX Records.
2) One of EITHER the To: OR the From: e-mail addresses must be using a domain name known to the shared server. This in most cases will be the domain name you use with your web site.
In some cases point 2) may be a problem if your domain e-mail is not handled by us but by a third party and we have no known domain on our server. In this case we can add a particular domain to be allowed, please ask.
Point 2) may also require that some scripts which need to send e-mail from an unknown user to an unknown user (something which effectively provides an Open mail relay and is fairly bad practise anyway, but is often used with e-postcard type scripts) to be altered so that the From: header contains your own domain related e-mail address but the Reply-To: header contains the address you wish replies to go to.
Please note that prior to us making these changes an unqualified address (ie, one with no @ sign or domain name) would have been automatically qualified with the full server name (@proton.positive-internet.com for example). These addresses will no longer work, all e-mail addresses in the From: and the To: header must be fully qualified (ie. have an @ sign and a domain)
We appreciate that this is by no means a perfect solution and could still potentially allow 3rd party abuse to continue, however it does reduce the likelyhood of abuse and also ensures that we can identify and correct any source of outgoing e-mail from PHP or CGI scripts. An alternative to this would have meant a complete audit of all PHP and CGI code on our servers and then enforced control and vetting of all scripts prior to their use in the future. We felt the methods we have chose provide the maximum flexibility and at the same time protect all shared users from the serious issue of total e-mail blacklisting affecting all outgoing and incoming e-mail.
If you would like us to examine any particular form or script to advise on where changes could be made or why you are now getting a particular error we will be happy to do so. Please provide us with the full URL and path to both the form and the code in question.
Suggestions and hints
Ideally your code should have within it "hard coded" e-mail addresses. If you know that the script will always be sending an e-mail to your info@mydomain.com address for example, then rather than reading this address from any hidden HTML form variables this address should be put within a script configuration file or within the actual mail sending code itself.
Likewise where the From: field is known and is not likely to change, this should not be passed to a script via hidden HTML directives but again hard coded within the code or the codes configuration files.
If you are using PHP's mail functions, it does not by default add a valid From: header to outgoing e-mail. This is important since otherwise all PHP scripts run on the server in Apache module mode would generate the same From: headers and tracking down the source of any particular e-mail would be extremely difficult.
When using PHP's mail function therefore you need to manually code in the From: header using the functions extra header parameters.
Since our server is very forthcoming and loud about the SPAM protection error, sending the output of the error with a Content MIME header, to standard out and standard error, it's very likely that your site visitors will see it's output if they provide an incorrect e-mail address or their service provider is having DNS/MX record problems.
We suggest that you choose a form script or code which does it's own e-mail address error checking and can intercept the problem before calling our sendmail program in order to provide users with a more friendly and perhaps understandable output either explaining that they may have mistyped their e-mail address or that their service provider may be experiencing DNS problems and to try a different e-mail address or try again later.
You or your developers may also be able to simply add extra checking to existing code.
In Perl the best module to use for this kind of checking is called Email::Valid (type perldoc Email::Valid from the command line for detailed instructions. With PHP you can make use of the getmxrr() function to check the DNS MX records for the domain part of an e-mail address, (explode the address variable using the @ sign to get the domain part or use substr). Search the PHP manual at http://www.php.net/ for getmxrr to get more details.
If you are using Java, dnsjava may be of interest for checking MX records, see http://www.xbill.org/dnsjava/
ah yes, the from: has to be a @domain.com that is accredited by the server, e.g. in the SPF records.
I was doing the same thing wrong at first. e.g. it appeared mail was coming from: my@hotmail.com account through my domain.com server, whereas it should have come from my@domain.com and my@hotmail.com should have been the reply-to: address.
It increases the spam scoring... I think your spam scoring was/is so high with this thing wrong, that hotmail doesn't even send it to junk folder. Like 100% spam gets just dropped, < 75% probability spam reaches junk folder.
I was able to reach the junk mail folder even with this wrong, but still working towards getting my mail directly to the inbox.
I was doing the same thing wrong at first. e.g. it appeared mail was coming from: my@hotmail.com account through my domain.com server, whereas it should have come from my@domain.com and my@hotmail.com should have been the reply-to: address.
It increases the spam scoring... I think your spam scoring was/is so high with this thing wrong, that hotmail doesn't even send it to junk folder. Like 100% spam gets just dropped, < 75% probability spam reaches junk folder.
I was able to reach the junk mail folder even with this wrong, but still working towards getting my mail directly to the inbox.
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