Xtra marking email from mail server as spam

Forums › Telecom New Zealand, XT Network, Yahoo!Xtra › Xtra marking email from mail server as spam

lanks

68 posts

Master Geek

Topic # 111587 8-Nov-2012 10:32
About a month ago email from our mail server to xtra addresses started being marked as spam. I have not been able to find any information on who at xtra to contact about getting this fixed. I have been told that the xtra email is managed through yahoo so it can be difficult getting any assistance with this. The email server url is email.proposalonline.com . This server is configured to send email for multiple domain names. I have tested sending email from some of the different domain names to an xtra email address and all of them end up in spam. This obviously means that it is the email server that xtra has a problem with. I have checked the main email blacklists and this server is not on them. Also we haven't had trouble sending email to other domain names. Has anyone had similar issues or experiences with xtra? Is there anything else that anyone can recommend that I do to try and solve this or does anyone know who to contact at xtra to get help?

ubergeeknz

787 posts

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Orcon

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Reply # 714018 8-Nov-2012 10:36
A couple of suggestions before going to Xtra/Yahoo... Check SPF Records in DNS, check shared blacklists. Another possibility is users marking the emails as spam and therefore the spam filter learning this. Are the emails you send "spammy" ...?

lanks

68 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 714029 8-Nov-2012 10:47
ubergeeknz: A couple of suggestions before going to Xtra/Yahoo... Check SPF Records in DNS, check shared blacklists. Another possibility is users marking the emails as spam and therefore the spam filter learning this. Are the emails you send "spammy" ...? I used an online SPF checker on the server and it returned saying there wasn't any SPF records.... The systems that are sending out emails through this mail server are relaying so maybe I do need to configure this with SPF? How likely is it that xtra is doing this because of SPF? I am reluctant to start changing configurations on the email server as it is working for other domain names and to my knowledge it was working for at least a year with send emails to xtra. We send a large amount of email (thousands every day). Also with a lot of the emails sent system generated user login information is sent for users to access our systems. I think based on these two points it is probable that the email could be interpreted as spam.

freitasm

BDFL
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Geekzone

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Reply # 714056 8-Nov-2012 11:10
Make sure you have SPF records for each domain sending emails from this server. Also make sure a reverse DNS will respond with the correct server name. After you change this, then you start chasing Yahoo!, their provider. Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog, technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization) Geekzone Price comparison \| Amazon Kindle order page \| How to get the best out of Geekzone \| New Zealand IT Jobs \| Geekzone News \| Jinglebugs

lanks

68 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 714101 8-Nov-2012 12:12
freitasm: Make sure you have SPF records for each domain sending emails from this server. Also make sure a reverse DNS will respond with the correct server name. After you change this, then you start chasing Yahoo!, their provider. I have added a couple of SPF records to two of the domains and also checked the reverse dns on the mail server ip address and it is working. The email from this server is still going to spam... Any ideas on how I might go about contacting yahoo?

networkn

4755 posts

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Reply # 714112 8-Nov-2012 12:40
The move to yahoo for xtra was the worst thing I ever saw an ISP do. The process for resolving spam issues is just the worst. I hate it. None of the staff (Even the seniors) seem to have a clue about it, and the processing time of requests and the quality of replies from the yahoo teams are some of the worst I've experienced.

mattwnz

4262 posts

Uber Geek

Reply # 714138 8-Nov-2012 13:26
networkn: The move to yahoo for xtra was the worst thing I ever saw an ISP do. The process for resolving spam issues is just the worst. I hate it. None of the staff (Even the seniors) seem to have a clue about it, and the processing time of requests and the quality of replies from the yahoo teams are some of the worst I've experienced. +1. This sort of problem has been going on for many years since they switched to yahoo. I think Yahoos spam filters are so hard on email, because Yahoo receive so much more spam than a NZ provider would, and many spammers also used yahoo in the past to send out spam, becuase they could easily setup a free email account with them. Certainly they didn't have the problems before switching to yahoo. I just tell people to stop using those free email accounts and get a gmail one. Gmail doesn't have the same problem. I recall when I had this problem several years ago, I had to fill in a huge form from yahoo. This actually fixed the problem for about a month, but then it reoccurred.

myopinion

527 posts

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Reply # 714140 8-Nov-2012 13:30
+1 bloody xtra spam filter

lanks

68 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 714157 8-Nov-2012 13:52
mattwnz: networkn: The move to yahoo for xtra was the worst thing I ever saw an ISP do. The process for resolving spam issues is just the worst. I hate it. None of the staff (Even the seniors) seem to have a clue about it, and the processing time of requests and the quality of replies from the yahoo teams are some of the worst I've experienced. +1. This sort of problem has been going on for many years since they switched to yahoo. I think Yahoos spam filters are so hard on email, because Yahoo receive so much more spam than a NZ provider would, and many spammers also used yahoo in the past to send out spam, becuase they could easily setup a free email account with them. Certainly they didn't have the problems before switching to yahoo. I just tell people to stop using those free email accounts and get a gmail one. Gmail doesn't have the same problem. I recall when I had this problem several years ago, I had to fill in a huge form from yahoo. This actually fixed the problem for about a month, but then it reoccurred. Thanks for your replies. It is interesting because I have setup a @yahoo.co.nz email account to test and see if the same issue occurs and surprisingly it doesn't. It seems as though they aren't running on the same spam filter so maybe they aren't entirely the provided by the same mail servers/systems...

lanks

68 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 714231 8-Nov-2012 16:19
mattwnz: I recall when I had this problem several years ago, I had to fill in a huge form from yahoo. This actually fixed the problem for about a month, but then it reoccurred. I have come across this form http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/postmaster/bulkv2.html Not sure if it is the one that your have referred to but I have filled it out and been issued an "Incident Number" so it seems like I am making some progress. I will report back when/if I get any response from yahoo.

networkn

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Reply # 714242 8-Nov-2012 16:31
lanks: mattwnz: networkn: The move to yahoo for xtra was the worst thing I ever saw an ISP do. The process for resolving spam issues is just the worst. I hate it. None of the staff (Even the seniors) seem to have a clue about it, and the processing time of requests and the quality of replies from the yahoo teams are some of the worst I've experienced. +1. This sort of problem has been going on for many years since they switched to yahoo. I think Yahoos spam filters are so hard on email, because Yahoo receive so much more spam than a NZ provider would, and many spammers also used yahoo in the past to send out spam, becuase they could easily setup a free email account with them. Certainly they didn't have the problems before switching to yahoo. I just tell people to stop using those free email accounts and get a gmail one. Gmail doesn't have the same problem. I recall when I had this problem several years ago, I had to fill in a huge form from yahoo. This actually fixed the problem for about a month, but then it reoccurred. Thanks for your replies. It is interesting because I have setup a @yahoo.co.nz email account to test and see if the same issue occurs and surprisingly it doesn't. It seems as though they aren't running on the same spam filter so maybe they aren't entirely the provided by the same mail servers/systems... @yahoo.co.nz will be configured the way they want the mail server configured which is why it's working. It's not a matter of the spam filter working or not working. The frustrating thing is that there is no clear way for you to know which of their millions of policies you are in breach of. When asked for a list, they refuse for security reasons! As if spammers are going to call and ask :)