Yahoo Xtra marking email from my server as spam.

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Yahoo Xtra marking email from my server as spam.

jbard

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#109752 25-Sep-2012 21:24

Hi

I don't know a lot about my mail server as it is configured by my host.
I have about 50 email accounts on the server from 25 different domains.

I have just tried sending messages from 8 domains and all the messages got marked as junk by Yahoo Xtra. It is becoming a real pain now as I often email @xtra.co.nz addresses.

I don't send any bulk mail and checking the logs for this month their has never been more than 30 messages sent a day.

I did a quick blacklist check here: http://whatismyipaddress.com/blacklist-check
and everything came back as clean.

What can I do to stop emails going into spam?

DonGould

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#691380 25-Sep-2012 21:48

Send me an email from the offending server and I'll have a look and comment.

You'll want to pm me the email address you're sending from as well because we'll greylist you on your first send but I'll still be able to see what's going on.

D

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#691386 25-Sep-2012 22:05

Their server could be checking SPF records to see if your servers can relay emails from your domains. Also if your server identify itself with one name, but the reverse DNS does not give the same name then it may mark as "non reliable" source... Lots of things can be happening.

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DonGould

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#691392 25-Sep-2012 22:12

freitasm: Their server could be checking SPF records to see if your servers can relay emails from your domains. Also if your server identify itself with one name, but the reverse DNS does not give the same name then it may mark as "non reliable" source... Lots of things can be happening.

ya, he doesn't have an spf on the offending domain, but the ptr record doesn't look friendly.

I'm just waiting for his server to retry to see what my SA and antivirus do with it.

The helo record also doesn't look that friendly either.

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Zeon

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#691394 25-Sep-2012 22:16

TBH I think they usually just check that there is indeed a PTR rather than its contents???

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DonGould

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#691395 25-Sep-2012 22:19

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Mail_Transfer_Protocol

Yip, the HELO should be a FQDN I suspect.

So, so far you've got three strikes...

No SPF, no FQDN in the HELO field and a PTR that doesn't match the ns server domains or the FQDN at all.

Will be interesting to see if my server will like you.

When the server retries after being greylisted we'll find out if you're in any spam databases as well.

D

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jbard

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#691400 25-Sep-2012 22:23

Thanks for all your help so far. It doesn't sound to good for my mail server.
Most of these things are over my head but I am on wikipedia now :)

Are these things I should try fixing myself (I have full access to the VPS) or should I ask my host to help me out (they are usually very good)?

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DonGould

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#691404 25-Sep-2012 22:30

Zeon: TBH I think they usually just check that there is indeed a PTR rather than its contents???

In my config I don't think I even care any more if you have one, but I know Yahoo can be a little less friendly than I am with what it accepts.

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DonGould

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#691405 25-Sep-2012 22:35

jbard: Thanks for all your help so far. It doesn't sound to good for my mail server.
Most of these things are over my head but I am on wikipedia now :)

Are these things I should try fixing myself (I have full access to the VPS) or should I ask my host to help me out (they are usually very good)?

At a guess I'd say qmail on your vps is not very well configured. You could start by just reading the conf file and using some judgement about what the settings should be.

You'll need to talk with your provider about setting a decent PTR record, which needs to be the same as the FQDN set for your MX record.

I've emailed you back, it would help if I could see one of these messages that Yahoo has flagged as spam to see what the headers say.

(If you're forwarding it to me, remember to do it with something that will include all the message headers)

Setting a basic SPF record might help too, but then you'll have to ensure that users actually use your server to send from or those of us who do actually validate SPF records will reject anything not sent from your server.

Personally I don't set SPF records at all, but I do check them on some of my systems.

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DonGould

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#691406 25-Sep-2012 22:39

http://faculty.cs.niu.edu/~rickert/cf/bad-ehlo.html

Yip, I'll lay odds your HELO is catching you.

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jbard

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#691412 25-Sep-2012 22:54

DonGould:
jbard: Thanks for all your help so far. It doesn't sound to good for my mail server.
Most of these things are over my head but I am on wikipedia now :)

Are these things I should try fixing myself (I have full access to the VPS) or should I ask my host to help me out (they are usually very good)?

At a guess I'd say qmail on your vps is not very well configured. You could start by just reading the conf file and using some judgement about what the settings should be.

You'll need to talk with your provider about setting a decent PTR record, which needs to be the same as the FQDN set for your MX record.

I've emailed you back, it would help if I could see one of these messages that Yahoo has flagged as spam to see what the headers say.

(If you're forwarding it to me, remember to do it with something that will include all the message headers)

Setting a basic SPF record might help too, but then you'll have to ensure that users actually use your server to send from or those of us who do actually validate SPF records will reject anything not sent from your server.

Personally I don't set SPF records at all, but I do check them on some of my systems.

Thanks for all your help. I will get onto this first thing tomorrow and post back if I have any problems.

I will forward you a Yahoo email now.

plambrechtsen

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#691887 26-Sep-2012 20:04

If you're still having issues feel free to e-mail me pl at telecom dot co dot nz and I can look into it too.

But lack of SPF would normally be the clincher. Plus not the right server name in the HELO/EHLO.

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DonGould

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#691892 26-Sep-2012 20:19

plambrechtsen: But lack of SPF would normally be the clincher.

Really? That's just silly.

Victoria University failed SPF checking last week because of a dependency on Microsoft.

Does Yahoo really look at SPF and fail you if you don't have a record configured?

No, that can't be right, my mail server sends messages to xtra customers all the time (well I'm assuming it does because I don't get calls from people telling me it doesn't, I can't say I stop to look at the mail logs unless someone complains).

I can understand failing messages if you do have an SPF configured and then the record causes a failure, but rejecting mail for not having an SPF?

Or have I just misunderstood?

D

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