iServe Mail Server Blacklisted?

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MurrayM

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#168568 18-Mar-2015 16:11

I've had a client complain to me that email sent from his website (hosted by iServe), i.e. contact form, order form, etc, isn't getting through to him.

After going through all the usual suspects (check the junk mail folder, etc) I added myself as a recipient of the emails and I received test messages ok.

My client uses Office 365 for his email, his MX records point there.

He has two websites, both hosted with iServe, and email from neither is getting through to him.

Both sites use PHP to send the email after a user has filled in a form.

My client contacted the people who set up his Office 365 and they suggested that the iServe mail server IP address may have been blacklisted.

I looked at the mail headers for one of the messages that I received ok and found an IP address of 202.191.42.19 that appeared to be the one iServe's mail server was sending from. I plugged this into a blacklist checker and found that one blacklist had indeed flagged that IP address as a spammer. See http://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=blacklist%3a202.191.42.19&run=toolpage The blacklist is called UCEPROTECTL1.

I used another blacklist checker, http://www.blacklistalert.org/, and that listed five blacklists that had flagged that IP address.

We're not 100% sure that this is the cause of his lost emails, but it's certainly something that could cause the problem.

I've sent an email to blacklisted at orcon.net.nz and received an automated reply saying they'd received my message.

I just wanted to ask if anyone else has noticed missing email from iServe hosted websites?

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#1261821 18-Mar-2015 16:30

You are better to phone them these days for support, and you will need to report the problem to them, so they can fix the problem.
Last time I filled in the contact form on the orcon website, I never heard back so don't know if it actually gets through to the hosting people..

MurrayM

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#1261875 18-Mar-2015 18:24

Thanks Matt. I did get back a ticket number so I assume someone will get around to looking at it.

The particular client that was affected by this was in the process of moving hosts so it's just speeded up their plans and hopefully they'll be moved from the iServe hosting platform within 24 hours or so and then it won't be an issue for them.

I remember the last time this happened we were advised to send an email to blacklisted at orcon.net.nz. At the time I queried if this was for iServe hosted sites too and was told yes.

Ragnor

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#1262434 19-Mar-2015 14:10

- Web hosts smtp servers tend to get blacklisted from time to time due to both clients sites being exploited and just false positives.
- Good hosts are proactive about getting de-listed.
- iServe hasn't been a good host in a long time.

On your side do you have SPF record for this domain, does it list iServe mail servers as allowed to send for this domain?

MurrayM

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#1263624 19-Mar-2015 18:38

Ragnor: On your side do you have SPF record for this domain, does it list iServe mail servers as allowed to send for this domain?

No I don't have SPF records for this domain.

I'm not an SPF expert but my understanding is that SPF wouldn't have helped in this case, or do I misunderstand SPF?

I've sent a request to iServe / Orcon asking if they have an SPF include record that covers all their SMTP IP addresses that I can add to my SPF record to save me from having to maintain a list myself. Does anyone else have any experience with setting up SPF for iServe hosted sites?

mattwnz

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#1264794 22-Mar-2015 01:05

I can confirm that there looks to be a problem, as emails sent from the iserve servers are getting listed as spam by Gmail automatically. Seems to have started last week.

MurrayM

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#1264830 22-Mar-2015 08:42

mattwnz: I can confirm that there looks to be a problem, as emails sent from the iserve servers are getting listed as spam by Gmail automatically. Seems to have started last week.

Thanks for the confirmation Matt.

I reported it to Orcon on the 18th and received an automated reply saying "We aim to reply within 3 business hours" but so far (nearly 4 days later) I haven't heard anything back from them.

ubergeeknz

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#1265265 22-Mar-2015 19:00

SPF will help; spam is usually filtered based on an overall score of which SPF is a (big) factor. So do set up SPF properly for your domain.

As for the lack of response, please accept my apologies, if you can ping me with your account number or username I will follow up on Monday for you.

Quic Broadband

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MurrayM

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#1265267 22-Mar-2015 19:08

ubergeeknz: SPF will help; spam is usually filtered based on an overall score of which SPF is a (big) factor. So do set up SPF properly for your domain.

As for the lack of response, please accept my apologies, if you can ping me with your account number or username I will follow up on Monday for you.

Thanks, I've sent you a PM with the ticket numbers of my support requests.

ArcticSilver

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#1265270 22-Mar-2015 19:15

SPF is very important, I would highly recommend adding it.

My servers for instance will highly favor a sender who has a SPF record as most spam does not.

SPF's records effectively say "these listed mail servers are allowed to send mail for my domain". This also helps if some one tries to send mail, pretending to be you as servers checking SPF records can recognize the difference and spam it accordingly.

MurrayM

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#1265677 23-Mar-2015 12:43

ArcticSilver: SPF is very important, I would highly recommend adding it.

My servers for instance will highly favor a sender who has a SPF record as most spam does not.

SPF's records effectively say "these listed mail servers are allowed to send mail for my domain". This also helps if some one tries to send mail, pretending to be you as servers checking SPF records can recognize the difference and spam it accordingly.

So the SPF record that I set up should specify the IP addresses of any server that can send email for my domain?

That means I'd have to get the IP addresses of all servers that iServe uses for sending mail (this would cover email that my web site sends out) and I'd also need to include IP addresses for Gmail because I use them for manually sending email. I've had a quick look but can't find a list of published IP addresses for Gmail (I found some for Google Apps but I just use the free version of Gmail and I don't know if they would be the same IP addresses as Google Apps uses). Does anyone know where I could find a list of Gmail IP addresses (or even better a gmail.com SPF record that I can include in my own SPF record).

ubergeeknz

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#1265827 23-Mar-2015 14:14

For Gmail:

https://support.google.com/a/answer/33786?hl=en

For IServe:

https://www.orcon.net.nz/support/gfaq_page/spf_record_for_domain_mailboxes

HTH.

ArcticSilver

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#1265977 23-Mar-2015 16:12

MurrayM:
ArcticSilver: SPF is very important, I would highly recommend adding it.

My servers for instance will highly favor a sender who has a SPF record as most spam does not.

SPF's records effectively say "these listed mail servers are allowed to send mail for my domain". This also helps if some one tries to send mail, pretending to be you as servers checking SPF records can recognize the difference and spam it accordingly.

So the SPF record that I set up should specify the IP addresses of any server that can send email for my domain?

That means I'd have to get the IP addresses of all servers that iServe uses for sending mail (this would cover email that my web site sends out) and I'd also need to include IP addresses for Gmail because I use them for manually sending email. I've had a quick look but can't find a list of published IP addresses for Gmail (I found some for Google Apps but I just use the free version of Gmail and I don't know if they would be the same IP addresses as Google Apps uses). Does anyone know where I could find a list of Gmail IP addresses (or even better a gmail.com SPF record that I can include in my own SPF record).

Yes that is correct.

Most email providers will provide you with a list of IP Addresses, or domains you can use in your SPF records.

MurrayM

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#1266058 23-Mar-2015 17:36

ubergeeknz: For Gmail:

https://support.google.com/a/answer/33786?hl=en

For IServe:

https://www.orcon.net.nz/support/gfaq_page/spf_record_for_domain_mailboxes

HTH.

Thanks for that. I've set up the following TXT record:

v=spf1 include:_spf.orcon.net.nz include:_spf.google.com ~all

But are you sure that _spf.orcon.net.nz covers the iServe IP addresses? When I did an nslookup on _spf.orcon.net.nz I get:

_spf.orcon.net.nz	text = "v=spf1 ip4:219.88.242.0/26 ip4:60.234.4.69/32 ip4:60.234.4.74/31 ip4:60.234.4.76/32 ?all"

I notice that this doesn't include the IP address 202.191.42.19 which appeared in the headers from one of my rejected emails.

ubergeeknz

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#1266294 23-Mar-2015 21:54

Duly noted & we're looking into that. Cheers.

ubergeeknz

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#1267293 25-Mar-2015 08:46

An SPF include has now been created for iSERVE.

v=spf1 include:_spf.iserve.net.nz ~all

Hope that helps. Also I got the guys onto getting the affected server off those blacklists.

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