The Classic Yahoo Marking Emails As Spam Issue

[LeeUmm]

So I've had numerous discussions with tech in a ticket, and I can't seem to get passed Yahoo marking my emails as spam, and Hotmail won't even receive them at all. I've been working on this issue for over a week, and any email sent to Hotmail doesn't even go through, or bounce back. It's not a greylisting issue, as the emails are over a week old and still not showing up in Hotmail.

I've added an SPF record and support has setup a reverse DNS record, yet still the issues.

My SPF record is as follows, minus my actual IP address: v=spf1 ip4:x.x.xx.xx ~all

I checked it using an online tool, and it passes.

I'm not sure what else to do. Tech are out of suggestions.

This is obviously a major problem and if I can't find a fix, I'll have no choice but to leave. I just moved over from a different hosting company where I was on a reseller account, and I had no issues. I figured there would be even less problems with a VPS.

[thisisit3]

First of all, that SPF record is "bad" because you shouldn't be listing the IP address exclusively (you should use 'a mx') and you shouldn't be using "~" (you should use "-").

The correct SPF record is (without the double quotes of course): "v=spf1 a mx -all"

It basically means: ONLY my server sends emails, which is an A and MX, anything else fails the SPF check.

The "~" means SOFTFAIL, while "-" means FAIL.

Now, once you've put the correct SPF record for your domain, make sure that:

1) You ask support to add a Reverse DNS entry for your IP -> domain
2) You check your IP is not in any block lists (www.dnsstuff.com)
3) Run the "DNSReport" tool at www.dnsstuff.com to check everything is correct. The tool should only "fail" the test for "Single Point of Failure", it should NOT fail anything else.

also, yahoo will ALWAYS put emails in the spam folder, only if your domain has a good reputation will they put them in the inbox directly.

[LeeUmm]

Thanks for the detailed response.

I had an SPF record similar to what you have listed, but when I contacted support, they changed it and pointed me to their KB where it is listed as having an IP address for the record.

I tried your record, and a few other combinations and still nothing. I do have a reverse DNS record setup for the domain, and a DNSReport shows it passes everything except the opendns servers, and a mismatch glue. I also did a spam lookup of my IP and it passed everything. I can't check again as I've used up my trail look ups. I've been at this for a while using the site.

As I had mentioned, I'm coming from a different provider on a reseller account, and had no problems. I assumed when I switched over things would be fine, so I thought this was a VPS setup issue.

I had never heard Yahoo puts all emails as spam until trusted. Maybe this is why it was working on my old host.

However, Hotmail doesn't accept any messages nor does it bounce them back. This is a HUGE problem as you can imagine. With Yahoo and Hotmail giving me problems, I can't just leave it alone. I realize they're the ones making it a huge pain, but I do have to get this sorted out obviously. *Sigh*

[thisisit3]

By using "a mx" you automatically tell others that you are sending from your A and MX records, which in other words means your mail.yourdomain.com, which is the IP address of your domain, so you don't need to specify the IP address exclusively!

Also, by using "~" you make a SOFTFAIL, which means that spam and virus emails that fake the From: and use your domain will not be discarded. Instead, you should always use "-" which is a FAIL. The use of "~" is when you first install the SPF and you want to test it for a small period of time.

[Gwaihir]

An IP address should work fine too. Using "a" and or "mx" is more maintenance friendly, as your IP address might change some day. Both assuming it is correct, i.e. use the correct sending IP when listing an IP, make sure you're sending e-mail from either an IP in either your a or your mx record when using "a mx". This isn't always the case, a shared server for example sends all e-mail from one IP, even if one's site (both a and mx records) are on another.

A hard fail for everything else ("-" instead of "~") may indeed lend your record a bit of extra credibility, though if Yahoo and Hotmail implement it correctly, it should really only matter for OTHER ip addresses that claim to send e-mail on your behalf.

In my personal experience, Yahoo doesn't care about SPF in the least . Hotmail, I dunno.

[JPC-Masood]

There is general consensus that hotmail service has gone down the drain in last couple of months. Just google around and see for yourself. I am not sure why people still use them. Anyway, you can open a ticket with them directly at

https://support.msn.com/eform.aspx?p...ail&ct=eformts

because this is obviously their issue as they are neither bouncing your email nor dropping it in mailbox.

[Ron]

There is a link on here on how to send Microsoft a notice that you have an SPF record. While it didn't work exactly it got me headed in the right direction.

Let me dig out my emails and find the address to the web page where you can enter your info, and then Microsoft manually adds your SPF record to THEIR database. .....

brb

[Ron]

OK, here is the URL:
https://support.msn.com/eform.aspx?p...d&ct=eformt s

They call it SenderID Framework...

Anyway, once you add your SPF record here and they manually add it to their database, they will THEN check your DNS daily to pick up any changes.

Good luck.

I just checked by sending myself an email from my outlook client through my JPC server, and the email was received just fine and in the headers there is this:
X-SID-PRA: me@mydomain (no idea what this means)
X-SID-Result: Pass (clearly Sender ID passes)

FWIW, here is my SPF record:
v=spf1 a a:servername.nocdirect.com ~all

(The second a: is because my reseller server is set up like a shared server and email doesn't go through my dedicated IP)

Masood, perhaps you could or should add the Microsoft URL above to the KB? Maybe tag it with "hotmail problems" or something.

[Ron]

Google GMail also likes the SPF record:

Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of me@mydomain designates 69.73.xxx.xxx as permitted sender) client-ip=69.73.xxx.xxx;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of me@mydomain designates 69.73.xxx.xxx as permitted sender) smtp.mail=me@mydomain

[Gwaihir]

There is general consensus that hotmail service has gone down the drain in last couple of months. Just google around and see for yourself.

Yes, I'm afraid I must confirm that. My account is on the lowest possible filtering setting, yet over the last months I do find out that I am missing mails occasionally and I see some go into my spam box, where it is easy to overlook them and from which the dissapear after just a few days.

Why I still use them? 1) I like how it's both on the web and my computer (I use the sync with Outlook Express). 2) I do need some form of non JagPC e-mail anyway as a contact point in case of issues here. 3) There's usually something around of higher priority than moving out of hotmail.

[LeeUmm]

Thanks for all the information guys.

I'll have to check it out tomorrow, as I haven't had time today and I'm heading out right now for the evening.

I realize these free services I'm having issues with have become a huge problem in the way they handle things, but I can't ignore them. I don't personally use them, but I have clients I host who do, so I must figure this out if it kills me...which it just might sadly.

I'm just finding it weird that on my old reseller account I had no issues, but on my VPS I am. With my old host, I was having issues with Yahoo, but as soon as I added an SPF record, immediately emails weren't marked as spam.

I'll report back tomorrow at some point.

[Connie]

As the Dumbie in this conversation. I used to have problems with Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, and Comcast as far as my customers receiving my email.

I had support install a SPF record, and that seems to have taken care of all those problems.

Even before the SPF was added Hotmail, and Yahoo simply put the email from my domain in the spam or bulk email folder. Neither deleted the email.

Of course when trying to communicate with a customer, if your email ends up in a spam box it might be better if it were bounced. At least as the sender you would know of the problem and would probably resend the email.

I have no idea what support actually added for the SPF record, because I DON'T KNOW WHERE IT IS in the file structure.

[EuroNut]

I had support install a SPF record, and that seems to have taken care of all those problems.

I have no idea what support actually added for the SPF record, because I DON'T KNOW WHERE IT IS in the file structure.

Connie - It's in the DNS records for your domain. Just like there's a couple of lines which say which DNS servers your domain is tied to, and an A record for your domain, your MX record for the mailserver you use, etc, etc, there's now also a TXT record which specifies the SPF record for your domain.

Go look at http://www.dnsstuff.com, put your domain name in, and scroll right down near the bottom where the checks on your mail server/MX record are - you'll see it there, looked up by dnsstuff.com from Jag's DNS servers.

[Vin DSL]

I do have a reverse DNS record setup for the domain, and a DNSReport shows it passes everything except the opendns servers, and a mismatch glue...

Hrm...

That's an interesting response! Outside possibility, but...

The only domain I've seen that doesn't GLUE itself is ".info" - maybe there are others...

Personally, I shaft all ".info" & ".biz" domains, 'cause I've never seen one that's legitimate!

What kind of TLDs are you running?

[EuroNut]

That's an interesting response! Outside possibility, but...

The only domain I've seen that doesn't GLUE itself is ".info" - maybe there are others...

They will all do that. If the hosted domain TLD doesn't match the nameserver domain's TLD you'll get the glue-mismatch - It's no biggie. I get that all the time.

Personally, I shaft all ".info" & ".biz" domains, 'cause I've never seen one that's legitimate!

What kind of TLDs are you running?

.com, .net, .org, .info, .us, .at, .com.au, .com.sg, .co.uk, .com.es, .biz, .eu and a few others - All legit too!