Activation Emails Seen As Spam

[ddmmh]

Hi guys,

Ive had a few friends sign up to help me test out the forums and for all of them the activation email was in the junk/spam folder. Kind of worrys me because a lot of people still dont know to check spam email if the activation isnt in their inbox. Is there I way i can find out whats triggering my email as spam and how I can change it so its at least accepted by the mainstream email provides like hotmail, gmail, yahoo etc..

Cheers guys

 

[Jake Bunce]

I use the Contact Us form to test email. You can email users too, but then the recipient email will be that of the recipient user.

 

[Brandon Sheley]

I use the Contact Us form to test email. You can email users too, but then the recipient email will be that of the recipient user.

ah I see what you're saying
I'll try that

still went to my junk mail (

would the new domain make a difference?

 

[Jake Bunce]

would the new domain make a difference?

It's possible. This is all guesswork. Just check the things in this thread (especially RDNS):

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/dealing-with-spam-filters.8530/

 

[Brandon Sheley]

It's possible. This is all guesswork. Just check the things in this thread (especially RDNS):

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/dealing-with-spam-filters.8530/

I had looked at that last time you posted it but I couldn't see my headers in gmail, so I stopped there.
I'll see if I can find them on my hotmail.com email

thanks
-Brandon

 

[Jake Bunce]

 

[Brandon Sheley]

found it

It's possible. This is all guesswork. Just check the things in this thread (especially RDNS):

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/dealing-with-spam-filters.8530/

Success! It appears you have Reverse DNS. Please note the following points:

• 
  If the sender's domain is the only domain sending mail from a specific IP address, we recommend that the reverse DNS entry (PTR Record) match the domain name (A Record), but we do not require it.
• 
  AOL does require that all connecting Mail Transfer Agents have established reverse DNS, regardless of whether it matches the domain.
• 
  Reverse DNS must be in the form of a fully-qualified domain name. Reverse DNSes containing in-addr.arpa are not acceptable, as these are merely placeholders for a valid PTR record. Reverse DNSes consisting only of IP addresses are also not acceptable, as they do not correctly establish the relationship between domain and IP address.

 

[Jake Bunce]

Good. RDNS is working. Be sure to try the other things listed in that thread:

http://xenforo.com/community/threads/dealing-with-spam-filters.8530/

If after addressing those common red flags you still have the problem then you need to contact the recipient mail host that is blocking you.

 

[mrGTB]

How do you know if the -f parameter can be used with you host? Would emails be sent out from your forum if you enable it and your server host doesn't support it?

I ask because I just enabled it and registered a dummy account using my ISP email to see if the board still sent me a confirmation email. I got one no problem, but then I'm not sure if I still would have got one either way with -f parameter enabled or not. So how can you check to be sure that your server hosts supports it? Is there anything in PHPInfo to show it, as I do see this below.

 

[Jake Bunce]

How do you know if the -f parameter can be used with you host?

The only requirement I am aware of regarding the -f parameter is that your server cannot have safe_mode enabled, but that is already a requirement that is checked by the installer and this script:

http://xenforo.com/xenforo-requirements-test.zip

Would emails be sent out from your forum if you enable it and your server host doesn't support it?

I have never seen sendmail become broken by enabling the -f parameter, but some servers require it. You should test outgoing email whenever you change your configuration.

 

[Kevin]

If mail works with the -f parameter set on then that is better. By default, sendmail won't let you change the "envelope address" of the email, that is the return address, so you often end up with nobody@your.server.name instead of a useful mail address.

This can harm you in the eyes of spam checks, though the -f param doesn't always work (it definitely doesn't work with safe_mode). With -f, you can set that to an arbitrary email, which is better for spam and lets you actually control where bounce/delivery errors go.

Ah, I never realized before that the -f option changed that value. Tried it today and see the address used to be "nobody@primary.host.name" but is now "bounce@site.name" instead. Will let it go for a bit like that to see if I get any more reports of users not getting emails.


(Yes, I know I'm bumping an old thread but I just came across it thanks to Jake adding an item to the XF Resources section. )

 

[Mishal]

I think I found the best way to receive all mails in inbox

• change website mail to webmaster@yourdomain.com
• go to Admin CP -> Home -> Options -> Email Options -> Email Transport Method >> use smtp mail.yourdomain.com port 465 >> Encryption: ssl

 

[Bram]

I think I found the best way to receive all mails in inbox

• change website mail to webmaster@yourdomain.com
• go to Admin CP -> Home -> Options -> Email Options -> Email Transport Method >> use smtp mail.yourdomain.com port 465 >> Encryption: ssl

Anybody else that confirm this solution as a winner?

 

[Jake Bunce]

Anybody else that confirm this solution as a winner?

It depends how the SMTP server is configured.

This post sums up the "best practices" that I have seen suggested:

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/dealing-with-spam-filters.366/

 

[Shamatix]

I think I found the best way to receive all mails in inbox

• change website mail to webmaster@yourdomain.com
• go to Admin CP -> Home -> Options -> Email Options -> Email Transport Method >> use smtp mail.yourdomain.com port 465 >> Encryption: ssl

I am still having issues, literally done EVERYTHING in this thread... RDNS is correct, using SMTP with 465

 

[Xon]

Setting up SPF records is straight forward and helps.

DKIM also helps, but requires a bunch more setup work.

 

[TPerry]

DKIM also helps, but requires a bunch more setup work.

It's actually not that bad.. I still need to do my CentOS version of what I do to set it up. My Debian (which should work for Ubuntu also) one is here.