> > I am wondering if anyone has advice on where there are any email health
> checks online. I used to use dnsstuff.com but they have since gone
> commercial.
>
> You have been given links and other suggestions for this that are sound, I
> would
> follow those suggestions.
>
> > It's frustrating to have your users' emails land in Yahoo or Gmail spam
> folders, but not be able to understand why. DNS checks out fine as far as I
> can
> tell (tried out intodns.com and did my own DIGging) and all the rest as far
> as I
> am able to check. Checked the big name RBLs and got nothing there, either.
>
> At that point, you sound like you are doing ok.
>
> > Where do people turn to try to get feedback on their outgoing emails?
> > Even a
> spamassassin score checker would be nice, but alas.... (and specific issues
> with
> Yahoo/Gmail are of course nearly hopeless because those companies could care
> less about us little people).
>
>
> I have around 10 servers that have had issues with yahoo or hotmail or aol,
> ranging from ending up in the spam folder, to bounces, to eating the messages
> silently and not providing any data. I have been able to resolve all cases.
Scott, thank you for the following information/experiences. I have done a
little bit of that before, but nowhere near as much as you. It's good to hear
someone who has made it work for them. Generally, I find Google the most
objectionable as both a postmaster and a end user, because they don't provide
ANY means of contact that I can tell -- they only provide some "Google Groups"
that are dedicated to certain categories of troubles with their services, but
from what I can tell, they just let the people in those groups/forums babble at
each other and make wild guesses about various problems and they never chime in
or actually help anyone themselves. Maybe they've done interesting things with
their interfaces and usability and so forth, but their customer service
approach ("we don't have any") makes the likes of hotmail seem pleasant to deal
with.
Anyway, I'll take your cue and try to stay upbeat about it! :-) Thanks again!
> Aol: http://postmaster.aol.com/
> Start there, you need to get into their feedback loop, this will alert you
> any
> time someone reports your emails as spam. They make it hard by only giving a
> message id, which I find can be tough to track down on a BCC/CC delivery with
> a
> lot of aol.com addresses in it.
>
> Apply for their whitelist, follow the feedback loop reports, and act on them,
> and you will be fine. Email their support system. While it will take 10-20
> frustrating emails, that had they just read the first email in full, you will
> get unblocked.
>
> * Different providers like different things, some like DKIM, others SPF, and
> others something more proprietary, you just have to work with them, and you
> can
> get in their good graces.
>
> yahoo and hotmail
> http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/postmaster/
> http://postmaster.msn.com/
>
> Their general policy is to send to the spam folder, and ask questions later.
> If
> they do not do that, and you have a new IP they have never seen, they may
> accept
> the message, not deliver it, and not notify anyone about it. It is all about
> IP
> history, if you have none, you are considered a bad guy.
>
> With both providers, you will need to email their support system. You will
> fill
> out a form, asking for attention. They will reply, asking you to fill out
> the
> same form again. They will reply, asking for clarification that you already
> provided in forms 1 and 2. Those will then be replied to asking for
> specifics
> that you answered in form 3. This will go on for a while.
>
> I generally see it takes 15 emails back and forth to get resolution. At some
> point, you will get a survey, to rate their performance on the issue. This
> is
> when you know they have unblocked you. By filling out the survey, at least
> with
> yahoo, that closes the ticket, so unless you have tested you are done, do not
> fill the survey out until you are sure you are deliverable.
>
> They may get you to a real human, who asks you to do telnet tests, and other
> things they should be doing on their end by looking at their logs. Just go
> through the motions, be polite, or they will drop the email communication and
> ignore. The email address of ticket-id-x...@silly-big-provider.example.com
> will
> expire and you get to start it all over.
>
> Many of the questions will ask how you manage your mailing lists, which most
> of
> the time for me, are not applicable. Others ask questions about a setup that
> would not be applicable to an outbound only smtp host for "formmail" type
> things. You sort of just have to logically fill in the blanks.
>
> The up front forms you are filling out are just a process to get you to a
> real
> human who will look into your issues.
>
> Be diligent, I have never walked away with emails that could not hit an inbox.
>
> I have not ran into this issue with google, though with a close personal
> friend
> in their gmail department, I would cheat on that issue. If you do not have
> that
> ability, I do not know how to deal with google, they seem rather vague about
> their systems.
>
> During all this, you will be curious to know why the blocks are happening,
> and
> how they determine them. Do not waste your time asking, they consider it
> proprietary, and part of their anti-spam strengths.
>
> Hope that helps. It is a pain, but it can be done.
> --Scott * If you contact me off list replace talklists@ with scott@ *
