Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Discussion regarding the Standard version.
Post Reply
carrzkiss
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 5:47 pm

Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by carrzkiss »

Hello All;

Years ago, I did not have this issue with my mail showing up in the SPAM folders of Hotmail, however. For my understanding of dealing with this 2 years ago, was that Hotmail had changed the way they receive mail.

So, question today is:
How to get your mail to NOT go into the spam folder for these big mail providers.

I have my SPF, I have all the DNS entries correct.
My IP Address is correct for the domain that is sending mail.

And I found this inside of the Header Info.
Received-SPF: Pass
Received: from ([192.168.2.2]) by MYDOMAIN.com with MailEnable WebMail; Thu, 5 Jan 2017 11:07:53 -0500
Why would it show that IP Address for?
And where is this IP Address coming from? As it is NOT assigned to my NIC.

MailEnable-Ian
Site Admin
Posts: 9738
Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 4:44 am
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by MailEnable-Ian »

Regards,

Ian Margarone
MailEnable Support

carrzkiss
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 5:47 pm

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by carrzkiss »

Thanks, Ian.
I created a DKIM and authenticated it on my server, and followed the steps to set it up with MailEnable for the Domain.
I will wait a few hours or maybe tomorrow, and send a message out and see what I get.

carrzkiss
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 5:47 pm

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by carrzkiss »

So, I got everything to pass.
Learned a lot about different records that needs to be added to the Mail Server and the DNS.

This is the results from the header from LIVE.com

Authentication-Results: spf=pass (sender IP is MY_IP_HERE)
smtp.mailfrom=MY_DOMAIN_HERE; hotmail.com; dkim=pass (signature was verified)
header.d=MY_DOMAIN_HERE;hotmail.com; dmarc=pass action=none
header.from=MY_DOMAIN_HERE;

I opened a request with Microsoft to have them look into the SPAM Folder issue.
Hope to hear back from them before I am 90.

carrzkiss
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 5:47 pm

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by carrzkiss »

I did an email score check here
https://www.mail-tester.com/web-38vvs 10/10 Score.
(Had to correct some issue, and now my IP Address has the perfect score, according to the Mail tester site)
And my email is still ending up in the SPAM folders of all major email servers.

Any others idea's on getting this issue resolved?
I remember when I was running my mail server several years ago, I did not have this issue.
And now, it seems that the major servers have changed the way they look at mail.

myourchisin
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:47 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by myourchisin »

Is it safe to assume in ME Standard 9.62 This:

"How to enable DKIM for the server

Navigate to the following location within the administration console: Servers > Localhost > Extensions
Right click on Domain Keys (DKIM) and select properties.
Tick the option for Enable DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) functionality on this server"

No longer applies and Activation / Configuration is simply handled through each domain in the corresponding Post Office?
I only ask because I don't seem to have anything but "Message Filter" within the Extensions tree.

carrzkiss
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 5:47 pm

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by carrzkiss »

So, my assumption is that you did not fully read what I wrote.
I have a score of 10/10
With NOT having the DKIM, the score was a 7/10
Adding the DKIM within Mail Enable, put the score up to 9/10
Then I took care of a SPAM issue that had been attached to my IP Address since before I got it.
And that put me to a 10/10

All the above was done about 3 weeks ago.

Now.
Once again.
Why am I still getting into the SPAM folders, if everything is setup correctly?
That is the question.

myourchisin
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:47 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by myourchisin »

Well ...

I have to assume you're replying to me, as I'm the only one to reply after your last 3 messages...
It's my assumption you did not Understand what I wrote.

I was simply asking a question about turning on DKIM for my server, as I have no setting for such under the extensions tree.
Simply put I wasn't really asking you, I was asking Ian.

Please pour some sugar on your Captain Rude Flakes tomorrow morning.

carrzkiss
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 5:47 pm

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by carrzkiss »

@myourchisin
>> Captain Rude Flakes

OK, you asked a question in my thread, targetted towards Ian
Of which, you should have placed a @Ian or some other reference to him.
So that both Ian and myself would have known that you were asking HIM a question and not me.
In a thread that was for something else.

So, to answer your question.
  • MailEnable Management |
    >> Messaging Manager |
    >>>> [DomainName] |
    >>>>>> Domains |
    >>>>>>>> [DomainName]<== 2nd level
Right click on the 2nd level [DomainName]
Choose [Proerties]
3rd tab is DKIM
Click on the [Configure] button.

After you create the KEY.
Make sure you check [x] Make this the active selector
Then press [Update]

You should be good to go then.

Good luck.

myourchisin
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:47 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by myourchisin »

carrzkiss wrote:@myourchisin
>> Captain Rude Flakes

OK, you asked a question in my thread, targetted towards Ian
Of which, you should have placed a @Ian or some other reference to him.
So that both Ian and myself would have known that you were asking HIM a question and not me.
In a thread that was for something else.

So, to answer your question.
  • MailEnable Management |
    >> Messaging Manager |
    >>>> [DomainName] |
    >>>>>> Domains |
    >>>>>>>> [DomainName]<== 2nd level
Right click on the 2nd level [DomainName]
Choose [Proerties]
3rd tab is DKIM
Click on the [Configure] button.

After you create the KEY.
Make sure you check [x] Make this the active selector
Then press [Update]

You should be good to go then.

Good luck.
Yes, I understand the ability to configure at the Post Office level. However the instructions for activating DKIM signatures at the server level within the Extensions under the Localhost Tree is simply wrong, as "Domain Keys" option is simply not there.

Activating the Domain specific DKIM signature within your Post Office may or may not do anything at all if the server is not set to use such policy. It quite possibly might make things worse, if the server needs to activate a policy to handle DKIM signatures first.
Quite possibly the reason you've experienced the results you did after activating the post office DKIM signature policy.

I was simply asking for confirmation of this, and I used your thread because it may correlate directly with the issues you have experienced before and after the configuration of the settings you are using.

Just to clarify, there is no second level domain as you referenced.
Path is as follows:
  • MailEnable Management
    >>>>>>>>>>>Messaging Manager
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Postoffices
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>[NameOfYourPostffice]
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>[Domains]
Questionable referencing documentation from the ME material is why we are here in the first place, and I only draw attention to this becasue there are some out there that may not set their Post Office name to match the Domain it represents

I'm sorry if you feel like I stole your private discussion, however this is an open forum, where ideas of relative information are shared among a community of users for the end result of sharing knowledge, and experience. You're post was relative to my questioning, and the most recent on the list. I don't believe I hijacked anything, and ME offers 1 on 1 support for purchase individually, or bundled with their paid versions of Mail Enable Pro/Enterprise/Etc..

Thanks for your reply, and hopefully my quote of your reply will better help you see to whom I speak.

carrzkiss
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 5:47 pm

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by carrzkiss »

It seems that it is only available through the post office now.

Have you tested your DKIM to see if the one you have set for your post office is working?

myourchisin
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:47 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by myourchisin »

carrzkiss wrote:It seems that it is only available through the post office now.

Have you tested your DKIM to see if the one you have set for your post office is working?
Unfortunately this is on a production server, which temporarily is housing a client domain while we migrate their hosting service, (Previous host, became volatile, and we had to migrate them as fast as possible away from that provider, but client wasn't decided who they wanted to subscribe with as a replacement), so we can't implement without a proven solution that won't interrupt daily mail flow.

I may setup a new VPS test bed, just need to find the time in my super short 24-hour day.

carrzkiss
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 5:47 pm

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by carrzkiss »

There was no down time in creating the record in the domain.
See, each domain has to have their own DKIM.
Then you have to take that DKIM and enter it into the DNS for that Domain as well.

It is quick and painless.
Took me all of about 2 minutes to do everything.

Go here and test it once you have it setup and in the DNS.
(Change the domain to yours, and it will bring up the dkim tool)
You should have two dkim keys in the DNS per domain.
v=DKIM1; p= (LONG NUMBER HERE)
k=rsa; p= (SHORT NUMBER HERE)
https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?ac ... domain.com#

This is for your DMARC record.
https://dmarcian.com/dmarc-inspector/
(Click on the [Show Wizard] to create a record for your domain)
Also check for your SPF record as well. (Sometimes you have to double test it, as it might not find it the first go around)
https://dmarcian.com/spf-survey/

After you have everything up and running, and all the above test have succeeded.
Then go here: https://www.mail-tester.com/
You are allowed (3) test per 24 hours.
(How it works:
Copy the email address on the page in the box.
Send an email, and then click on the [Then check your score]
This will give you additional area's to check and fix.
Mine is a score of 100. Took a few editing to get it right.)

Good Luck
Wayne

myourchisin
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2014 2:47 am
Location: Ohio, USA

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by myourchisin »

carrzkiss wrote:There was no down time in creating the record in the domain.
See, each domain has to have their own DKIM.
Then you have to take that DKIM and enter it into the DNS for that Domain as well.

It is quick and painless.
Took me all of about 2 minutes to do everything.

Go here and test it once you have it setup and in the DNS.
(Change the domain to yours, and it will bring up the dkim tool)
You should have two dkim keys in the DNS per domain.
v=DKIM1; p= (LONG NUMBER HERE)
k=rsa; p= (SHORT NUMBER HERE)
https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?ac ... domain.com#

This is for your DMARC record.
https://dmarcian.com/dmarc-inspector/
(Click on the [Show Wizard] to create a record for your domain)
Also check for your SPF record as well. (Sometimes you have to double test it, as it might not find it the first go around)
https://dmarcian.com/spf-survey/

After you have everything up and running, and all the above test have succeeded.
Then go here: https://www.mail-tester.com/
You are allowed (3) test per 24 hours.
(How it works:
Copy the email address on the page in the box.
Send an email, and then click on the [Then check your score]
This will give you additional area's to check and fix.
Mine is a score of 100. Took a few editing to get it right.)

Good Luck
Wayne
It's not the down time to configure / setup. It's the risk of the client getting non deliverable E-mail in the course of the changes.
Thank you for the setup notes however, I will reference them in the future once we've migrated the client to their new host.

By The Way,
In the course of this conversation, I failed to ask. Regarding your E-mail still ending up in your receiver's Junk/SPAM folder, have you checked your server's IP reputation via MXToolBox.com, DNSStuff.com, or SenderBase.com?
Also could it be the receiving client's configuration labeling your mail as SPAM, (if they are using Outlook)?

carrzkiss
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 5:47 pm

Re: Sending to Hotmail and other providers shows up in their spam Folder

Post by carrzkiss »

IP Reputation
That is why I posted this: https://www.mail-tester.com/
It will test everything and let you know what is going on with your IP and Email.
And I have tested my IP Address, to make sure it is not blocked.

right now, there is no one on my server, it is used for our websites for sending out email notifications
For new post and threads that are created. (Just like what this forum does)
And yes, they are still going in the junk mail.
And the only client that I am currently using for sending direct emails, is the webmail interface of MailEnable.
I just tested both Yahoo and Hotmail, and they are both putting it in Junk/Spam.

SenderBase.com = Good, slowly getting a higher ranking with them.
mxtoolbox.com = All looks good on that one.
DNSStuff.com = Well, they keep on going down.
openresolver.com = Shows that I am good, and not open for attacks.

-----------
Adding the record in MailEnable, will not cause any downtime for mail.
Adding the record to DNS, will not cause any downtime with mail either. (This is from my experience)

Post Reply