Outgoing mail gets received as Junk by other end?

[sparky]

Hi,

this is an interesting problem but one I've never fully understood.

I have my Zimbra server setup on a business ADSL line with static IP, domain name, DNS A and MX records all pointing to my static IP.

Works perfectly mail gets send and mail gets received!

The only thing is that some company accounts and even the usual bunch of webmail accounts (Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail etc.) all seem to put email from me into Junk or Spam first.

Why is this the case??

I have tested it with 3 of my webmail accounts and each and every time mail gets send to one of the Junk/Spam folders and in the beginning when I sent mail to outsiders I had to let them know before hand from another account that I was sending mail.

Is there something I am missing when constructing a mail server or its infrastructure??

I thought as long as one had forward and reverse DNS they would be ok no??

Any advice would be great - many thanks!

[xeon]

Are they being blocked as spam according to the message headers? Or is Outlook Junk filters (for example) putting them in Junk/Spam folder?

[y@w]

Could be quite a few things..

I'd start out with running your IP through a tool like mxtoolbox.com to see if it's on a blacklist.

Then, you'll want to make sure that your reverse DNS on your IPs point to your hostname and make sure that the spf records are good.

Also, stop emailing about ******

EDIT: That's no fun.. changed my medicine to *'s...

[sparky]

Many thanks for the responses!!

First up I'm no spammer!

Secondly I use mail to communicate with people which is what mail is supposed to be therefor. Sorry for stating it like this as it makes me sound like an ass but the case!

Just checked out this: mxtoolbox.com

Reverse DNS fine, MX records fine - have been onto my domain name hosting service support for enough in order to get it working. Sorry but GUI DNS utilities just do not cut it Bind is still the very best for me....

In checking out the site reverse DNS gave me this: 81-178-2-118.dsl.pipex.com

That's fine and me but it seems that is my ISP's rDNS not mine!! I don't even know if my hosting company has PTR records? If not I guess I will just have to forward to my own DNS servers.

I am on a few blacklists though which is weird but the rDNS might be why! I will check if I can put PTR records onto my domain control panel if not I will redirect DNS output to my own servers. Too bad they're only 360MHz over 10 years old Sun boxes. LOL

Not sure what you meant about

Also, stop emailing about ******

though!

Anyway, any other suggestions would be good.

[Edit]
I am not sure if this helps any but my mail system description might be a bit better:

Basically I have a mail distribution node before any mail gets to any of my servers it sends mail to a Sun server running Solaris 9 and Postfix SMTP mail software. This then checks the internal DNS records and relays mail according to my networks internal DNS records. The Zimbra server which is my main mail node sends SMTP mail by itself without being relayed before it gets to the destination. Unfortunately I had to do things this way as I have only one WAN IP address and many servers inside doing multiple things so in order to compensate for the NAT, well....

[y@w]

Originally Posted by sparky

Many thanks for the responses!!

Not sure what you meant about though!

Haha j/k'n


I'm guessing that it's a combination of the blacklist listings and your rDNS. You very well could have just been given dirty IP addresses by your ISP. For the rDNS issue, one would expect that the rDNS on your IP comes from the ISPs DNS servers. You'll have to work with them to either get them to update it or point it at your DNS servers.

You'll want to check the headers of the messages on the receiving end to see which is causing more grief for you in the filters.

[sparky]

Many thanks for the response and it was quick too - I like quick responses!

I guess I will need to patch in a call to my ISP but in the mean time under SMTP diagnostics from the website you gave I got this:

HELO please-read-policy.mxtoolbox.com
250 NetraT1-DNS2.optiplex-networks.c [141 ms]
MAIL FROM: <test@mxtoolbox.com>
250 2.1.0 [219 ms]
RCPT TO: <test@mxtoolbox.com>
554 5.7.1 <test@mxtoolbox.com>: Relay access deni [234 ms]
QUIT
221 2.0.0 B [141 ms]

That's a good sign yes? Saying that my SMTP relay agent is not an open relay meaning that it only relays information for my domain! ...theoretically speaking anyway!

The GEO code was not available either for my IP address and I'm guessing it's either my ISP or the fact that I'm behind a reverse HTTP proxy??

Uh budget network solutions SUCK! big time.