[Hidden-tech] Ongoing problems with email being tagged as spam

[Town Websites]

Hi Bruce - double check on what Rich mentioned, is the mail that is bouncing
coming from a Constant Contact IP, or from the IP of your service provider's
email?  Constant Contact , as Rich mentioned, usually will not get you
blacklisted as long as your own content is reasonable.  I think you're
describing what can happen on shared hosts but that's worth clarifying.

 

Google apps lets you use your own domain - so it would still be
@yournonprofit.org .  It isn't as sure a thing now with just ten free email
addresses, instead of the 50 free accounts as it was up until last spring,
but if you can get by with just ten email accounts it's free and it can
solve some of the headaches associated with low cost hosted email.  It might
be worth it even if you need to pay the $5 / account per month fee.

 

You can probably also get this blacklist cleared up or get your host to move
you to a different server if you submit help tickets to your service
provider and are on good terms with them (that depends on the host and I
don't know Arvixe from 1000 other low cost hosts).  But you'll still always
have a higher probability of getting blacklisted in the future if you're
using a shared hosted email , and if that is a problem for your clients then
you should either research to find out which shared hosts have the most
reliable email delivery , or consider alternatives such as google apps.

 

Best,


Charlie

 

 

 

 

From: Bruce Hooke [mailto:bghooke at att.net] 
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 11:25 PM
To: 'Charlie Heath'
Cc: hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
Subject: RE: [Hidden-tech] Ongoing problems with email being tagged as spam

 

Thanks Charlie. What you said certainly makes sense to me. 

 

I talked to this customer the last time this happened about switching to
using Google apps mail but from what I was seeing their email would no
longer show as coming from @yournonprofit.org and they did not like that. 

 

I did just confirm that SPF records have been enabled for this website so
that part was and is in place, but thank you for bringing that up.

 

It is sounding like the only "complete" solution that will allow them to
keep using their @yournonprofit.org is to move them to a dedicated server,
but that is not cheap.

 

Thanks again,

Bruce

 

  _____  

From: Charlie Heath [mailto:townwebsites at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 2:39 PM
To: Bruce Hooke
Cc: hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] Ongoing problems with email being tagged as spam

Your service provider would probably have contacted you, or perhaps simply
just shut down your email, if they determined the blacklist was originating
from your account or caused by @yournonprofit.org email,

 

I've switched all my clients shared hosting email to google apps email, in
large part due to this specific issue - shared hosting email can get
blacklisted because of something beyond your control, and it is maily luck
of the draw (though some hosts do better than others).  If the non-profit
has ten or less active email accounts, Google apps email is free.  It isn't
perfect but it is pretty good.

 

You might be able to solve the problem with a private IP (though many of the
resources you;ll find online say that won't help).  You can also report the
problem to the service provider, tell them you don't think it is caused by
anything on your account (just in case, and it is a good policy to do this
in any case to protect your own reputation and give the service provider the
best information available for them to try to get the email unlisted).

 

You should set up SPF records in any case, as they will help both to
identify your email as valid and to identify spoofs as not valid.

 

Good luck!

 

Charlie Heath, Town Websites (who is glad simply to have email today!)

On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 12:54 PM, Bruce Hooke <bghooke at att.net> wrote:

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Hello, 

I maintain the website for a non-profit watershed group and they have been
having repeated problems with their email getting tagged as spam by systems
such as Barracuda. This causes a lot of headaches for both them and me. The
site is hosted on Arvixe, a major hosting company with the usual server farm
with lots of websites on it. However, while I have multiple websites hosted
with Arivxe this one is the only one that regular seems to run into this
problem. Meanwhile, when I check Barracuda it appears that the IP address
(which presumably covers multiple websites) is what is getting blocked, not
the domain name. So, I am trying to sort out:

1. Does this issue originate with something the non-profit in question is
doing (they do use Constant Contact but so do other groups I work with) or
is this a problem with the server the site is hosted on.

2. If it is something they are doing, how do we figure out what? 

2. If it is a problem with the server, what do we need to do to stop this
from happening: 

        a. Would getting our own IP address help? 
        b. Or would paying for our own server help? 
        c. Or do we need to go with a more local, hands-on host. When I
priced this out I was getting prices that were on the order of 15 or more
times higher than what we are paying now, which for a small non-profit is a
real budget issue. 

I already tried moving them to a new hosting company (previously they were
with another big hosting company) and that did not fix the problem.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated. 

I can work with Arvixe to get the immediate issue fixed but I don't really
trust them when it comes to being up-front about the origins of the problem
since they do not seem to be likely to say "yes, it is a problem with other
websites on our server" or something similar.

Thanks! 
Bruce Hooke 


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