Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : Website mail rejected from some isps

[dkeymel]

We have an issue with a dedicated site we are hosting where email from the website maybe rejected from specific ISPs. Typically this is a RDNS issue since the website sends mail directly from the website server itself. The company has an exchange server in their office for their own email. this server is where they receive and send regular email on the same domain as the website. I guess my question is how should the configuration look to get the RDNS issue resolved? We have tried to use the exchange server as a relay, but its providing more problems it seems and besides if the exchange server goes offline the website cannot send mail. Has anyone done this before?

[SimplyJay]

Are you sure it's an RDNS issue? We had the same problem and found out that our IP was blacklisted (before we ever received it).

[layer0]

Do you have rdns configured for both the web server and exchange server?

As SimplyJay mentioned you should also check whether the IPs are blacklisted. If they are, you might want to use a service like SendGrid or CritSend to relay your mail:

http://www.sendgrid.com/
http://www.critsend.com/

[dkeymel]

I do not believe its a black-list issue, its an issue where the website claims to be bagsunlimited.com but the MX for bagsunlimited.com's IP address is not the IP address of the website so they toss the mail out. The actual webserver does have RDNS setup.

[8088]

Hence, create an appropriate spf record. Still, I'd prefer to use a relay.

[dkeymel]

I have tried this also, and this is the one im using now, its probably wrong, since i dont have a good understanding of these yet:

"v=spf1 include:mail.customerdomain.com ip4:0.0.0.0 ~all"

0.0.0.0 is the ip of the web host server that makes the connections when its sending..

[8088]

Originally Posted by dkeymel

its probably wrong

That's easy to test. Check the headers on the receiving end or use a tool like this.

To get help with the syntax, check this.

[dkeymel]

Thanks for all your help, i have this working now, at least according to the tests, and hopefully, the email returns will stop!

[GCM]

Originally Posted by dkeymel

I have tried this also, and this is the one im using now, its probably wrong, since i dont have a good understanding of these yet:

"v=spf1 include:mail.customerdomain.com ip4:0.0.0.0 ~all"

0.0.0.0 is the ip of the web host server that makes the connections when its sending..

Do "-" instead of "~". "~" is a soft-fail/neutral while "-" is a hardfail.