Mail Delivery problem troubleshooting

Mail Delivery problem troubleshooting involves making sure that your mail can be sent to a third party and that the third party can send email to you. If Richweb hosts your internet domain name (DNS) and your email then Richweb is in charge of the policies that control how mail that is sent from third parties reaches your inbox (inbound email). Outbound email is more complicated as it may (often will) involve the service provider(s) that connect you to the internet.If you have your own mail server and dedicated internet connection then you must check that you have valid reverse dns (ip number to mail server domain name) in place. If you have a t1, dsl or cable connection through ACME ISP for example, then ACME ISP is the company you have to contact to establish this reverse mapping. Richweb can help you understand how to make the request and what to put in the request if you are unsure.

One you have reverse dns in place (give it several days to take effect) you can re-assess your mail delivery issues.

If you are still having problems sending mail to third parties this is often due to a policy error or configuration problem with the company that hosts the email for the third party in question. It is usually NOT an issue with Richweb or Richweb controlled systems at all, although if you operate your own Microsoft Exchange server for example, Richweb does need to ensure that your domain SPF records are setup correctly in our DNS. Contact noc@richweb.com or Jon Larsen jlarsen@richweb.com if you have SPF questions.

Many times a server (your mail server if you have one) or a third party mail server gets listed on a blacklist (i.e. a block mail from list) when problems occur.

A good web site to check for your server (or Richweb servers) presence on a blacklist:

http://www.mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

Put in 63.90.9.3 to check richweb's main mail server, and 63.90.9.6 to check richweb's smtp outbound relay for clients.

Put in vsmx3.richweb.com to check Richweb's MailFoundry spam filter appliance.

If you have found that your mail server IP address is on a blacklist contact Richweb for assistance in determining the problem. Getting off a blacklist can be difficult, and it is an administrative task not a technical task. Richweb can help you configure your systems so that the chances of a blacklisting are minimal using industry best practices for smtp and firewall configuration.

Options if your mail is still getting rejected:

A. Have Richweb suport stop by your office or remote into your computer and make sure you are sending thru our server and have not broken your mail config. Sometimes you will be advised by comcast or verizon tech support to change your mail settings so that they point to their mail servers. This is not an acceptable config if richweb hosts your domain. In fact it will break your email delivery entirely. Make sure you are using mail.richweb.com port 2525 with SMTP AUTH enabled on your mail client. Your SMTP AUTH login and password are the SAME as your webmail/pop3/imap login and password. Most email clients expect this, and you should never be prompted for an SMTP AUTH login and password if you check the box that says "same as my mail server" or similar setting.

B. Find someone on the other end of the email who wil complain to their
provider and ask them to dig into what is broken and why. We cannot usually complain about the (often broken) filters of other providers and mail servers. But customers of those providers can complain. Have the person that you are trying to send mail to complain and ask their IT support to resolve the problem and explain why the mail was blocked.

CC or BCC the request and a copy of the fix to noc@richweb.com so we can explain further or help the 3rd party IT support fix their problem(s).