validation emails and configuration

[alise]

Hi,

I don't know where to start, but will try to describe the situation!

I have a dedicated server and a site which sends out the verification email when user registers. The saddest part is that the email goes right into the spam folder for Gmail and Yahoo and doesn't arrive to Hotmail accounts at all (it's simply ignored without reporting any errors)!

So, first I was thinking that there's something wrong with my PHP code, tried different approaches with header information, different classes - it's all the same! Added reverse DNS, and SPF records for my domain as well, checked with dnsstuff.com - no red flagged things are reported there!

When I gave up on trying different things with PHP scripts I decided to try emailing from Mozilla Thunderbird... from the same my domain's email address! Tried that in two ways - one time with the outgoing server specified - mail.mydomain.com and the other time with different outgoing server which is no way related to my domain but still works. The trickiest par tis that by sending the same message in first case it landed right to the spam folder, the second case - it went as it should - right to the Inbox folder! So basically - by sending identical content from the same email address using different outgoint mail servers - I got different results!

As soon as I remove http:// link from message body - everything works fine using mail.mydomain.com outgoing server as well, messages are delivered to inbox folder (except that hotmail is still totally ignoring my sent mails)!

Did the tests with the horde mail from webmail.mydomain.com, the same story - emails with links inside the message text go right to the spam folder!

Has anybody ran into the same situation and found a solution for this? I suspect that there could be something that needs to be tuned on DNS level?.. I've really ran out of ideas... so expert's input would be a great help!

Thanks

[StupidScript]

Welcome, alise!

1) Would you please post the text of your confirmation email?
2) How are you determining that the messages are going into Junk or nowhere in Hotmail? Are you sending them to yourself or are more people involved?

[alise]

Hello,

I've created gmail, hotmail and yahoo accounts to test, and simply can see whether the sent mail arrives at all and if yes, then in which folder does it land!

below is the validation mail's text!


Welcome to Mydomain.com!

Please keep this email for your records. Your account information is as follows:
----------------------------
Username: un
Password: pw
----------------------------

Your account is currently inactive. You cannot use it until you visit the following link:

http://mydomain.com/register.htm?prm...11227de4ff1d90

Please do not forget your password as it has been encrypted in our database and we cannot retrieve it for you. However, should you forget your password you can request a new one which will be activated in the same way as this account.

Thank you for registering.

All the best,
MyDomain

[Taltos]

I have a question for you. I assume you are sending these as plain text and not as html or multi-part mime? All the freebie mail accounts are tough to get past spam filters. Yahoo has gotten kind of sloppy lately from what I have read recently but I know I had similar problems. Most of mine came down to digging through the things that the spam filters were looking for and getting rid of those or changing them. Your message seems very simple and straight forward. I don't see anything that should set off the spam filters.

The really strange part is that you kill the url and it works fine. You domain is not listed on any spam databases? Have you sent lots of mass emails from your domain? Strange stuff. I'll be curious to see where this goes.

[Arenlor]

Could you please tell us your domain, I'm sure we'll all do some digging to see if you're on any blacklists at all.

[exam]

Do you have a dedicated IP address?

What are all the headers you're sending with the email?