Mail bouncing to gmail

[#1]

The Ecohosting service only offers 1 mailbox with 2GB.  Their 5GB package permits up to 10 mailboxes, so not overly similar to Plusnet, if you have used the unlimited characteristics of the Plusnet service.

The Mythic Beasts service seems closer to Plusnet's in that the only limit is storage capacity - the number of mailboxes and addresses is unlimited.

Email

• Unlimited POP3/IMAP mailboxes
• Unlimited email autoresponders
• Access to mail through our webmail interface
• Unlimited redirection of email @yourdomain.co.uk
• Web based control over DNS entries for your domain

If you require more storage than the email-only hosting account provides, please order a web hosting account. Unfortunately we cannot provide a discount for not using the web hosting facilities, as the bulk of the cost comes from providing the storage.

Also of notable interest is the configurable "catch-all" provided by Mythic beasts - PER MAILBOX

Dynamic addresses

It is also possible to create "wildcard" addresses that will accept mail to any address that starts with a specified prefix. To do this, create an address for prefix-default.

For example, to accept mail for any address of the form alice-anything@wonderland.com, create an address called alice-default@wonderland.com.

This can be very handy if you need to give your email address to a site that you don't trust, as you can give an email address that is specific to that site. If you then start receiving spam to that address, you can then explicitly create that address and choose to discard all such email, or save it to a different folder. You will also know which site leaked your address to spammers.

Which is exactly what I have been doing for years with Plusnet - but that only works with the default mailbox.

Mythic Beast works out at £20.04pa for 2GB or £30pa for 5GB - given the rich functionality, that seems like a bargain!!  @MisterW should be running a referrals programme!

[#2]

The Mythic Beasts service seems closer to Plusnet's in that the only limit is storage capacity - the number of mailboxes and addresses is unlimited

that's about right. They also allow multiple domains to be hosted on one account. Their configuration interface is not the standard CPanel but has all the functionality.

Shame they don't have a referral program😀

Their support is pretty good, it's by email. Had cause to use it yesterday when enabling DKIM on one of my domains. Emailed at 17:00 , got reply at 17:25 which resolved the query!

[#3]

A week ago, I asked: " Any idea how long it takes the plusnet folk to implement this and for it to take effect?".

I hadn't had any gmail problems since I posted that question. I'd assumed that the DNS record had been added ... until today; suddenly I can't send to any gmail addresses again, for the usual DKIM and SPF reasons.

Hmm. Is this the end of the road?

[#4]

A week ago, I asked: " Any idea how long it takes the plusnet folk to implement this and for it to take effect?".

Its done by a script which (AFAIK) runs about every 6 hours. So it should have been within that time frame.

Have you checked your domains DNS to see if its been added ? If you dont have 'dig' then use https://mxtoolbox.com/Public/Content/Toolhandler.aspx?command=mx

NB you wont see the record from the PlusNet DNS control panel

[#5]

This - Network Tools: DNS,IP,Email (mxtoolbox.com) - is a bit more direct.  Same service, points directly at the SPF query, using the SuperTools.  Delivers a result like this...

v=spf1 a mx include:_spf-internal.plus.net include:_spf-internal2.plus.net ~all

Prefix	Type	Value	PrefixDesc	Description
	v	spf1		The SPF record version
+	a		Pass	Match if IP has a DNS 'A' record in given domain.
+	mx		Pass	Match if IP is one of the MX hosts for given domain name.
+	include	_spf-internal.plus.net	Pass	The specified domain is searched for an 'allow'.
+	include	_spf-internal2.plus.net	Pass	The specified domain is searched for an 'allow'.
~	all		SoftFail	Always matches. It goes at the end of your record.

	Test	Result
	SPF Record Published	SPF Record found
	SPF Record Deprecated	No deprecated records found
	SPF Multiple Records	Less than two records found
	SPF Contains characters after ALL	No items after 'ALL'.
	SPF Syntax Check	The record is valid
	SPF Included Lookups	Number of included lookups is OK
	SPF Type PTR Check	No type PTR found
	SPF Void Lookups	Number of void lookups is OK
	SPF MX Resource Records	Number of MX Resource Records is OK
	SPF Record Null Value	No Null DNS Lookups found

Reported by ns2.force9.net on 3/7/2023 at 9:38:51 AM (UTC -6)

[#6]

@Townman. Thank you. I tried mxtoolbox.com.  It says there's no SPF record found for my domain breslaw.co.uk.

Any idea what to do?

[#7]

@breslaw Your domain mx records resolve to mx.avasin.plus.net but the servers refuse to connect.  

I'm not an expert, but this suggests there is something wrong with the configuration of your domain.   

[#8]

@breslaw

Have you followed the advice in post #51 ?

[#9]

@Townman: " Have you followed the advice in post #51 ?"

Yes that's what I've been asking about this past couple of messages.

[#10]

@staffie2001uk: "but this suggests there is something wrong with the configuration of your domain. "

If you're right, is there anything I can do about it, apart from cry for help here?

[#11]

@breslaw just to double check, is your domain control panel showing the exact same as illustrated here?

[#12]

@Gandalf: is your domain control panel showing the exact same as illustrated here

Yes. I double checked by removing the record and adding it again. Here's a screenshot:-

[#13]

So as a test to try to replicate things, I added the same MX record for my Plusnet hosted domain last night and the system has created the SPF record as expected. I’ve just checked your domain and it looks like re-adding it has done the trick as you now have SPF? Really odd.

[#14]

Must be one of those “it’s the way the user pressed the keys” issues! :rol:

@breslaw (seriously) could there have been a trailing space?

[#15]

@Townman: (seriously) could there have been a trailing space?

(Not so seriously) there could have been a whole raft of nonprinting characters. But what kind of software doesn't strip off leading and trailing whitespace from user input fields?

(Seriously) if there is (unlikely) a trailing space, then because the system doesn't allow checking or editing of the current setting, I'll have to delete it, and re-enter yet again. This could perhaps make a human being (the kind that doesn't strip off trailing whitespace) think that I'm having a lark, and get me into trouble.