My Plusnet emails are being sent to receivers' Junk folder automatically

[#1]

Don't know how long this may have been going on for, but I just found out that emails I send from my Plusnet email address (as well as my own email domain that they host) are automatically sent to Junk folder before reaching their Inbox or their own spam filter settings. I wonder if the SPF settings for my email addresses are a problem? I think this could only be fixed at Plusnet's side - I have already tried changing my outgoing server setting (in Thunderbird) from relay.plus.net to relay.force9.net with no impact - mails still go straight to recipient's Junk folder.

[#2]

Usually mail systems annotate emails with headers to indicate why a mail is considered junk - do you have the full headers of one of the emails from the junk folder? That may show what triggers the filter to treat the mail as junk.

[#3]

Thanks for your quick response.

I'm not sure how to read all the header information, but it looks as though the Microsoft server may be categorising my emails as junk because there is no SPF information from the domain:

Authentication-Results: spf=none (sender IP is 212.159.14.18)
smtp.mailfrom=microp.plus.com; dkim=pass (signature was verified)
header.d=plus.com;dmarc=bestguesspass action=none
header.from=microp.plus.com;compauth=pass reason=109
Received-SPF: None (protection.outlook.com: microp.plus.com does not designate
permitted sender hosts)

Above is from a message sent from my default plusnet email. I get a similar (but not identical) message when I use my own domain (hosted by Plusnet).

Authentication-Results: spf=none (sender IP is 212.159.14.20)
smtp.mailfrom=mcpaterson.co.uk; dkim=none (message not signed)
header.d=none;dmarc=none action=none header.from=mcpaterson.co.uk;
Received-SPF: None (protection.outlook.com: mcpaterson.co.uk does not
designate permitted sender hosts)

In both cases the emails end up in the Junk folder of my recipient.

As far as I know, both email addresses  have been working fine for years. Is there some way to ensure that my domains designate permitted sender hosts, as expected?

Thanks for any help!

[#4]

@mikescar  Wrote : "automatically sent to Junk folder before reaching their Inbox"

Which Junk Folder ?  If it's the recipients's then your systems are working.

[#5]

All my emails end up in my recipient's junk folder - it looks as though they are identified as junk because no SPF, DKIM or DMARC records are available from my domain (e.g. plus.com)

[#6]

You may be looking too deeply at the problem, I would suspect the email client at the other end...

Can you get the receiver to check the filters ?

[#7]

@mikescar 

That is my current understanding. It is extremely frustrating and very disappointing that domains get moved to servers without the correct credentials where the user has no control over the outcome. I'm really hoping someone at PN is working to resolve this quickly.  Perhaps a mass exodus is what PN want.

[#8]

@mikescar DKIM is present on your native <account>.plus.com domain as shown in your first post

Authentication-Results: spf=none (sender IP is 212.159.14.18)
smtp.mailfrom=microp.plus.com; dkim=pass (signature was verified)

Yes, SPF isnt available for the native domain, neither SPF or DKIM are supported on hosted domains (although there is an unsupported method to get an SPF record)

[#9]

In my experience if there is a problem with the email systems’ setup then the sender receives an undeliverable message and the recipient receives nothing. 

[#10]

Hi MrW

As you say, my native account has a DKIM record - but it still ends up in my recipient's junk mail folder so, on the face of it, there's little point in abandoning my own domain...

Is it possible for me to just create an SPF record (for either, or both, domains), and would this alone be sufficient to get past Microsoft's spam filters? Otherwise, I'm not sure  how to proceed to get a working email once more.

Thanks

[#11]

I've checked the filters at the (Hotmail) recipient's end. The emails go to spam BEFORE  hitting his filters - so marking individual emails as not-spam in his account has no effect on future emails received. There is no way to modify or turn off the server's spam settings...

[#12]

Hi NickiQ

"I'm really hoping someone at PN is working to resolve this quickly.  Perhaps a mass exodus is what PN want."

That does seem to be the issue. I'd be really sorry to leave Plusnet as they've provided me with a great service over the past 7 years, but between this, and their unwillingness to provide a "landline" VOIP phone service, I may have to reconsider when my contract's up...

Maybe their tech teams are already working on this!

[#13 · Accepted solution]

@mikescar 

As advised by @MisterW when sending from you@youraccounnt.plu.com DKIM is facilitated though there are other considerations too.

The fact that you said you switched to relay.forece9.net suggests that you are connecting without authentication ... that can raise the spam suspect index.

What gets treated as spam is very much dependant on the receiver's email service: users can adjust the aggressiveness of the receiving services spam profiling, up to and including treating all email for a sender as spam.

As for your hosted domain, is that hosted by Plusnet. or elsewhere with forwarding to Plusnet?  Take a look at this...

Mitigating email delivery failures (notably Gmail)

Many users are reporting challenging issues in sending emails to some of the big email players. Some of those providers (notably Gmail, but only in respect of their free email accounts) have mandated the SPF & DKIM non-mandatory RFCs on other email providers, such as Plusnet. This can bring about significant difficulty when attempting to send emails using the various Plusnet and vISP legacy email services.

How you mitigate Google's behaviour very much depends on how you send your emails via Plusnet's SMTP servers and which Plusnet vISP email brands you use.

• A Plusnet email account or a legacy brand (for example MAAF) email account
• you@youraccount.plus.com (native Plusnet email address)
• you@yourdomain.co.uk which is registered and hosted by Plusnet (or MAAF)
• you@yourdomain.co.uk which is registered elsewhere and hosted by Plusnet
• you@yourdomain.co.uk which is hosted elsewhere which forwards  mail to your Plusnet (or MAAF) mailbox

The vISP email brands have different level of mitigation capability - for some, the only practical solution might be to migrate your email hosting elsewhere.

Native Plusnet email address

If a user sends email using a from address of you@youraccount.plus.com then DKIM signing will be applied to the email automatically (and pass Gmail's imposed restrictions) if the SMTP server is configured to require authentication. Somewhat unhelpfully, Plusnet's email setup guide suggests that such authentication is NOT required if connecting over a Plusnet connection. Whilst technically true, operational complications can occur and it is much tidier to just enable authentication with the "use the same account settings as the incoming server" option.

Your own domain

If you send from your own domain name, then DKIM signing is not available and you will need to configure SPF instead. How to do this depends on where your domain is hosted - by Plusnet or by third party.

Plusnet fully hosted and registered domain

For Plusnet brand registered and managed domains, SPF configuration is facilitated by the addition of a TXT record in the domain's DNS settings. Plusnet's DNS configuration tool for hosted domains does not permit the creation of TXT records. However, there is an unsupported "facilitation" which will create an SPF record for a hosted domain.

On the basis that your account ALREADY has a hosted domain:

• Log into the user portal
• Go to Manage Account
• Manage Your Domains (Manage your domains link)
• Configure domain name
• Create an "Additional DNS records (Advanced)" as follows...

For the avoidance of doubt leave the left side blank, exactly as shown. It might take Plusnet's systems up to 6 hours to generate the SPF record.

If your email service is provided by one of the legacy vISP brands (for example MAAF) acquired over the years by Plusnet, similar options are not available to you.

Domain name registered and managed elsewhere (third party)

There are two scenarios here:

1. Plusnet hosts the email service for the domain
2. The domain forwards email to the native Plusnet email address

THESE ARE NOT THE SAME.  Ideally email forwarding should be avoided as it brings about numerous complications - you should use the DOMAIN's email servers to received and send your domain email, not Plusnet's.

To configure SPF on a domain name registered elsewhere, you must use your domain name provider's DNS configuration tools to set up the applicable SPF record:

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

or

v=spf1 include:_spf-internal.madasafish.com include:_spf-internal2.madasafish.com include:_spf-external.madasafish.com -all

[#14]

Hi Townman,

(Sorry for the delay replying - I've been enjoying the sunshine today!)

I've requested "please-update-spf-records" as you suggested. Now I'm just waiting to see if it works...

[#15]

Hope you used please-add-spf-records