Using Native Plusnet Email

[#1]

Just run that test on my account, and that too reports 'no record' - but I have no issues sending or receiving.

[#2]

but if I send to my Gmail account using my Plusnet mailing account i don't receive the mail, so I can't check the headers!

I appreciate that.

I guess if you were to use this test you would have records?

Correct.

I'm going to do some more investigation with the other SU who's posted here and if necessary try and consult some PN experts to try and understand what's happening.

@jab1 

Just run that test on my account, and that too reports 'no record' - but I have no issues sending or receiving.

Thanks John, could you possibly send me a test email so I can inspect the headers. I think you've got my address ?

[#3]

@MisterW Just seen this - do you want this from my PN account or Gmail?

[#4]

@jab1 from your PN account please

[#5]

Done.

[#6]

@jab1 thanks John, that sort of confirms my thoughts,

there's as valid DKIM signature for the upper plus.com domain but no explicit DMARC record and no SPF.

DKIM should be sufficient for gmail and the default DMARC criteria ought to be applied.

As to why gmail accepts mail from you and not @BarryBoater  well I'm a bit stumped!. The lack of explicit DMARC , according to google's recent policy

If you send 5,000 messages a day or more into either of the world’s largest mailbox providers, starting February 2024, your email domain must have a DMARC policy in your DNS. These messages must pass DMARC Alignment or they will not be delivered. This includes messages sent on behalf of your organization by third-party email service providers (ESPs) like Constant Contact and MailChimp that use your email domain.

SHOULD only affect bulk senders ? @BarryBoater You don't send that volume do you ?

[#7]

I send between 5-8 daily to a Gmail account - never had any issues.

[#8]

It seems my mail to Gmail addresses sometimes get through, but certainly not all.

Why have some of our accounts got DMARC and SPF records and not all?

The solution would seem to be for Plusnet to set DMARC and SPF records for plus.com, then all users will be OK?

They have records for plus.net.

[#9]

seems my mail to Gmail addresses sometimes get through, but certainly not all.

that means the lack of DMARC/SPF isn't in itself causing the rejection but that it's increasing the spam score. Some messages then exceed the trigger and are rejected, others with reduced spam scores get through.

Why have some of our accounts got DMARC and SPF records and not all?

That I don't understand, I'm going to try to find out...

[#10]

@MisterW

I have some theories which I’ll discuss in response to your PM … when I get in to my laptop.

[#11 · Accepted solution]

Why have some of our accounts got DMARC and SPF records and not all?

@BarryBoater ok so I've established why that is. My apologies for the false 'steer' , I failed to recall that my account was used as a 'trial' sometime ago when the problems with gmail and SPF/DKIM were first encountered. It was hard coded with SPF & DMARC records as a trial but Implementaion of this across all accounts was superseded by the implementation of DKIM on the parent plus.com domain. As confirmed by @jab1 s findings, that should suffice for gmail authentication checks and is correlated to some extent in that some of your emails get through, which implies gmail are not applying a blanket reject, rather they are adjusting any spam scoring.

@Townman and myself are going to re-raise the issue in the light of what appears to be some changes in the gmail policy. However to set expectations, any changes that might arise are not going to be implemented quickly.

[#12]

@MisterW Thank you for taking the time to investigate my post and for your helpful response. I hope you can persuade the powers that be to take action. It is not only Gmail that have tough DMARC policies.

[#13]

Barry,

There is an important point being missed here - DMARC is not a mandatory standard. It is something which was concocted by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and another whose name escapes me.

If a DMARC record is present, it should only be acted upon if SPF and DKIM fail. If one or the other passes, there should be no consideration of DMARC present or not.

Given that all @account.plus.com domains have valid DKIM if the sending address and reply to address are the same, there is no need for consideration of DMARC.

This is yet another example of Google bully boy strategies.