Spamming

Do link requests count? Not here they dont!

[JudgeJeffries]

I use about a dozen different hosts and have never wanted to put my head above the parapet to enquire about their policies on requesting reciprocal links. Last week I received a very hard letter from one host saying they were getting tough on spammers and would wipe sites out once the 'spamming' had been 'confirmed' by them. i.e. no input from the alleged spammer. The note said that any spamming whether or not through the hosts email facilities would trip the ban.
I enquired of them their policy on soliciting reciprocal links and they were OK with it because it was their view that it was different to 'bulk' email.
Whats the general concensus amongst hosts on this issue?
Did I just get lucky?
Any of you had a ban for links requests?

[pageoneresults]

Any of you had a ban for links requests?

All it takes is one recipient to report you to one of the blacklists. A great place to check and see if you are listed is at DNSstuff [dnsstuff.com].

Once you are on the blacklists, depending on which lists your recipients are using for blocking spam, your messages may go right to the bin.

Bulk link requests would be considered UCE by my host as we have some strict guidelines in place. The freakin' maintenance to keep an eye on those blacklists is time consuming. Every now and then we get clients sending us examples of failed mail transmissions and all of them are due to either a blacklisting or the CBL.

Even worse is the CBL [cbl.abuseat.org] which is an automated process.

P.S. We are biting the bullet right now and bringing in some heavy duty hardware and software to battle the email issues, we're just sick of it. Barracuda here we come!

P.S.S. Before you send mail from any domain, check to make sure there are no other problems which may cause potential issues. A DNS Report [dnsreport.com] will reveal quite a bit that you should address immediately!

[pageoneresults]

When you run your DNS Report, focus on the Mail section. Your ultimate goal is to have something like this...

PASS Connect to mail servers OK:
PASS Mail server host name in greeting OK:
PASS Acceptance of NULL <> sender OK:
PASS Acceptance of postmaster address OK:
PASS Acceptance of abuse address OK:
PASS Acceptance of domain literals OK:
PASS Open relay test OK:
PASS SPF record You have an SPF record.

[balam]

(Ok, I know I'm off-topic, but someone else pointed out, there is no Email forum here.)

> You have an SPF record.

While having a Sender Policy Framework record is admirable - I have them for my domains - isn't it basically a failed initiative? (And IIRC, this is due to Microsoft holding onto the SenderID patent, but don't quote me.)

[limitup]

I don't know if it's a failed initiative or not, but it's important enough as it will help you get your mail through to big email providers like Hotmail, AOL etc. Both specifically say that you should implement SPF if you want to help your email to get through to their users without being filtered as spam.