[CLOSED] Email marked as spam. Why?

XML, Perl, Python, and other languages can be discussed here, even if it isn't PHP (We might forgive you).

Moderator: General Moderators

Post Reply
georgeoc
Forum Contributor
Posts: 166
Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2006 4:21 pm
Location: London, UK

[CLOSED] Email marked as spam. Why?

Post by georgeoc »

Hi,

I've just migrated a client's site to it's new home on a Hostgator server for launch in a few days. The domain has propagated, and all is well except my PHP email contact form. I'm using Zend_Mail, and have had no problems with it on any of the 3 or 4 servers the site has run on in testing.

Hostgator support helpfully suggest I "ask Google why they are marking the email as Spam", and that it's not their problem.

Here's the raw headers of an example email, with minimal obfuscation from me. I would very much appreciate some advice on what I need to check in terms of domain/host/email server settings to fix the problem.

Many thanks!

Code: Select all

Delivered-To: my_address@gmail.com
Received: by 10.210.70.16 with SMTP id s16cs139397eba;
        Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:25:34 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.90.91.9 with SMTP id o9mr3494626agb.24.1240867533773;
        Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:25:33 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <website@mydomain.com>
Received: from gator816.hostgator.com (gator816.hostgator.com [174.120.8.34])
        by mx.google.com with ESMTP id 11si520943aga.30.2009.04.27.14.25.32;
        Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:25:33 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of website@mydomain.com designates 174.120.8.34 as permitted sender) client-ip=174.120.8.34;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of website@mydomain.com designates 174.120.8.34 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=website@mydomain.com
Message-Id: <49f622cd.0b015a0a.1fef.ffffa330SMTPIN_ADDED@mx.google.com>
Received: from [174.120.8.34] (port=60351 helo=localhost)
    by gator816.hostgator.com with esmtpa (Exim 4.69)
    (envelope-from <website@mydomain.com>)
    id 1LyYKB-0001TT-47
    for info@mydomain.com; Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:25:15 -0500
Subject: Email from MY SITE contact form
From: MY SITE website <website@mydomain.com>
To: info@mydomain.com
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:25:15 -0500
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Disposition: inline
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - gator816.hostgator.com
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - mydomain.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - mydomain.com
Last edited by georgeoc on Tue Apr 28, 2009 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
georgeoc
Forum Contributor
Posts: 166
Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2006 4:21 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Email marked as spam. Why?

Post by georgeoc »

I don't know if this is relevant or not, but I've been working through Chris' anti-spam tips and have found the following MX record for my domain (retrospectensemble.com):

Code: Select all

~ george $ dig MX retrospectensemble.com
 
; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2 <<>> MX retrospectensemble.com
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 52864
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2
 
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;retrospectensemble.com.        IN  MX
 
;; ANSWER SECTION:
retrospectensemble.com. 14400   IN  MX  10 mx1.ex.eclipse.net.uk.
retrospectensemble.com. 14400   IN  MX  0 retrospectensemble.com.
 
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
retrospectensemble.com. 13251   IN  A   174.120.8.34
mx1.ex.eclipse.net.uk.  264 IN  A   212.50.160.72
 
;; Query time: 138 msec
;; SERVER: 194.168.4.100#53(194.168.4.100)
;; WHEN: Tue Apr 28 01:57:49 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 125
The domain has been moved from old hosts Eclipse to new hosts Hostgator, yet the MX record still contains lots of Eclipse information. Could this be part of the problem for me?
User avatar
Benjamin
Site Administrator
Posts: 6935
Joined: Sun May 19, 2002 10:24 pm

Re: Email marked as spam. Why?

Post by Benjamin »

:arrow: Moved to Miscellaneous
georgeoc
Forum Contributor
Posts: 166
Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2006 4:21 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Email marked as spam. Why?

Post by georgeoc »

Also Hostgator have informed me that the SPF record is "set up correctly", but I have no idea if that's true. They tell me it is currently:

Code: Select all

retrospectensemble.com. IN TXT "v=spf1 a mx include:websitewelcome.com ~all"

(sorry for the misfiled post, ~astions!)
User avatar
Benjamin
Site Administrator
Posts: 6935
Joined: Sun May 19, 2002 10:24 pm

Re: Email marked as spam. Why?

Post by Benjamin »

If you are on shared hosting, the ip could be blacklisted. I'm not sure how to check this or remove the ip from the blacklist. It's something you should know however.
georgeoc
Forum Contributor
Posts: 166
Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2006 4:21 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Email marked as spam. Why?

Post by georgeoc »

We are on shared hosting, but I've checked the IP with several blacklist databases and it seems to be OK.
georgeoc
Forum Contributor
Posts: 166
Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2006 4:21 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Email marked as spam. Why?

Post by georgeoc »

Consider this thread closed, as our client has decided to have his email hosted elsewhere. I'm still vaguely interested by what the problem was, but I certainly won't be loosing any more sleep on it!
Post Reply