I think I'm loosing emails

[petemc]

I was first alerted to this by Burbleflop as the emails from this forum weren't getting through. I've noticed emails from other places haven't turned up too. These were both automated scripts so I haven't really been bothered by it. Now though I am wondering if I have been loosing emails from people. I'm wondering if my host isn't setup right and people just can't email me. So if people could basically spam me from anywhere they can think of so I can know if I am actually loosing email or whether people just aren't emailing me I'd appreciate it. I've checked my junk box before anyone says :)

pete@petemc.net

kthxbyebbqairwolf

[Feek]

mail sent.

[petemc]

Cheers, got that one.

[PeterNem]

sent from peter@nemeiksas.com

[petemc]

Got that one too, ta.

[Mark]

Three sent...

#1 from @markvgray.com
#2 from @markvgray.plus.net
#3 from @microfocus.com

Edit: oops - #2 came from the same account as #1. Resending #4 from the correct account.

[petemc]

Got all 4 ta :D

[Burble]

This sender verification thing is pretty flawed IMO. In short, it works by your mailserver looking at the sender of the email and trying to connect back to the server that the email originated from to test that the user is valid. This isn't necessarily the same as trying to send an email back to that user because it always connects to the server that the email originated from and that server may not be setup for receive emails - it may be (as was for hte forums) purely for outbounding emails.

You're most likely to have problems where:

- The outbound mailhost is firewalled to now allow a connection from your mailserver back to it
- The email is being generated by a user that doesnt exist. For example, if admin@boat-drinks.co.uk wasn't a valid email address

In the case of the BD forum emails not getting to you, it was the first thing causing the problems - the forums server will only outbound emails, it won't receive emails.

I'd suggest giving your host a kicking or changing host if they won't help. Not every sysadmin will be as kind as I was and put the time in to circumvent this fundamentally flawed 'spam protection.'

[petemc]

I've had it from another host too and its been making me wonder. I'll see what my host says about the situation. I don't want to think about moving as I host quite a few sites and that would hurt :)