Why do some emails come back undelivered?

[LindellProStaf]

I don't do more than 10 emails hardly ever in a day.  Mostly about 5.  Some go right through and some don't.  I have re-forwarded the ones that don't go through and sometimes they go sometimes they don't.  It seems like it is usually the same destinations that don't work.  I have tried sometimes 6 or 7 times to get an email through and it won't work.  Others go through just fine.  I printed out an email failure to deliver report and it says: Blacklisted by Internal Reputation SMTP error  550 5.7.1   We have a home business and it sometimes is other businesses but sometimes just friends that we email that are rejected.  Very frustrating.  Any help would be appreciated.   

We both, my wife and I just got Windows 10 a few months ago on our separate computers and like it.  I have wondered it that is when this all started???

And this happens to both of us on our separate computer.

[leech~~]

Sometimes it's the way they have their SPAM settings.

[Gus]

I am far from an expert on email, however I do know the essence of what goes on.

Being blacklisted, in a nutshell, means that your domain or server's IP have been reported as being a spammer.

Email companies relay on other companies to maintain databases of known good and bad emailers. Somehow, you have found yourself on the blacklist.

Steps to remedy will take some research as to why you have been blacklisted. You'll need to start by looking at the organization that has you blacklisted which is usually in the response. Go to their page and start researching what you can do to get yourself off the blacklist. There may be several or many companies that have you on the blacklist.

It's usually never over and done with for good either. You may  have to revisit this at times. Sometimes 6 months later, a year later, it all depends on the types of email you send.

Marketing types of email are the hardest to control, and will get you blacklisted the fastest. It's really worth the money, which can be minimal, to use an email service such as constant contact, or others to help manage the email you distribute from your business if it is marketing related at all.

I hope this helps, again, I'm not an expert, I just know enough to be in the ballpark on this.

Gus

[delcecchi]

Also, there are characteristics of email that can get it labeled as spam, which is why sometimes I find things in my gmail spam folder that aren't spam. 

[nofishfisherman]

What is the nature of the emails that are coming back as undelivered?  Personal emails or normal email communications?  Mass emails?  

I do a fair amount of email marketing and there are a lot of reasons your email may not be going through.  The email address you are sending to may not be valid (check the spelling and any special characters), the users inbox may be full, the email may have been disabled (emails are fairly disposable these days and are apt to change), you may have been blacklisted as a spammer or the individual recipient may have black listed you on their own.

If you are sending mass marketing emails as part of your business I would highly suggest you get set up with an email marketing vendor like Constant Contact.  Its not very expensive and pricing is based on the size of your email list.  I maintain a list of roughly 500 addresses and our monthly cost is $25.  The advantage of using the service is that they'll help you navigate the spam laws and main best practices.  You can also easily manage your email list and see who is opening your emails and who is unsubscribing, and also you'll see when people mark you as spam.  It allows you to really see what's going on with your emails and where you are doing things right and where you are making some missteps. 

 

[LindellProStaf]

I don't do any mass emailings of any kind.  I just do individual emails to people I know and I order parts from vendors that I use and I have used the same ones for years.  I also return emails from people asking about my products.  I did 8 emails to a reputable company in Blaine and finally got one to go through.  Now they seem to be working better.  I don't know how long it will last but my fingers are crossed.  Some of the  ones that have not gone through I am replying to.  All of the emails are to the correct addresses.  I just did all of the updates I could and restarted this laptop and will do the same at home on my PC tonight.  

[nofishfisherman]

Have you been able to identify a specific group of email address that this is happening to or is it a sporadic issue that seems to impact all email addresses at one time or another?

If you can identify a list of emails that the issues is confined to then you can start trying to figure out what the common theme between those emails was.  That might help track down the issue. 

With the email that you sent 8 times to a company in Blaine, was there anything different with the 8th email that went through? Attachments? Subject line?  Email Signature?  Etc...?

 

 

[randerson]

I do a few emails a day and generally from my phone and I too have been having problems with a couple of the addresses I have been sending to they show up in my OutBox and we keep sending sometimes 20-30 times with out me doing anything Some times this goes on for up to a day at a time. It has only started after the new Iphone updates a couple versions ago it does it less now than before with the latest update but its weird that it only happens to the same email addresses.  

[LindellProStaf]

Hi Nofisherman.  The last ones I changed the subject line from Bailey Bros.  to Steel rods and that is the one that went through.  They do seem to pick on one recipient and some others don't have any problem.  I found out that sometimes when it tells me they didn't go through that the person I emailed actually did get the email.  

[LindellProStaf]

Ya I am paying a lot more attention to updates now and doing them....

[delcecchi]

If it is to a business then it probably has to negotiate multiple levels of spam filters.   I didn't realize, however, that spam filters would bounce an email rather than just discarding it.  That seems strange to me.  

[nofishfisherman]

I would assume a spam filter would just label the email as spam and put it into the correct folder not bounce it back to the sender.  Sending it back would seem to clue in a potential spammer that its time to change up their tactic to beat the filters. 

For it to bounce back I'd assume the sender would have had to be black listed but if thats the case no emails would be getting through to the recipient but in this case it seems like occasional emails are getting through.

I think I've officially exhausted my knowledge on the subject.  I know more about the best practices for sending the emails than I do about the technical aspects of the software that may be causing the trouble.

[delcecchi]

I googled this.  Who is your ISP?  What is the whole message, ie who rejected it?  Comcast?  Apparently the isps, and in particular Comcast maintain blacklists of places they won't route to.   Or maybe it is the destination that suddenly starts blocking the isp for some reason.   Anyway, contact your isp and see if they know anything about it.  

Are you using web email like gmail?  Or a mail server thing like microsoft mail from your provider? 

Apparently if a particular domain (the abc.com in [email protected]) is thought to be the source of spam, folks will start blocking it, resulting in this error (sometimes mistakenly blocking it).  So your email guy has to talk to their email guy and get the block lifted. And sometimes there are guys in the middle. 

It's not you, it's them.

At least that's the way I understand it. 

 

[nofishfisherman]

Del, that's what I was thinking as well but that doesn't seem to explain how he can send the email to one destination 8 times and it gets bounced 7 times and then goes through the 8th.  If the domain is black listed then all 8 emails should have been bounced. 

Also I believe he said that he had emails bounce back but then later found out that the recipient did receive them.  That seems to point to him getting a false bounce back for some reason.  

If the issue is limited to one or two destinations and all other emails are working normally then I would start to think the issue is on their end and not yours.

[LindellProStaf]

That is pretty much it No Fish.  I emptied my deleted and sent items and also my inbox of all things I dont need.  I am making sure to update when updates are available.  I did inform the 3 or 4 places that seem to have it happen the most that it is happening. I will see if that helps.  If not I will call Century Tel.  My provider.  Really frustrating to say the least.

[delcecchi]

Sometimes there is a relay page involved,  maybe it changes from time to time.  Somebody in the path has a blacklist going it sounds like.  The trick is who. 

I agree that a bounce notice but the recipient got it is really strange. 

Edited February 5, 2016 by delcecchi

[LindellProStaf]

And that happened with 2 different places.  I guy who I buy parts from got 3 of them that I got notices that they were not delivered.  The other place got 2 or 3 of them that I got notices that they were not delivered.  Of course when I get a notice that it wasn't delivered I keep on trying hence the 2 or 3 extra emails.

[MN Mike]

Lindell,

Are you sending emails via gmail, yahoo, hotmail ( outlook.com ), your local internet provider or services like that? or do you have your own company domain for email? such as mycompany.com ?

Mike

 

[upnorth]

On 2/4/2016 at 0:21 PM, LindellProStaf said:

I don't do any mass emailings of any kind.  I just do individual emails to people I know and I order parts from vendors that I use and I have used the same ones for years.  I also return emails from people asking about my products.  I did 8 emails to a reputable company in Blaine and finally got one to go through.  Now they seem to be working better.  I don't know how long it will last but my fingers are crossed.  Some of the  ones that have not gone through I am replying to.  All of the emails are to the correct addresses.  I just did all of the updates I could and restarted this laptop and will do the same at home on my PC tonight.  

OK.  Here goes like brought up before the email server that you use may have been compromised hence listed as a spammer, or it could by your account has been hacked and being used as a source for spam and that put on a blacklist.  

I would contact the people who host your email and ask them to look at why they are being blacklisted.  There is a process to get your server off the blacklists but you need to be the email domain admin.  Does it list your email domain in the refusal?  

I inherited an email domain and shortly after I got there we got blacklisted.  We had two issues, the dumbarse who was my predecessor set the server up to be a full scale SMTP relay(bad, bad, bad thing) and there were a couple of folks who had some pretty lame passwords whose accounts got compromised.  Since he got fired(no way to prove it) he may have done some retribution for getting fired.

[LindellProStaf]

Mn Mike.  I use Outlook and it goes to hotmail.  Had to do the Hotmail with Windows 10 I think.  I am going to call Century Tel.  That is my provider.

[LindellProStaf]

Well I talked to my Internet Provider today.  They had me send an email right through their page instead of Outlook and it went right through.  I  sent to a business that I have had every email returned last week and today.  They said that tells us it is not their end having a problem which makes sense.  So it is in Outlook possibility.  They said to unhook or turn off my router or modem for at least an hour.  Then when turned back on it will use another IP number.  Then run a virus scan and see if it works better.  I did that and sent an email through Outlook and it went right on through.  My fingers are crossed buy that may have worked.  I will keep you updated.  Maybe a guy should just do that once a month.

[leechlake]

Lindell-  for our business we have to have a "static" IP address so others can access our server, so the address doesn't change.  Normally you have a "dynamic" IP address like you have that changes, for security purposes, from time to time.  Kind of like a garage code changing, in my mind.  I'd guess your customer didn't like your IP address for whatever reason.  

[BobT]

22 hours ago, LindellProStaf said:

Well I talked to my Internet Provider today.  They had me send an email right through their page instead of Outlook and it went right through.  I  sent to a business that I have had every email returned last week and today.  They said that tells us it is not their end having a problem which makes sense.  So it is in Outlook possibility.  They said to unhook or turn off my router or modem for at least an hour.  Then when turned back on it will use another IP number.  Then run a virus scan and see if it works better.  I did that and sent an email through Outlook and it went right on through.  My fingers are crossed buy that may have worked.  I will keep you updated.  Maybe a guy should just do that once a month.

Interesting. Turning off the router for an hour? I thought it would only take a few seconds to accomplish this same task. Anyone have any insight on this? Do some routers require that much time between power cycles to do this?

[delcecchi]

It isn't the router, it is the DHCP or whatever at the provider that assigns IP addresses.   Most people have a "dynamic address" which is assigned by the ISP and can change periodically.   Apparently, shutting off the router for an extended period causes the old IP address to expire and a new one to be assigned.  So any blocking associated with the IP address will become irrelevant.

[LindellProStaf]

Yup she said after 1 hour it will find another address.  She said they are not permanent but are rented or something and will seek another one after 1 hour of not being used.