No more email notifications for my posts or watched topics

Ollin Landers · Post by **Ollin Landers** » 16 Dec 2017 5:02 pm

@b0b

I am a former email administrator. I have dealt with numerous issues with bad/old DNS MX records. You're experiencing rDNS or reverse DNS Issues. Many mail servers use a type of spam filtering based on PTR or "pointer" records. If the sending IP does not match the MX record it will be rejected as spam and never hit the recipients mailbox.

Unfortunately after correcting the DNS records you may have triggered a permanent block from some mail servers. Typically Yahoo,Gmail, etc require that you go through a removal process. AOL and AT&T are the worst.

Feel free to contact me if you need help. I used to resolve these issues about 3-4 times a week when I was working.

Ollin

admin · Post by **b0b** » 16 Dec 2017 5:03 pm

Jay Yuskaitis wrote:As usual, should have left well enough alone. Cost me 2 G and you your play money.
Jay Y.

Wasn't possible, Jay. The old server was on its last legs. CPU was churning over 80% constantly, performance was abysmal, and the OS was no longer supported. 9 years is a long time for a computer to run 24/7 serving thousands of people. It's the longest I've ever run a single computer.

Dave Meis · Post by **Dave Meis** » 16 Dec 2017 5:20 pm

Test...posted at 5:17 Pacific time.

Dave Meis · Post by **Dave Meis** » 16 Dec 2017 5:24 pm

No joy...

Jim Waldrop · Post by **Jim Waldrop** » 17 Dec 2017 11:07 am

bOb I am starting to sell quite a few of my guitars due to illness. Do you know when the e-mail problem will be resolved? I am going to hold off so I will know I am getting messages from potential buyers.

Jim

admin · Post by **b0b** » 17 Dec 2017 11:16 am

Jim,

If you're getting email notifications from watching this topic (there's a "Watch this topic" link at the bottom of the page), then the problem doesn't affect you. It all depends on your email address.

I have submitted a request to AT&T, BellSouth's parent company, to try to resolve the issue. In the meantime, one solution for you would be to open a Gmail account and use it for forum correspondence.

Ronald Sikes · Post by **Ronald Sikes** » 17 Dec 2017 12:00 pm

Not getting anything........ sbcglobal.net

admin · Post by **b0b** » 17 Dec 2017 12:06 pm

I just made a small change to the postfix configuration. It might fix something or it might break everything.

Fingers crossed.

Jim Waldrop · Post by **Jim Waldrop** » 17 Dec 2017 2:03 pm

OK Thanks bOb

Michael Butler · Post by **Michael Butler** » 17 Dec 2017 3:20 pm

i just tried to respond to you bob and it said there was an error.

Michael Butler · Post by **Michael Butler** » 17 Dec 2017 3:21 pm

i got this message when responding back to bob.

Ran into problems sending Mail. Response: 530 5.7.0 Must issue a STARTTLS command first

admin · Post by **b0b** » 17 Dec 2017 3:23 pm

oops. Fixed.

Ronald Sikes · Post by **Ronald Sikes** » 17 Dec 2017 4:31 pm

Iâ€™m watching this topic but still not getting notifications.

Dave Meis · Post by **Dave Meis** » 17 Dec 2017 5:32 pm

I was notified of the one above, and received a PM from BOb! Thanks bOb, for all you do! Dave

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 17 Dec 2017 6:04 pm

I did an email test earlier today, before you made the postfix config change, just sending myself an email. It worked fine, and came through my email server (at penn state) immediately. For several years now, SGF email has been very dicey - when it comes, it generally has taken hours to appear, but other times it hasn't shown up at all. In some cases where it wasn't showing up, it was captured by the penn state email server as spam (in which case I have had to go digging for it). Other times it just never showed up anywhere. Lost in the ozone again!

I also just checked the 'watch this topic' box (after the postfix config change), and as soon as a post was made, I got the notification email immediately. So you obviously didn't 'break everything'. Everything I have tried is working perfectly for me now, for the first time in several years.

These were the first emails I've gotten or sent since the server change was made - I decided to wait until the dust settled to start messing around with it. So Ollin's suggestion makes sense to me - you may well have fixed the issue now, but there may be some work to do to remove a block on some email servers due to receiving emails with bad DNS records which will, appropriately, cause the email (and sometimes the sender) to be tagged as spam and rejected at the server.

To the people who think b0b can reasonably just keep on using the old hardware - as he said, you can't continue to do that indefinitely. Computers are not vintage guitars - the technology moves on and eventually even the most hardened late-adopters have to move with it, even if being dragged kicking and screaming.

Thanks, b0b. I think this whole transfer went pretty durned smoothly, all things considered.

Dave Meis · Post by **Dave Meis** » 17 Dec 2017 7:03 pm

Dave Mudgett wrote:
Thanks, b0b. I think this whole transfer went pretty durned smoothly, all things considered.

Amen!

Andy DePaule · Post by **Andy DePaule** » 17 Dec 2017 7:52 pm

Great Bob.
I'm still getting e-mails and like the site better now.
I don't use spam filters as I can do that myself.

The search seems way faster now and thats a big plus.
Regards,
Andy

admin · Post by **b0b** » 17 Dec 2017 11:39 pm

I won't be happy until everyone is getting their emails. $:\$

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 18 Dec 2017 9:04 am

After the upgrade notifications re: responses to threads I was following went to my spam-folder.

Once I'd transferred them to my inbox then added the sender to my list-of-contacts the problem was solved.

Jon Smorada · Post by **Jon Smorada** » 18 Dec 2017 9:08 am

To the people who think b0b can reasonably just keep on using the old hardware - as he said, you can't continue to do that indefinitely. Computers are not vintage guitars - the technology moves on and eventually even the most hardened late-adopters have to move with it, even if being dragged kicking and screaming.

I've been dragged kicking and screaming more that I care to admit...just had to upgrade two Server 2008r2 servers to 2012r2 and a couple touch screen laptops to Windows 8.1 Pro. My day-to-day laptops are still running Windows 7 Pro and I have no compelling reason to move any of them to Windows 10 (at least not until I'm forced to). I've found tools such as Start8 and Start10 invaluable to keeping my sanity as far as the Start Menu is concerned. Of course, Linux is always an option except for the fact that I'm using Cakewalk Sonar (which is no longer being updated since they were bought out) and PreSonus Studio One which both run on Windows. Time for a Mac...yea when I win the Power Ball lol!

Garry Vanderlinde · Post by **Garry Vanderlinde** » 18 Dec 2017 9:35 am

I found the Forum emails in my "junk" file.
Clicked "not junk" and emails are coming thru now.

admin · Post by **b0b** » 18 Dec 2017 9:58 am

I've made a change to the headers that should help Yahoo and AOL users, and maybe others. This doesn't affect notifications, just personal emails.

From: postmaster@bb.steelguitarforum.com
Reply-To: <sender's address>

Before, both fields had the sender's address. That was wrong. AOL and Yahoo were rejecting emails for that reason.

Fixed. Fingers crossed.

admin · Post by **b0b** » 18 Dec 2017 10:08 am

Just received from Earthlink.net:

Hello b0blee@steelguitarnews.com,

We have removed the block on mail originating from 165.227.4.229,
please allow 2-24 hours for normal email traffic to resume.
Please understand that IPs previously removed from the
EarthLink Correct Connect database may be re-added in the
future should the server be discovered to again be open for
relay.

Regards,

--
Earthlink Abuse Department
blockedbyearthlink@abuse.earthlink.net
http://www.earthlink.net/about/policies/use.faces

Ronald Sikes · Post by **Ronald Sikes** » 18 Dec 2017 10:18 am

Just to give an update. Checked my junk folder , nothing there from the Forum. Still not receiving email notifications.

Jon Light · Post by **Jon Light** » 18 Dec 2017 11:29 am

b0b wrote:Just received from Earthlink.net:

Aha! I see no point in changing my forum settings back to Earthlink but it is validating to see that this thing, whatever it is, is real.

b0b--you are outdoing yourself in terms of putting this all together piece by piece.

.............................b0b r00lz
.
.
.

The Steel Guitar Forum

No more email notifications for my posts or watched topics

I'm still getting e-mails and like it better now

SGF in junk folder