Hi gg30340,
Thank you for your response.
So, it seem that I as the sender are doing something wrong. I would really like to get to the bottom of this.
I have looked closely at the "BT Email - best practices for postmasters and senders of email" you have pointed me at...
The first paragraph says - "Please note: The advice you’ll find here is not intended for BT’s consumer customers but for senders of bulk emails to BT customers. If you are a BT business customer sending bulk emails, you should follow this advice."
I wonder if this document is actually aimed at me. Firstly I am not sending Bulk email to BT customers. This is one simple email to three of your customers to remind them of a life drawing session on Sunday. Is that classified as Bulk email? Secondly - I am not a BT business customer.
Anyway I will continue to see if there is something I can see that I'm doing wrong.
The next paragraphs mention DMARC and talk about Third party senders being compliant. Well, in this instance I am not using a Third party sender I'm using Gmail - is Gmail compliant with DMARC?
The next paragraph "We have improved security..." gives no help.
The next paragraph "Just so you know, we don't support..." - ohh a White list that would be a good idea... Ahh..
Now we get to the meat... "Here's what to do so your emails aren't mistaken as spam."
1. Use a consistent and meaningful 'From' header address
Well - that's my Gmail address - I don't ever fiddle with that
2. Make sure the domain you send from has a Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record for the IP address you'll be sending from. An SPF record allows domain owners to publish a list of IP addresses that are authorised to send email on their behalf. The aim is to reduce the amount of spam by making it harder for malicious senders to disguise their identity.
Hmm - I don't understand this - I'm just a simple end user. However - I did click on the link and found that the link is broken. It says "This Page has been taken down permanently" with some smiling telephone operators in the background. Nice touch. I started going down all sorts of rabbit holes after Googling - is this really something I need to fix?
3. Make sure the IP address you send from is a static IP and not a dynamically assigned IP address
Hmm - This is coming from my Home computer - Do people normally have fixed IP addresses on their home computers? Are all people with dynamic addresses doomed to failure?
4. Have separate IPs and streams depending on your email content type. Shared email services can have multiple domains using one IP to send email. If the same IPs are sending unsolicited commercial email along with your valid email, this can affect your reputation
What? I have not the slightest idea of what this means. Anyway - this isn't commercial email so I am assuming this is not my problem.
5. Make sure there is a correct PTR (reverse DNS entry) for your IP address. Reverse DNS is a method of resolving an IP address into a domain name, just as the domain name system (DNS) resolves domain names into associated IP addresses. If a spammer uses an invalid IP address that doesn't match the domain name, a reverse DNS look up program will try to match this to an IP address. If no valid name is found to match the IP address, the server blocks that message.
What? I have not the slightest idea of what this means. To me this is just a jumble of words and letters. Is this something I need to really get to grips with? Beginning to lose the will to live. BTW - the link in this paragraph takes me to the smiling telephone operators:-(
6. Sign all your email using DKIM. This protects recipients against spoofing and phishing. If you don't have a DKIM entry in your DNS or don't sign your email with DKIM we're more likely to consider it spam.
I don't think this applies to me - I'm just using a simple gmail account. - Please correct me if I am wrong.
7. Check your email service has a good reputation
By "email service" - does that mean Gmail? How do I check this?
8. Check your email sending service hasn't been blacklisted
Ahh - perhaps that's it - Google has been blacklisted!
9. Don't send all your emails at once: split your mailing activity throughout the day
Hmm... 17 emails... I don't think this is my problem - or is it?
Then it talks about servers - I don't think that applies to me.
The next section is entitled "Check the content of your email"
1. Make sure your emails can be read if images are blocked
I have no images.
2. Make sure you link to domains, never IP addresses
I have one link in the email to a Google document - is that not allowed?
3.Use standard ports
Eh? What's a port?
4. Don't use HTML forms in your emails
No HTML in the email
5. Don't use JavaScript or embed objects (like Flash or ActiveX)
No Javascript Flash or ActiveX
6. Always use a static 'From' address as this helps recipients who have set up filters to route emails to a specific folder
I don't touch the from address - ever.
Then we move on to the final section....
Managing your Mailing List.
This isn't a mailing list - I don't think there is anything helpful in this section.
In More help is recommends looking at "Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group's best practices and guidelines"
That could take a month to review! The good news is - the link actually works.
I would be interested to know which bits of the above I should look more closely at to fix whatever it is I'm doing wrong. Thank you again for your help.
Roy
