You should do something with the problem of no arriving e-mails to some providers. It's not a good solution to say users to not use their accounts. If you have a problem one day may appear, that more accounts will stop to work with the forum. For example, if your e-mails do not follow the RCF, a server may stop to receive them after a software update or if you send e-mails directly to a receiver's server, it may stop respond due to anti-spam tweaks.
E-mail service needs a fix
- Thread starter n47
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Thanks for the feedbsck. Yes, we are aware of this problem, and have tried getting ourselves off some provider spams blacklists, but to no avail. I looked into changing the forum emails to gmail at one stage, but couldn't get it to work. Might revisit it at some point.
I use Gmail, and there was a problem with that. Thunderfall had to change back to how it's done now, as every single email notification I'd get from CFC was marked as spam, and nothing I did on my own helped.
And keep in mind that Gmail recently changed how incoming emails are organized. They have a tab system now, which royally messed up how emails are organized. It's been a nightmare to clean it up, to make sure that CFC emails aren't routed into Promotions or the one for social networks.
And keep in mind that Gmail recently changed how incoming emails are organized. They have a tab system now, which royally messed up how emails are organized. It's been a nightmare to clean it up, to make sure that CFC emails aren't routed into Promotions or the one for social networks.
@ainwood, I'm not specialized into emial services, but I have a feeling, that the problem cause may not only be treating your emails as a spam. It may also be a bad configuration of the forum or a poor quality of the code.
Did you checked, do your mails have a proper format of SMTP messages, and do the forum sends them through the SMTP server of your e-mail provider, not directly into servers of receivers?
@Valka D'Ur, aren't mails marked as a spam better, then no mails at all? Or, they was marked as a spam and still not arriving to some provider?
Did you checked, do your mails have a proper format of SMTP messages, and do the forum sends them through the SMTP server of your e-mail provider, not directly into servers of receivers?
@Valka D'Ur, aren't mails marked as a spam better, then no mails at all? Or, they was marked as a spam and still not arriving to some provider?
About once per year, my provider decides that CFC email is spam and blocks it. That generally lasts about 3 weeks to a month and then it all starts coming back again, whether I protest to them or not. Not sure about your provider, but mine seems to have a certain method and that is the way it is. 
My apologies for not remembering the situation correctly. It was a phishing warning I kept getting. I've found the thread I made about it: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=11621864&postcount=1
My OP:
For the past couple of days or so, I've been getting this message along with every single email I get from the forum (I have a lot of forum/thread subscriptions!):Gmail said:
Is anyone else getting these? It's the sort of message I would expect to accompany blatant spam/phishing & scams (of which I get a fair bit each day too). But the real spam gets routed into my spam folder, and my CFC email doesn't (usually; there has been the odd time).
Anybody have any ideas what's causing this? Please don't tell me to contact Gmail - their help/customer service is nonexistent.
Thunderfall, what have you been up to, that my email doesn't trust you anymore?
Feel free to read the thread for clarification (it's short).
To answer n47's question, I expect email notifications from CFC to appear where they're supposed to, not in the spam box, and not accompanied by phishing warnings. It's hard enough reorganizing everything after Gmail messed everything up with their new "tab" filters; all that did was add more confusion. I don't want phishing warnings for non-suspect sites, and I get far too many emails every day to spend endless time retrieving them from the spam folder.
Well, according to what I wanted to write, but I didn't -- why aren't you reading my mind? -- in such situation you can always add the address to your white list. It is 30 seconds of work, against probably a lot of people which can not use their proper mailboxes at all.
If the problem lies on the forum's side, changing provider will not do the job, anyway, but switching it for a moment could give a hint about the problem. Did you tried to check, do e-mails arrive to mailboxes which are currently unsupported, when you switched to gmail?
If the problem lies on the forum's side, changing provider will not do the job, anyway, but switching it for a moment could give a hint about the problem. Did you tried to check, do e-mails arrive to mailboxes which are currently unsupported, when you switched to gmail?
I don't understand any of what you just said. 
And I switched from Yahoo! to gmail so many years ago, I can't remember when. I suppose I could look it up, since my Yahoo! account is still active; I set it up to forward everything to my gmail so I wouldn't have to deal with fussing with more than one email system.
And I switched from Yahoo! to gmail so many years ago, I can't remember when. I suppose I could look it up, since my Yahoo! account is still active; I set it up to forward everything to my gmail so I wouldn't have to deal with fussing with more than one email system.First thing was about this
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20126788-285/how-to-add-a-whitelist-to-gmail/
This should deal with treating CFC mails as a spam without changing anything on the forum's side.
The second was cased by that I've thought, you were an observer of switching the method of mail sending on CFC, so you could know something more about it. Sorry, my mistake.
@ainwood, so I would like to make the question to you. If I can. Do you know, did mails send from CFC, when the sender address was set to gmail, arrive to those mailboxes which are off the support now?
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20126788-285/how-to-add-a-whitelist-to-gmail/
This should deal with treating CFC mails as a spam without changing anything on the forum's side.
The second was cased by that I've thought, you were an observer of switching the method of mail sending on CFC, so you could know something more about it. Sorry, my mistake.
@ainwood, so I would like to make the question to you. If I can. Do you know, did mails send from CFC, when the sender address was set to gmail, arrive to those mailboxes which are off the support now?
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Didn't actually test it, because it is against gmails terms of service, and also apparently many receiving email servers reject emails when the sender adds domain (which would be gmail) does not match the originating domain (which would be civfanatics). I have asked Thunderfall, and he is checking with out hosts.
Does it mean, that you are sending mails without authorization on the sending server? This can either be the case. If an email comes from unauthorized SMTP connection, it can be treated as untrusted by servers.
If you were sending emails with the sender address ...@civfanatics.com from gmail, it had to be unauthorized, then maybe you are still using an unauthorized connection.
If you were sending emails with the sender address ...@civfanatics.com from gmail, it had to be unauthorized, then maybe you are still using an unauthorized connection.
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No, I never set up the gmail email. We send from thunderfall@civfanatics.com from @civfanactics.com.
So, you sent from thunderfall@civfanatics.com address using gmail as a sending server?
Sorry, for harrowing you, but at least maybe we will find out something. I once have written a toy SMTP client, so I know a little bit about the mechanism.
Sorry, for harrowing you, but at least maybe we will find out something. I once have written a toy SMTP client, so I know a little bit about the mechanism.
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No, we send from Thunderfall@civfanatics.net using the php mail() function from the civfanatics.net server.
Ainwood, I read your above post just now, in my gmail. It says it comes from thunderfall@civfanatics.com .
If that clarifies anything here... (not sure)
And since it's working okay (sometimes it ends up in the weirdest place due to gmail's new tab system, but that's nothing to do with CFC), please don't mess it up.
If that clarifies anything here... (not sure)
And since it's working okay (sometimes it ends up in the weirdest place due to gmail's new tab system, but that's nothing to do with CFC), please don't mess it up.
@ainwood, ok. I was asking about, how it was done, when mails were sent from thunderfall@gmail.com back then - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=11626355&postcount=8. But as you said you send e-mails with mail() it clarifies a little bit. -- This function do not support authentication.
I am not saying, that it is one hundred percent sure. But without authentication the sender/from address is totally untrusted, so anyone can send a message with any such address. Thus I wouldn't be surprised, if some servers would reject such messages.
@Valka D'Ur, thank you. It doesn't clarify anything, but thanks for tying to help.
I am not saying, that it is one hundred percent sure. But without authentication the sender/from address is totally untrusted, so anyone can send a message with any such address. Thus I wouldn't be surprised, if some servers would reject such messages.
@Valka D'Ur, thank you. It doesn't clarify anything, but thanks for tying to help.
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Ah! That makes more sense now. I am not sure what he did when that was set up.
There are two built-in means of sending mail in vbulletin - the php mail() function (the default) and an "SMTP" method (I actually thought the php mail function uses SMTP anyway...
Here are the relevant manual documents:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/vboptions_group_email
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/vboptions_email_smtp
You clearly know more about this than I, and any help is appreciated!
Great.
Of course you are right. The mail() use SMTP, but it can't authenticate or even choose the SMTP server. It is an old method from when the internet didn't care so much about the security.
I can't say, will it change anything or not, but I think it is worthy to try.
SMTP Email: yes
Host: the address of your smtp server -- should be provided by your email host
maybe: smtp.civfanatics.com or just civfanatics.com
Port: 25 or 587
Username: this to should be given by the host
maybe: thunderfall@civfanatics.com or thunderfall
Password: well, I had poor grades from the clairvoyance, but it should certainly be in the host's admin panel
Secure connection: no
Or the second option
Port: 465 or 25 or 587
Secure connection: yes
rest is the same
If you will have proper host address, username and password at least one from this options should work at least as good as mail(). If not, then your mailbox server do not support authentication, which would not say anything good about it's quality.
bad mailbox provider, bad.
Of course you are right. The mail() use SMTP, but it can't authenticate or even choose the SMTP server. It is an old method from when the internet didn't care so much about the security.
I can't say, will it change anything or not, but I think it is worthy to try.
SMTP Email: yes
Host: the address of your smtp server -- should be provided by your email host
maybe: smtp.civfanatics.com or just civfanatics.com
Port: 25 or 587
Username: this to should be given by the host
maybe: thunderfall@civfanatics.com or thunderfall
Password: well, I had poor grades from the clairvoyance, but it should certainly be in the host's admin panel
Secure connection: no
Or the second option
Port: 465 or 25 or 587
Secure connection: yes
rest is the same
If you will have proper host address, username and password at least one from this options should work at least as good as mail(). If not, then your mailbox server do not support authentication, which would not say anything good about it's quality.
bad mailbox provider, bad.
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Sorry - these things clearly take time!
The email server is managed by our hosts, and they have looked into the issue. They say that we are sending digitally signed emails, and that they don't see what else we can try (we looked into buying certificates, not a preferred option).
There are only a few major hosts that give us problems. AOL, comcast and a german one who's name escapes me at the moment. I might try their troubleshooting pages (again).
The email server is managed by our hosts, and they have looked into the issue. They say that we are sending digitally signed emails, and that they don't see what else we can try (we looked into buying certificates, not a preferred option).
There are only a few major hosts that give us problems. AOL, comcast and a german one who's name escapes me at the moment. I might try their troubleshooting pages (again).
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