Computer Tips | Perfect Email Solution

The below is an email conversation I had with the tech support of Vanquish, which I use for blocking spam and as explained as part of my perfect emailing system. Their ticket response is always thorough and immediate.


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Ticket

Ticket #09385
Ticket Opened: September 1, 2008, 5:47 am
Ticket Category: vqMe – Personal Anti-Spam
Supporter: Phil
Ticket Status: Waiting for Response
Last Update: September 6, 2008, 3:54 pm


Ticket Description:
Subject: some emails not getting through
Description: Hello,

It seems that some people are still not getting my emails. I think that perhaps their Outlook Express has its own filter hooked up to one of those third party services. I wanted to check if my email address was blacklisted or something but those third party services asked for my email address and IP address. I write my emails offline and use your SMTP server when sending, so I assume the IP address would be on your end? Please help or provide me with this info so that I can remove my email address from these third party services. Perhaps I got on there because in the past I was receiving so much spam (because I advertise on Russian etc. websites looking for translators and remote employees) and I was told by you that my email address had been hijacked by spammers, so much so that your server was overloaded with spam to my email address that you were about to shut down my account. Since then I resolved the problem by not forwarding *@kenax.cz to my Vanquish account. But still several people are not getting my emails. Please help me as it is important for my work that all my translators and customers get my emails.
By the way, what is the limit of emails I can send out a day? Sometimes I get a big job and have to approach many translators. It does not happen often.

Thank you,

Karel
Attachments:


Updates:

September 1, 2008, 5:47 am by
Ticket created by kenax



September 1, 2008, 10:43 am by phil
Transferred to Phil



September 1, 2008, 10:43 am by phil
Email Sent:

I need to follow up by phone with some questions about your inquiry... But you did not include a phone number. This makes it much more difficult to support you, because the questions require a quick back-forth discussion rather than typing back and forth...

1. Our outgoing vqME server is not on any black list this week and this weekend.

2. Your own email address (or the content of your mail) can cause a recipient service to block or pull aside your mail as spam for several reasons. Some of these reasons can be related to you use of vqME, but it is difficult to set up a quick test without the ability to speak with you on the phone.

3. When you mail is sent through the vqME server, the IP address is most frequently X, but upon your request, we can use an alternate IP address: XX

4. My recommendation is that you TEST the recipient mail server by opening a telnet connection and watching it's response. The test is very easy to do and is described at the top of this page: www.vanquish.com/testserver

If the test is successful, tell me the recipiet email address you are testing and I will run the same test from our vqME server. If the results are DIFFERENT than you observed (that is, if the recipient accepts mail from your ISP connection, but not when the connection originates on the vqME mail server), then we can conclude that they are blocking or delaying mail from vqME.

You may also wish to run this very simply test: Send the identical test email in two ways (but one right after the other). Send it through vqME and also through your own ISP. See if the two messages arrive and in close proximity at the recipinet. You will need to have your friend standing by to report the results at the time of the test.

Please use this same support ticket to follow up with me. (Do not reply by email!). I will check the ticket throughout the day and get back to you.

... And again, lease provide a phone number. I don't mind calling Czecho-slovakia.

Phil R.



September 3, 2008, 6:46 am by
Updated by kenax

Hi Phil,

thanks for the response. Don't have a mobile phone at the moment, but should have one soon, but am in Turkish Northern Cyprus and I think you cannot call here through Skype. It has to be direct through landline I think. Will save your response and test it. Most of my friends are too technically out of it to help me test things. Often I do end up sending important mail through two servers. Will test at next opportunity.
Back to another issue, a long time ago you wanted to call me about my webpage
001yourtranslationservice.com/?computer-tips/?email-solution.html
which is at the top of google for keyword search
perfect email solution
Did you still want to talk to me about that. It gives your service a nice little pump.
Karel



September 3, 2008, 9:06 am by phil
Email Sent:

I did not realize that you are in Cyprus. We have recently black listed sending privileges from a great many IP ranges that associated with western and southern Africa. I really doubt that this would affect Cyprus, but there is a small chance that the ISP or satellite provider you are using to access the internet is leasing or sharing IP space with someone registered in these regions: Nigeria, Dahomy, Ivory Coast, CAR, or South Africa.

If you send an email to this address: X, I will snag the headers and figure out if your IP address is blocked. If so, we may be able to accept traffic from your PC, but this would be easier if you can determine:

   a) Is your IP address static or dynamic.
      (or do you use a dial-up telephone modem)

   b) the IP range used by your provider

Phil R.



September 4, 2008, 5:28 am by
Updated by kenax

okay, just sent you an email to the above account, with some details. Did you get it? Excited to be resolving this issue. :0)



September 4, 2008, 7:08 am by phil
Email Sent:

That's odd... I do not see any email that you sent to X  --I will continue to check for it.



September 5, 2008, 6:25 am by
Updated by kenax

So it seems I'm even blocked to you. Copying the letter below. Sometimes I use my webmail version, and even then it doesn't work. It is located on my server in Prague. I'll try to send this email through that server now, to see if you get it. Certain people do not even get my emails when sending that way.

Karel

Hi Phil,

according to your instructions I am sending you this mail to this address, to help resolve some of my emails not getting through to certain people. I went to some website and it said my IP address is: X Looks like its based out of southern Turkey, Mersin. At the moment I am using the university's wifi at EMU in Famagusta in the Turkish part of
(Northern) Cyprus. I travel frequently
(001yourtranslationservice.com/travel-Europe/) and bounce around from internet connection to internet connection. Is there a way I could tag my laptop through your servers or something like that?

Thanks a lot!

Karel



September 5, 2008, 9:22 am by phil
Email Sent:

O.K. You gave us some good data. The problem may caused by your use of IP address X (either as your ISP or as an outbound mail server), but I am not yet certain...

I have asked an engineer to determine if we are blocking the range that this address belongs to. If so, he can selectively UNBLOCK this address. But this would only be useful if your PC always uses the same IP address when connected to this range... Can you determine this?

The engineer who understands this issue the best works nights, so he will look into this after 7PM our time = GMT 2300.

Phil R.



September 6, 2008, 5:56 am by
Updated by kenax

I think the IP address keeps changing. Another option is to use my server in Prague, which would not block me no matter where I am. I could smtp to that, and then the server would send out the email through your smtp server. Would that be the best option you think? I guess I'd have to log in by remote desktop to find out what it's IP address is.



September 6, 2008, 10:27 am by phil
Email Sent:

And here is some more data. The IP address X was never blocked or thwarted by our servers. There must be something else preventing your access...



September 6, 2008, 3:54 pm by phil
Email Sent:

If you have a server in Prague, I could enter it as a trusted IP for relaying outbound mail through our server, like we do for our business users. That way you, would gain several advantages when sending (see www.vanquish.com/smtp). However...

Most email server can be set to relay mail for particular recipient domains (for example, mail sent to recipients at comcast.com can be routed through a different SMTP relay. But this does not mean that the server can be selective based on who sending... Typically, servers can set to relay mail for ALL users, not just for some users.

If you are the only one using this server -- or if the server is VERY special and can relay for a single authenticated user (not just by recipient domain!) -- then I don't mind allowing your mail to relay through our server.

I think that our best bet is to find out what process, policy or router is blocking your mail -- or alternatively, use webmail when traveling. If webmail is also blocked, then procy your web traffic through your server. Please don't attempt to proxy SMTP through your server unless you are certain that you will be the only trusted sender accessing it!

Phil R.



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