12:46:58 AM [Howard]
EMAIL: howarorbed@outlook.com
DOMAIN: vrespire.org
VERIFICATION:
Support Category: Email
QUESTION:
It's me. I'm contacting to rectify why emails being sent from domain go straight to spam of normal recipients. I'd like to simply send BuddyPress activation emails via WordPress mail functions using my mail server with domain. I've followed clear instructions to perfectly set up the email account in cPanel as well as the Easy WP SMTP as a plugin for the sole purpose, as said by your team, 'you should simply be able to install an SMTP Authentication plugin (recommended Easy WP SMTP) and set this up to use a valid email. From there, we are confident that your emails will be sent properly from BuddyPress ... overall using SMTP Authentication is much more secure than using the PHP Mail() functions.' :

http://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/website/wordpress/install-setup-smtp


12:47:04 AM [Alexander L.] Hello Howard, my name is Alexander L. Thanks for contacting us today!


12:47:07 AM [Alexander L.] Please hold for 3-5 minutes while I pull up your account.

12:47:21 AM [Howard] （continued..）


Ｓetup done on the inside specifically:

From email address: accounts@vrespire.org (same email set in cPanel)
SMTP host: secure179.inmotionhosting.com
Type of Encryption: SSL
SMTP port: 465
SMTP Authentication: Yes
SMTP username: accounts@vrespire.org (The username to login to your mail server)
SMTP password: same with that of email account set in cPanel (The password to login to your mail server)


Things go well as emails are being successfully sent alongside the test email being sent as an integral part of plugin WP SMTP however they all go to spam of the receiver's email account. Contacted previously via chat and one of your helpful colleagues took the initiative to toggle the DMARC for server primarily to stop mails going to spam, proposed 'Please allow for up to 24 of propagation, and your emails should stop going to spam.' It's then suggested the propagation of DMARC along with SPF would complete within 24 hours however more than 48 hours have passed now as we speak. Now, it's confirmed for a couple of times that the DMARC, SPF and DKIM records are enabled, established for my domain and seemingly propagated after careful checks by your helpful colleagues. PTR records are also well set up and the MX records are deemed correct. Contents of the emails involved also checked:
http://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/everything-email/spam-prevention-techniques/common-spam-words

Mail logs have been well referred to too throughout the speculation, together with the Test Mail sent using WP SMTP the email authentication plugin and found merely that all emails sent through these times are queued for delivery. Last but not least, IP is seen firmly not being blocked, and the DNS records are well set up. Patience has been much appreciated along the way and I'd very much like to get this sorted well.

Additional useful info provided by your team:
SPF Records, put simply, specify valid IP addresses that an email address is allowed to send from. By enabling this, it added the lines:
+ip4:192.145.239.30
+ip4:104.244.121.154
This means that if an email from your domain is sent from any other IP address, it is not valid as it was not sent from your server. This prevents Spoofing of your email.
PTR Records apply to an IP address directly, and are set to ensure that an IP address that is actually sending the email matches who sent it. For example, your main sending IP is 104.244.121.154 and has the PTR of: biz179.inmotionhosting.com.
When a server checks this, your email should also have been sent from biz179.inmotionhosting.com, if not then the PTR is invalid and the IP is marked as compromised. Your PTR Records are always handled by us in your subscription. Whereas MX Records simply declare where your email should point to; these should always be pointed to our server if mail is supposed to be received here.


Could you help make sure that the DMARC, SPF, DKIM, MX records etc. are perfectly configured and propagated so that the emails being sent at the first place can reach the inbox of recipient right away as they're supposed to

12:51:29 AM [Howard] So I have basically done everything I can with regards to the format of the mails and guided setup. Plus, it was tested with your server by sending a Test Email which gave the following:


Nothing on our server is marking the email as spam, and it is passing according to the Email Headers:

X-OutGoing-Spam-Status: No, score=-97.5
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - biz179.inmotionhosting.com
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - hotmail.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - vrespire.org
X-Get-Message-Sender-Via: biz179.inmotionhosting.com: authenticated_id: accounts@vrespire.org
X-Authenticated-Sender: biz179.inmotionhosting.com: accounts@vrespire.org
Authentication-Results: spf=pass (sender IP is 104.244.121.154)
smtp.mailfrom=vrespire.org; hotmail.com; dkim=pass (signature was verified)
header.d=vrespire.org;hotmail.com; dmarc=pass action=none
header.from=vrespire.org;
Received-SPF: Pass (protection.outlook.com: domain of vrespire.org designates
104.244.121.154 as permitted sender) receiver=protection.outlook.com;
client-ip=104.244.121.154; helo=biz179.inmotionhosting.com;
Received: from biz179.inmotionhosting.com (104.244.121.154) by
BY2NAM03FT022.mail.protection.outlook.com (10.152.84.225) with Microsoft SMTP
Server (version=TLS1_2, cipher=TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA384_P384) id
15.20.218.12 via Frontend Transport; Thu, 16 Nov 2017 11:24:46 +0000


Given the above info, why the emails being sent still go to spam could you help make sure

12:52:19 AM [Alexander L.] Thanks for holding.

Before I continue, can I verify that you are the account owner? Acceptable forms of verification include the last four digits of any active credit card we have on file, current AMP password, customer support passphrase, dev passphrase, or AMP hashcode.

And also, should I be checking on the vrespire.org domain or another domain for SPF/DKIM/DMARC?

12:52:54 AM [Howard] 625H134c689

12:53:16 AM [Howard] Only just vrespire.org for the purpose

12:56:27 AM [Alexander L.] Okay. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC all look correct. I confirmed that the outgoing email IP from biz179 is listed in the SPF record and the headers you posted show the email being in good standard. That outgoing spam status shows as -97.5. Most email servers will quarantine emails with a spam score of 5 or higher, so you are well below that.

As far as I can tell, you've got everything setup correctly and your reputation is about as good as it's going to get. All I can really recommend here is to contact the administrators for the email servers you are trying to send to because you are completely above the board here.

1:01:48 AM [Howard] Very nice to hear answers in your own words. I'm completely above the board there, as in? Alexander I can't quite get the bits sometimes

1:04:24 AM [Alexander L.] Sorry, "above the board" is a phrase that means you are very legitimate and are doing everything the right way. I can't see any issues or anything I can recommend for you to improve on the side of our server, so all I can say is to contact the administrators of the other server for an explanation.

1:06:13 AM [Howard] So I've contacted the administrators in Microsoft or their Outlook.com Deliverability Support Team for the issue and they've replied with:


We have completed reviewing the IP(s) you submitted. The following table contains the results of our investigation.

Not qualified for mitigation
104.244.121.154
Our investigation has determined that the above IP(s) do not qualify for mitigation.

Please ensure your emails comply with the Outlook.com policies, practices and guidelines found here: http://mail.live.com/mail/policies.aspx.

To have Deliverability Support investigate further, please reply to this email with a detailed description of the problem you are having, including specific error messages, and an agent will contact you.


Regardless of the deliverability status, Outlook.com recommends that all senders join two free programs that provide visibility into the Outlook.com traffic on your sending IP(s), the sending IP reputation with Outlook.com and the Outlook.com user complaint rates.

Junk Email Reporting program (JMRP)
When an Outlook.com user marks an email as "junk", senders enrolled in this program get a copy of the mail forwarded to the email address of their choice. It allows senders to see which mails are being marked as junk and to identify mail traffic you did not intend to send. To join, please visit http://support.msn.com/eform.aspx?productKey=edfsjmrpp&page=support_home_options_form_byemail&ct=eformts.

Smart Network Data Services program (SNDS)
This program allows you to monitor the 'health' and reputation of your registered IPs by providing data about traffic such as mail volume and complaint rates seen originating from your IPs. To register, please visit http://postmaster.live.com/snds/.


Thank you,

Outlook.com Deliverability Support



Prior to that I had proceeded to fill in a form of theirs:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/getsupport?oaspworkflow=start_1.0.0.0&amp%3bwfname=capsub&amp%3bproductkey=edfsmsbl3&amp%3blocale=en-us&amp%3bwa=wsignin1.0&amp%3bccsid=635653882713130041&ccsid=636464300139635537

of Outbound IP 104.244.121.15, as provided by your Hosting team

1:06:51 AM [Howard] Very lovely for the answers.

1:08:21 AM [Alexander L.] Ah. That form is for removing your IP address from their blacklists. The IP is not currently blacklisted by Microsoft, so that is why you got the response of "Not qualified for mitigation". If it were blacklisted, you would be getting a bounceback saying that Hotmail or Outlook had blocked emails from that IP due to reputation.

1:09:00 AM [Howard] Could you help make sure what they actually referred to by IP submitted not qualified for mitigation or anything in regard

1:09:50 AM [Howard] Now I get the very clear answer from you, finally! I was wandering around with the doubt and couldn't get an idea from anybody/anywhere

1:11:30 AM [Alexander L.] You'd need to ask the administrators to see what particular filter rule was causing your emails to be filtered as spam so that you can modify your emails to not trigger that rule. That would be part of their email setup, so I have no idea what parts of your email are triggering their spam filter. Maybe you can start a chat with Microsoft and provide the information you provided me, especially mentioning the SpamAssassin score of -97.5. Having a score that low is very noteworthy and will hopefully let them come to the conclusion that your emails are not spam.

1:14:28 AM [Howard] IP is not currently blacklisted by them at all, ain't it. Excellent. Very true, indeed. Things make much more sense now within this chat.

1:15:52 AM [Howard] Therefore I'll proceed to ask them what particular filter rule was causing all emails to be filtered as spam so that I can modify the emails to not trigger that rule, is it correct, particularly mentioning the information all along as I provided you, and the SpamAssassin score of -97.5 for them to really sort it

1:16:09 AM [Alexander L.] Exactly.

1:16:59 AM [Howard] Ah. It's been taking ages and all of a sudden things appear to be simple and getting to the main points.

1:18:33 AM [Alexander L.] I'm glad to hear that. Email is a very complicated system and it ties into DNS which is another very complicated system, so finding and fixing the underlying problem can be very difficult if you aren't familiar with either of those technologies.

1:19:25 AM [Howard] What are the free programs mentioned above they're asking me to join, I'm not quite sure what it's all about

Junk Email Reporting program (JMRP) and Smart Network Data Services program (SNDS)

Do I need to worry about them at this very moment

1:19:59 AM [Howard] Happy. I agree.

1:21:59 AM [Alexander L.] JMRP lets you see what emails are being marked as spam as they arrive and SNDS lets you see if the IP reputation goes up or down. JMRP would be a good thing to join, but SNDS deals with the email IP which you wouldn't have the ability to change, so it wouldn't be worthwhile to sign up for SNDS.

1:24:06 AM [Howard] Very clear absolutely in merely a line of sentence. Good gosh. I'll definitely consider going about JMRP for good

1:25:30 AM [Howard] Thing is that's all they answered in email replies without clear additional guides and actual steps to take pertaining to the issue itself

1:27:07 AM [Howard] I definitely understand what to do now. Approaching them with additional info relating to this chat and hopefully this can be sorted in a snap

1:27:28 AM [Alexander L.] I hope so as well. Was there anything else I could help you with?

1:28:25 AM [Howard] Not at the moment. Your prompt assistance and super clear replies have been much appreciated, Alexander. Thanks for all of yours, indeed

1:28:33 AM [Alexander L.] If you would be so kind as to email my manager at: manager_feedback@inmotion.net to let them know how I am doing? Please include my name in the message, again it's Alexander L. Thank you for contacting InMotion Hosting Support today. Our support team is available 24/7 if you are in need of any further assistance.

1:28:38 AM [Howard] Will do