High Impact Missions FAQ

Have you sent an email that was blocked by another company’s email server? Or perhaps someone is trying to send you an email and they are telling you that your email server is blocking their emails? High Impact Missions has come across the following scenario which may help explain the issues you are having… 

When it comes to email services, you have three choices. (1) You can use a number of free emails services (GMail, Yahoo mail, Juno, etc.), (2) you can purchase an email service (GoDaddy, Network Solutions, etc.), or (3) you can create your own email server. 

If you are using option #1, stick to one of the more well known providers. In some cases, some sites may block emails from certain unknown free email providers out of fear that they may be spammers. Typically, you only need to be concerned if you are using this email address to register for something online, but you certain spam filters may quarantine certain emails. 

If you are using option #2, you should not have any issues with the emails you SEND being blocked by another email server. 

If you are using option #3, you must make sure that you have set up your email server correctly. High Impact Missions has had several support issues involving  email servers that have not setup up the Reverse DNS Lookup (aka. “PTR record”) correctly. 

Typically, it is the internet provider for a client site that would make this entry on their DNS server.  In some cases you can do it yourself depending on who is hosting the DNS, but most of the time you must make a request to your ISP. (e.g. AT&T, Cox, Comcast, etc.) 

One question H.I.M. has been asked is why emails sent to a specific recipient are blocked while all others are received normally. This is because it is up to the receiving email server to determine if the sender is obeying all the rules. In the case of Reverse DNS, companies like GoDaddy see the absence of a Reverse DNS or an incorrect Reverse DNS as an indication of potential SPAM activity. Some companies are more aggressive in their battle against spam, while others let all emails go through. In the case of GoDaddy, for example, the sender will receive an email that their email was blocked, and their will be a link to go and “unblock” the sending email server’s IP address. While using this link to unblock the sending IP will work temporarily, the block will most likely return shortly. The only way to fix the issue is for the sending email server to correct the incorrect Reverse DNS configuration. 

Reverse DNS has to be set by the company responsible for the IP address. This is usually your ISP. They do not have to host your domain - if they tell you that the cannot set it because they aren't responsible for the domain then they are wrong. Similarly, if you are told to speak to your domain name registrar (usually because they don't host the domain) then ask to speak to someone who knows how DNS on the internet works. 

If your ISP will not change the reverse DNS, which is often the case with DSL type connections or a connection that uses dynamic IP address, then you may have to look at using an SMTP Connector to ensure that your email is delivered correctly.