RealTown's e-MailHeaven

By Mike Barnett
CTO/VP of Technology
InternetCrusade's RealTown.com

At InternetCrusade, our mail exchangers (a mail exchanger is a server that handles eMail, sometimes called an MX machine) handle the transmission of millions of eMail messages per day (for tens of thousands of customers and hundreds of thousands of mailboxes).

In addition to all the inbound eMail, because delivery of eMail is becoming harder and harder to accomplish, some of our customers (especially those who are serious about eMail delivery) contract us to deliver all their outbound eMail (individual, corporate and marketing).

As a service (and practice, because we are in the "Chain of Blame"), InternetCrusade logs every communication both in and out of all our servers and we maintain backups of all the logs for 30 days (or longer at the customer's request).

Last week, one of our customers (who we handle delivery of hundreds of thousands of marketing messages "per day", and growing rapidly) contacted us and told us that their daily communication was not being received by one of their subscribers., and what made it worse is their subscriber also happened to be an advertiser on the particular marketing message in question (not good ;-).

When reviewing our logs, we were able to confirm that their customer's servers were, in fact, rejecting the eMail.

To protect the name of the company in mention that was blocking the eMail, let's make one up., something like MakeUpOurOwnRules.com.

Our logs indicated that MakeUpOurOwnRules.com was rejecting the eMail as SPAM. Their server was sending a very cryptic reject message, but it seemed to indicate to our Postmaster that there was a problem within the content of the message itself.

There are two parts to the message, the content (what you send) and the envelope which includes the To, From, Reply to, sending servers (anda anda).

For purposes of this article, it is important for you to know that our logs indicated that these same eMail marketing communications (as mentioned, hundreds of thousands per day) were being successfully delivered to every other mail carrier besides MakeUpOurOwnRules.com.

On behalf of our customer, I contacted their subscriber (advertiser). I described what was happening (as I did above).

After the call he called MakeUpOurOwnRules.com and the tech told them that they didn't see anything wrong with the content of the message (or the envelope or header) and couldn't explain why it was being blocked.

The subscriber (advertiser) called me back and told me what MakeUpOurOwnRule.com said and was concerned (as they should be) that if they weren't receiving the communication then anyone who used MakeUpOurOwnRules.com was not getting the message as well. I explained that while he might be correct (and it was likely he was) at this point in my research, that was not a proven fact, but I was willing to move forward with that premise.

He called MakeUpOurOwnRules.com (with me on the phone). At first (well, not at first as we were on hold for a long, long time), the tech at MakeUpOurOwnRules.com said he couldn't find anything wrong with the communication or the servers it was coming from so he suggested that he escalate the call to the highest level of tech support (a lot more hold time ;-)

We finally connected to the next level of support (not sure how high it was or he was ;-), and after much deliberation, (and finger pointing) it was discovered that the eMail contained a graphic that had a referenced URL that was listed as a possible threat.

The one thing I will say is that the technician we were talking to was honest and told us that MakeUpOurOwnRules.com shouldn't have been blocking the messages as even though they did contain a possible bad URL, the message itself wasn't SPAM. He concluded with the fact that MakeUpOurOwnRules.com had, in fact, "Made Up Their Own Rules".

Now here is the kicker, the techs (at both levels) suggested to both of us that while MakeUpOurOwnRules.com does handle eMail, that isn't their core competency, (selling domains was their main business)., and they both told us that they had seen these indiscriminate made up rules before and (here's the kicker) suggested we go to another eMail host if we wanted to guaranty delivery ;-)

The end result is (in summary) after many frustrating telephone calls that MakeUpOurOwnRules.com was making up their own rules (not complying with the RFCs for those who want to be technical ;-).

So, how did we fix it? We didn't do a thing.., all of a sudden; the eMail started to be delivered. (wonder if MakeUpOurOwnRules.com changed anything? ;-)

If you are serious about your eMail, wouldn't you want to know the disposition of each and every piece you send? All our customers do.

For more information, go to www.InternetCrusade.com and click on eMail products.

If you have questions about your eMail, don't hesitate to send questions to Mike@eMailHeaven.RealTown.com or visit the eMail Heaven community on RealTown.com to review other questions and answers.

See you online,

Mike

(Mike Barnett is the CTO and VP Technology of InternetCrusade�. InternetCrusade is the creator and provider of e-PRO (NAR's only technology certification course) as well as the host of RealTown.com, the oldest and most respected social networking site in real estate. InternetCrusade also manages tens of thousands of eMail accounts representing millions of pieces of eMail on a daily basis.)