Outgoing Email Problems, Particularly With Yahoo!

We've recently had a lot of complaints from clients who say Yahoo! mail recipients are not receiving the emails they send. We first noticed this sometime November 2006 but it could have started earlier.

One solution would be to find another hosting provider. The problem is I suspect that it's happening to a lot of hosts and it's Yahoo! in particular that seems to have been a lot more stringent than they were in the past.

I remember some time back (2004 or 2005), AOL blocked an EHOSTPROS.COM server (SVR28) for over 6 months. We also had SVR75 with them and it wasn't blocked (I believe they were in the same DC). And AOL was notorious for blocking a lot of servers. I don't know how it is with them now because from the Philippines, there is very little email exchange with AOL.COM or AIM.COM accounts.

And there is a lot of emails going to YAHOO.COM accounts! And that's where the problem lies.

I first noticed it on my ResellerZoom reseller account (GRAY). Mails from GRAY accounts were completely blocked off by Yahoo! It didn't even go to the Bulk Folder. So Yahoo! was blocking the GRAY server's mail IP and not particular domains (I don't think blocking a domain makes any sense, you usually block IP's).

I opened a ticket with RZ and got great support. But of course, it was about 3 days before Yahoo! started accepting mails from GRAY. RZ did the best they can but could only have done so much.

And then the same thing happened with my HostGator reseller account (INFINITI). Similar issue as well.

From that time until today, it seems to come back on and off. Sometimes emails never reach Yahoo!, sometimes it lands in the Bulk Folder (that's a much lesser evil).

I have 3 reseller accounts at RZ (CAMERON B1, GRAY A1, R2 Failover-1) and 2 reseller accounts at HG (INFINITI and SONOMA). The same issue has come back again the past couple of days on INFINITI (HostGator) and GRAY (ResellerZoom). I'd open a ticket but it's on and off.

Dec 5 / Dec 6, several clients on INFINITI complained that emails to Yahoo! recipients were not being delivered. By the time we tested it, it was ok already. And then just a few hours ago, we got a call from a client on GRAY. We tested and emails were landing on the Bulk Folder. But after a couple of more tests, it went to the Inbox.

We advise clients to tell Yahoo! recipients to always check their Bulk Folders. We also ask the recipients to tag emails with MARK AS NOT SPAM hoping that would help.

You could say that I should be going to HG and RZ support for these. It's just that I don't think it's limited to them and I want to get feedback from others. I will also invite HG and RZ to give their comments on this post.

In the reseller hosting area, I'll actually be asking around also for reseller hosting that's more reliable with email. But I've been doing reseller hosting since May 2003 and have used all of the following:

EHOSTPROS.COM, HOSTDIME.COM, MIDPHASE.COM, SITE5.COM, BLIKSEMHOSTING.COM, HOSTGATOR.COM, RESELLERZOOM.COM

There were more in between but that was a quick in and out. The above list in the sequence I signed up and only includes those that I stayed with long enough (at least 6 months) to evaluate and decide if they're worth it.

I won't expound but avoid MIDPHASE, SITE5, and BLIKSEM. There's enough here on WHT for you to search upon.

My point is that, by far, I've had the best experience with HG and RZ and it does get tiring moving from one host to the other. And it's not that we haven't contributed to the problem. A lot of our clients' contact us forms have recently been hijacked by spammers and have caused abuse on the servers. We're working on fixing each and everyone of these scripts (> 80) and should solve it within a few days. We do our part but there are hundreds of accounts and millions of ways spammers try to hijack server resources for their cause. Note, however, that those scripts have been there for quite awhile and only recently have they been used to spam.

Although there are a lot of other hosts with good reps here on WHT, the only other host I am considering (for the moment) is Aussie Bob's DOTABLE.COM.

But then, right now, with these email woes, we're still evaluating our business. The bulk of our clients are dependent on email. Too much incoming spam is already an issue but mails not reaching intended recipients kinds of ruins the business.

Damned these spammers!

Is there actually a viable solution for this issue? Or is it something that we just have to start living with?