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Q1 |
How come you can get emails delivered successfully when our
in-house server can't? |
A1 |
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We have the DNS records for our server setup properly.
For our main
SmartHost, which is called
mail1.arrowmail.co.uk, this means:- |
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It's often not possible to do this with the IP address you get with a
Broadband connection, even if it's a static IP address. |
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We have extra DNS records setup to comply with anti-spam initiatives such as
SPF and DKIM.
Many domain registrars don't yet permit these types of DNS
records. |
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Some ISPs block connections from any IP address
used for Broadband or
dial-up connections.
Some mail-server blacklisting services include in their list, whole ranges of
addresses in response to complaints about just one address in the range.
The IP addresses we use are reserved for Internet servers.
If we find that any company is blocking emails from our servers we contact them
to request that we be whitelisted. |
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If we experience problems delivering emails to certain email addresses we
route them via partner SmartHost partner services in different countries. |
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We keep trying to send emails that don't get through straightaway in case the
receiving mail-server is having temporary problems.
We try every minute for
the first hour then send you back a warning - it often transpires that you've
made an error in the email address.
We continue to try and send the email, once an hour, for the next 3 days before
finally sending you a "we've given up" message. |
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Q2 |
Why is your Anti-Spam system better than the one on your Exchange server or
Outlook's Junk E-mail system? |
A2 |
I could say, and it would be true, that it's part of our business to be good at
blocking spam ,without losing genuine emails, so we
need to be good at this to stay in business.
We,
therefore, use the latest techniques and respond to "innovations" by spammers as
they occur.
But a couple of, perhaps, less obvious reasons are:-
1 - |
If we are filtering spam on our
servers then it's not using up any of your server's
resources or your Internet connection's bandwidth. |
2 - |
You don't have an anti-spam system to purchase, setup and
maintain. |
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Q3 |
What can I do if spam gets through from your server, to my users' mailboxes? |
A3 |
I'm sorry to say that this will continue to happen until the various anti-spam
initiatives, currently proposed, are agreed upon and universally adopted.
Maybe spam won't exist in 5 years, although, according to Bill Gates' prediction
of a few years ago, it shouldn't exist today:-
"Spam will be a thing of the past in 2 years' time." - January 24th 2004.
The evil geniuses behind spam are constantly changing course to evade anti-spam
systems which are therefore always having to play catch-up.
When a spam email makes it through our filters and arrives in the inbox of one
of your users, they can:-
1 - |
Ignore It
Chances are that our "spam trap"
accounts will have also received the same item and so it's already been fed back
into our Spam Filter for analysis as to how it managed to get through in the
first place.
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2 - |
If the spam has an Unsubscribe link decide if it can be
trusted
If the product being advertised is:-
a) |
Not a typical dodgy spam product such as pornography, mortgages,
phoney qualifications, body part enhancement, pharmaceutical drugs or stocks and
shares advice |
b) |
It doesn't have a paragraph of nonsense words designed to fool
spam filters |
c) |
It's correctly addressed to you |
…then it may not be mainstream spam.
If the company behind it is based in
the UK (prices shown are in £s) then they have a legal obligation to provide a
way for you to be taken off their mailing list.
The law is called the
Privacy and Electronic
Commerce Statutory Instrument 2003, No. 2426
I guess that 30% of what
people consider to be spam can be stopped by following the unsubscribe process
at the bottom of the email, so it's worth trying this if the spam appears to
have originated in the UK.
My experience is that many companies do now act
on requests to unsubscribe from their mailing lists.
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3 - |
Forward the email to us to feed to our Spam Learning
system
Your users should do this if the same spam has made it to
their inboxes repeatedly over several days.
The email needs to be forwarded to us in a special way so that its original
format is preserved.
Instructions on how to do this in Outlook and Outlook Express are given
here.
The spam emails that are forwarded to us don't go straight into the spam
learning system as our existing set of spam definition rules are too precious
for us to risk being polluted.
We review the spam you send us before
letting it through, so if you were to send us Tesco or Amazon newsletters as
spam we'd reject them as some people do wish to
receive these and we know that these companies honour unsubscribe requests.
The address to forward your spam to is:-
isspam@arrowmail.co.uk |
Our spam classification system inserts it's report into the headers of each email
that it processes to show how the Spam Index it has assigned was arrived at.
You may gain some insight into what causes emails to be classified as spam by
examining these headers.
To see these headers in Outlook 2003, open an email and click on View -
Options
This option is not available with Outlook 2007.
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Q4 |
What can I do when I find a Genuine Email in the Spam Folder? |
A4 |
We feel bad when this happens but hopefully it's a rare occurrence.
Forward
the email to us for feeding back to our Spam Learning system so that it can
workout where it went wrong.
You need to forward the email to us in a special way so that its original format
is preserved.
Instructions on how to do this in Outlook and Outlook Express are
here.
The address to forward your false positives to is:-
notspam@arrowmail.co.uk
To stop your outgoing emails being classified as Spam by other, heavy-handed
anti-spam systems you should educate your users to write emails in a non-spammy
way.
Of course, some of the spammers use these techniques themselves but generally
they still help:-
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Don't write words in all capitals or use excessive multiple exclamation or
question marks. |
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Send your emails as plain text instead of HTML formatted emails. |
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Don't send emails with blank Subject lines.
Try to use at least 4 words
to describe the subject of your email. |
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When you send an attachment, make sure you still put a few word in the body
of the email.
Send a pictures or graphics as JPGs and never GIFs. |
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