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Julius · Cool Newbie Joined: 19 Sep 2023 Posts: 16 Location: Ottawa

I own a two .ca domain names that I use for my small business. For both my domains I set up a single email user account, both of which I use frequently.

I notice that Rogers has been branding as [Bulk] every message I send to any of my several Rogers accounts from both domains --even though there isn't the slightest characteristic of spam or bulk to any of the messages I send. I am unable to determine what methodology Rogers/Yahoo uses to filter icoming mail.

I must assume then that ALL Rogers account holders who receive emails from my personal domains also have them branded as [Bulk]. If so, then any messages I send to friends and colleagues with Rogers accounts stand a good chance of being automatically tossed in their trash and not seen, unless they are explicitly whitelisted. That's just great.

The most logical explanation for all this is that both my domains have been blacklisted by Rogers. This would surprise greatly me since I am the sole accountholder and user of both domains, and the volume of messages per day is quite low (from 0-20 messages on any given day).

Another, more likely, possibility is that Rogers is downgrading any email message received from domain servers that do not employ Domainkeys (see http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys)

Can anyone confirm this? I have sent a message to support@rogers.com but am not holding my breath for an intelligable or useful reply. Any suggestions on how I should proceed?

Thx in advance
-j

mtayeb · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2023 1:58 am Post subject:

What are you using as your outbound mail server? Rogers or something else? I don't think DomainKeys are an issue because I frequently send e-mail from my own domain and it is never marked as bulk by Rogers.

Are your domains ones that were previously owned by someone else and that you picked up when they expired, or are they newly-created and fairly unique names?

Julius · Cool Newbie Joined: 19 Sep 2023 Posts: 16 Location: Ottawa

Thanks for your reply.

I use my own domain host/provider's SMTP servers for my outbound mail, not Rogers. But because Rogers now blocks port 25 I have had to reroute access through port 1025 instead. (BTW I refuse to be forced by Rogers to route all my email communications through their servers --it's a privacy issue and also a matter of principle).

Neither of my two domains were ever owned by anyone else - I created both in early 2000.

However, it occured to me that my (very small private) domain host does host other domains and so it may be possible that their servers have been blacklisted due to misbehaviour by other -unrelated (to me)- domain activity? Hmmm, I will inquire. BTW Rogers also labels all inbound messages from my cotse.net account as bulk too.

Do you know if there is there an easy way of finding out if my domain (or host) has been blacklisted by Rogers (or anyone else)?

I am very annoyed that Rogers/Yahoo! does not provide public information about the methods that filter and screen inbound messages to their customers. It seems to me that intercepting and screening the personal communications of hundreds of thousands of customers should not be carried out in such an opaque and non-transparent manner. At a minimum, they should (1) publish the (general) Spamguard filtering criteria, (2) provide a mechanism for legitimate senders to address problem delivery issues and be removed quickly from blocklists, and (3) allow their own customers to opt-out of this "convenient" mail filtering service (without having to re-register their accounts and set individual preferences through a US-based webmail provider (Yahoo! --Oh god don't let me get me started on THAT rant)

'Nuff said. I digress.

-j

mtayeb · Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2023 3:10 pm Post subject:

You've probably already done this, but I was going to suggest trying out the Rogers SMTP server, and perhaps another outbound server, like g-mail, just to see if it's your service provider that is the problem, like you mentioned. You were right on when you suggested that your provider might be blacklisted. It's more likely that then your domain being blacklisted; there's almost no chance of it being your domain that's the problem.

If it does turn out to be your service provider, let them know of the problem and have them contact Rogers. Threaten to switch providers if they're not interested in helping you. But a legitimate e-mail service provider will do everything in their power to get unblacklisted (if that is the problem) because having a major ISP tagging mail from their servers will destroy their business sooner or later.

Admin

Cliffy · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2023 1:24 pm Post subject:

Check the DNS records for both yourself and your hosting servers.

http://www.dnsreport.com/

This might give a clue as to why rogers may be calling your mail bulk.
_________________
...As God as my witness...
I thought turkeys could fly....

BuddyRich · Cool Newbie Joined: 03 Dec 2023 Posts: 19

Go here and search for your domains IP address and see if its on any public blacklists... This searches a fair number of public blacklists...

http://www.declude.com/Articles.asp?ID=97

Julius · Cool Newbie Joined: 19 Sep 2023 Posts: 16 Location: Ottawa

Wow - thanks everyone for all the help.
I will follow up on all your suggestions and report back with any lessons learned.
-J