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quick guide for testing your settings, (marketing orientated)

Last post 10-20-2008 7:13 PM by tom.hanson1@gmail.com. 9 replies.
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  • 08-06-2008 12:43 PM

    quick guide for testing your settings, (marketing orientated)

     Hi guys thought I'd like to share some of the helpful links I have used to test our servers for optimal delivery. Also send an email to gmail, yahoo and aol. For gmail look at the original aka headers, check the spf and domainkeys to see if you passed. Also check both in webmail and a popular mail client like thunderbird to make sure everything works.

     

    1. check that you are not on any popular dnsbl (some of the dead ones will say you are on their list... but nobody uses them):
    http://www.dnsbl.info/advanced.asp

    2. Open relay test... if your an open relay this can place you in a spam folder...
    http://www.mailradar.com/openrelay/

    3. verify your designers code... less errors = less chances of landing in spam:
    http://validator.w3.org/

    4. check your domainkeys if any:
    http://domainkeys.sourceforge.net/policycheck.html
    http://domainkeys.sourceforge.net/selectorcheck.html

    email these for tests (sometimes check your bounce account for results):
    dktest@exhalus.net
    check-auth@verifier.port25.com

    5. check your spf records... look at the headers on a test sent to gmail... also test here:
    spf-test@openspf.org

    6. use CE's bad email address on your big campaigns. This helped us remove 2k bad addresses instantly... something we never did after 3 years... its worth the effort.. create a bademail field and set it to 0 for all records... then setup the campaign.

    7. very basic spam checker (baynesian and spam assassin):
    http://spamcheck.sitesell.com/

     

    8. get whitelisted and check populor fbls:

    http://summation.typepad.com/summation/2008/06/email-deliverability-is-crucial-to-achieve-consumer-internet-virality.html

    http://www.streamsend.com/kb2/idx.php/0/002/article/Ive-been-blacklisted-ISP-Listings.html 

     

    9. spf record creators

    http://old.openspf.org/wizard.html

    http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/content/technologies/senderid/wizard/

     

  • 08-07-2008 1:54 PM In reply to

    Re: quick guide for testing your settings, (marketing orientated)

    just giving it a bump for a few days. its great for testing your dns, spf, helo/ehlo and domainkey settings.  

  • 08-07-2008 5:39 PM In reply to

    Re: quick guide for testing your settings, (marketing orientated)

    Question about Domain Keys.  SM forces our DKs to use a selector.
    So the 2nd link passes but the first fails. Is this normal?

     

     

    Richard Amiss
    MightyBlue Hosting
    www.MightyBlue.com
  • 08-07-2008 8:02 PM In reply to

    Re: quick guide for testing your settings, (marketing orientated)

    all domain keys requirea selector. the selector is what you name your text record that hold the key in your dns settings. they must be the same name.

     

    smartermail will be neutral on dkim since it is not implemented (unless u use the plugin). 

     

    1. policy record test... this holds your policy not your key. this is nameless.. you create a text record in your subdomain named _domainkey .

     

    sometimes it has a test entry, if not do this:

    o=~;  

     i think thats the correct one... some put t=y; but i removed ours this week. basically this holds your policy, it has a blank name

     

    2. your domainkey located in the same _domainkey subdomain folder in your domain... must have a name. the name of this txt entry is the same as your selector like "dkname" ...

     

    the value is the generated key from smartermail.

     

    3. save everything... then update your SOA to the days date

  • 09-26-2008 8:38 AM In reply to

    Re: quick guide for testing your settings, (marketing orientated)

    1. in smatertmail, create your selector... lets call it "dkserver".  Then generate your key (i do 768 encryption not 512)

    2. in ms dns, go to your domain... then create a subdomain called _domainkey  with the underscore before the word domainkey. this will create a subdomain that looks like a folder named _domainkey

     

    3. in this subdomain folder, create a text /txt record... name it your selector... lets copy what we did and use "dkserver" without quotes...

    4. copy and paste the already generated key here... in this text field 

    5. go back to the domain, update the SOA to reflect the new dns change to today's date

    6. make sure you save the domainkey, do not generate it again! they must match

    7. make sure you have a valid spf record

    8. then click test

    9. if troubles continue on your dns server and your pc, in msdos do ipconfig /flushdns and ipconfig /registerdns

     

    10. if troubles continue test the spf records as well. send an email to a gmail account, view original headers... then look for the domainkey test and spf tests, make sure you pass both.

     

    11. to isolate issues do this in webmail first, then test it in your other software later

     

     

    useful links:

    http://www.smartertools.com/forums/p/20329/53882.aspx#53882

     

    http://www.smartertools.com/forums/p/21047/56290.aspx#56290 

    http://www.smartertools.com/forums/p/21039/56261.aspx#56261

    http://www.smartertools.com/forums/p/18697/55161.aspx#55161

    http://www.smartertools.com/forums/p/20373/53883.aspx#53883

     

  • 09-29-2008 6:10 AM In reply to

    Re: quick guide for testing your settings, (marketing orientated)

    bump... i wont be using smartermail after 10/3 (new position)... so if anyone thinks this is useful please help bump it
  • 10-03-2008 8:27 AM In reply to

    Re: quick guide for testing your settings, (marketing orientated)

     bump!

  • 10-03-2008 9:08 AM In reply to

    Re: quick guide for testing your settings, (marketing orientated)

    thanks! hope this was helpful to those who needed it

     

     

  • 10-20-2008 6:39 PM In reply to

    Re: quick guide for testing your settings, (marketing orientated)

    I'm getting a couple of issues here. In my smatertmail error log I see below message for every outgoing email: "Unable to parse Command Line Path: C:\Program Files\DKeyEvent\dkeyevent.exe %filepath" My DNS test from the smatertmail DomainKey generation fails. "DNS test failed" You have any insight on this? Thanks
  • 10-20-2008 7:13 PM In reply to

    Re: quick guide for testing your settings, (marketing orientated)

    I found this from Enterhost: (important to restart your sm service) How do I configure DomainKeys in SmarterMail 5? Log in to SmarterMail as the emailadmin Click 'Settings' Click 'Domain Defaults' Click the 'Features' tab Ensure that 'Enable DomainKey Signing' is enabled and click Save Click 'Manage' Click 'All Domains' Click 'Impersonate' Type the name of a domain admin such as admin@yourdomain.com and click 'OK' Choose 'DomainKeys' from the new window that pops up Double check that 'Enable DomainKey Signing' is enabled Click the 'Certificate' tab Enter anything for the selector, such as dkyourdomain Click the 'Generate Key' icon at the top Click 'Save' Restart the SmarterMail Service: Open the 'Computer Management' icon on the desktop Expand 'Services and Applications' and click on 'Services' Right click on the SmarterMail service and select 'Restart' Open DNS Browse to the domain being configured in SmarterMail Right click on it and select 'New Domain' Enter _domainkey and click 'OK' Right click on the _domainkey domain and select 'Other New Records' Choose 'Text (TXT)' and click 'Create Record' Paste the 'Selector' field from SmarterMail into the 'Record name' field Paste the 'TXT Record Value' field from SmarterMail into the 'Text:' field Click 'OK' Click 'Done'
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