topic Sending to Gmail addresses in Email

Sending to Gmail addresses

moosehead — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 08:43:24 GMT

I too have this issue sending to Gmail accounts. I have read the other posts and it looks like I need someone from Plusnet to apply 'the fix' to my email accounts. So please could someone do that for me or tell me how to do it myself.

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

busylizzie — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 10:48:43 GMT

Is it this your problem: messages to gmail addresses being returned undeliverable. The solution I found was to change gmail to googlemail, and it worked (though obviously not satisfactory). Haven't been advised of anything PlusNet could do.

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

Townman — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 10:54:10 GMT

The fix? What fix?

There are a multitude of different scenarios none of which have a Plusnet instigated fix on a per customer basis.

It would help if you described your scenario.

If you are sending email from your own domain name which is hosted by Plusnet then YOU implement the fix in the user portal as described in those other threads.

If you are sending email using you own domain name hosted somewhere else via Plusnet’s relay services (not ideal) then YOU implement the fix with your hosting provider as described in those other threads.

If your domain is hosted by Plusnet on one of the legacy brands, there probably is no fix.

Context is everything.

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

cornbunting — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 11:41:22 GMT

I would like to tag on to this thread. I am with Plusnet and we have our own domain name and use Outlook 2019. I don't have much technical expertise.

All emails sent to individuals with gmail or yahoo email addressed are delivery failures. I have a gmail account so have to use that to ensure delivery. I am aware that Plusnet are now not "trusted", if that is the correct terminology. Gmail is awful compared to Outlook, but never mind.

However what I have noticed recently is, if I send emails to individuals with other email accounts they never respond and when I chase them up or they eventually respond they say the email went into their Spam folder so they didn't see it or only by chance many weeks later.

The most recent ones were sent to individuals using talk21.com and outlook.com. It's getting now that I can't trust any new email to be delivered. I suppose their providers have also blacklisted Plusnet. I have attached my outgoing email settings POP/STMP. Is this something I have to live with? Thank you.

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

MisterW — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 11:48:13 GMT

@cornbunting I am with Plusnet and we have our own domain name

As per the previous post to yours , where is your domain hosted ?

I suppose their providers have also blacklisted Plusnet.

Its not that Plusnet is blacklisted, its almost certainly that YOU havent defined Plusnet as a valid sender for your domain using an SPF record

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

busylizzie — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 11:57:47 GMT

I have a domain hosted by Ionos. I still use Pegasus and Pop3 for sending / receiving.

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

MisterW — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 12:10:16 GMT

@busylizzie

as posted above

If you are sending email using you own domain name hosted somewhere else via Plusnet’s relay services (not ideal) then YOU implement the fix with your hosting provider as described in those other threads.

I have a domain hosted by Ionos

To authorise sending using the Plusnet servers , YOU need to create an SPF record using the Ionos DNS control panel as below

v=spf1 a mx include:_spf-internal.plus.net include:_spf-internal2.plus.net ~all

I suggest reading through this thread https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/Cannot-send-to-gmail-addresses/m-p/1934005#M44287

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

busylizzie — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 12:29:03 GMT

Or, as I said earlier, I change gmail to googlemail in the sender's email address. It works (just not sure why). But thanks for the advice.

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

MisterW — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 12:39:55 GMT

@busylizzie the problem is that whilst at the moment googlemail will work, it almost certainly won't be long before google close the loophole. Also it wont be long before other mail services start insisting on SPF and/or DKIM authentication (or at least using the lack of it to affect spam scoring!) , so you are better getting it setup now.

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

Townman — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 12:48:53 GMT

@busylizzie

The reason that @googlemail works is that though the email is delivered to the same mailbox, Google's inbound mail processing for @googlemailis different to that for @gmail. It can only be a matter of time before Google applies the same draconian measures to @googlemail as applied to free @gmail accounts.

These issues do not blight paid for @gmail users.

EDIT: @MisterW types faster!

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

Townman — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 12:44:30 GMT

@moosehead

Now that I am at my desk, here is the full guidance as posted elsewhere of the things YOU can do as fits your scenario. Which of them have you tried?

Mitigating email delivery failures (notably Gmail)

Many users are reporting challenging issues in sending emails to some of the big email players. Some of those providers (notably Gmail, but only in respect of their free email accounts) have mandated the SPF & DKIM non-mandatory RFCs on other email providers, such as Plusnet. This can bring about significant difficulty when attempting to send emails using the various Plusnet and vISP legacy email services.

How you mitigate Google's behaviour very much depends on how you send your emails via Plusnet's SMTP servers and which Plusnet vISP email brands you use.

A Plusnet email account or a legacy brand (for example MAAF) email account
you@youraccount.plus.com (native Plusnet email address)
you@yourdomain.co.uk which is registered and hosted by Plusnet (or MAAF)
you@yourdomain.co.uk which is registered elsewhere and hosted by Plusnet
you@yourdomain.co.uk which is hosted elsewhere which forwards mail to your Plusnet (or MAAF) mailbox

The vISP email brands have different level of mitigation capability - for some, the only practical solution might be to migrate your email hosting elsewhere.

Native Plusnet email address

If a user sends email using a from address of you@youraccount.plus.com then DKIM signing will be applied to the email automatically (and pass Gmail's imposed restrictions) if the SMTP server is configured to require authentication. Somewhat unhelpfully, Plusnet's email setup guide suggests that such authentication is NOT required if connecting over a Plusnet connection. Whilst technically true, operational complications can occur and it is much tidier to just enable authentication with the "use the same account settings as the incoming server" option.

Your own domain

If you send from your own domain name, then DKIM signing is not available and you will need to configure SPF instead. How to do this depends on where your domain is hosted - by Plusnet or by third party.

Plusnet fully hosted and registered domain

For Plusnet brand registered and managed domains, SPF configuration is facilitated by the addition of a TXT record in the domain's DNS settings. Plusnet's DNS configuration tool for hosted domains does not permit the creation of TXT records. However, there is an unsupported "facilitation" which will create an SPF record for a hosted domain.

On the basis that your account ALREADY has a hosted domain:

Log into the user portal
Go to Manage Account
Manage Your Domains (Manage your domains link)
Configure domain name
Create an "Additional DNS records (Advanced)" as follows...

For the avoidance of doubt leave the left side blank, exactly as shown. It might take Plusnet's systems up to 6 hours to generate the SPF record.

If your email service is provided by one of the legacy vISP brands (for example MAAF) acquired over the years by Plusnet, similar options are not available to you.

Domain name registered and managed elsewhere (third party)

There are two scenarios here:

Plusnet hosts the email service for the domain
The domain forwards email to the native Plusnet email address

THESE ARE NOT THE SAME. Ideally email forwarding should be avoided as it brings about numerous complications - you should use the DOMAIN's email servers to received and send your domain email, not Plusnet's.

To configure SPF on a domain name registered elsewhere, you must use your domain name provider's DNS configuration tools to set up the applicable SPF record:

v=spf1 a mx include:_spf-internal.plus.net include:_spf-internal2.plus.net ~all

or

v=spf1 include:_spf-internal.madasafish.com include:_spf-internal2.madasafish.com include:_spf-external.madasafish.com -all

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

bathplug — Fri, 03 May 2024 16:29:36 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for that summary, which is very helpful. However, I seem to have hit a snag with applying an SPF to my email.

My domain ("mydomain.com") is registered with Fasthosts, however I think I am right in saying that it is "hosted" by Plusnet - at any rate, I send and receive emails via Plusnet mail boxes using addresses like "myname@mydomain.com".

The DNS Nameservers for my domain (set in my Fasthosts dashboard) are set to:

ns1.force9.net
ns2.force9.net

I thought this was necessary in order to allow mail to be routed via Plusnet.

The problem is that with the nameservers not set to the Fasthosts default (ns1.livedns.co.uk) Fasthosts will not let me set Advanced DNS setting such as SPF. The implication is that in this case it is Plusnet that can set the SPF.

Is that correct, and if so, how do I get that done? If not correct, do you have any advice about getting the SPF set?

Thanks for your help, and sorry for displaying my technical ignorance.

David

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

MisterW — Fri, 03 May 2024 16:49:50 GMT

@bathplug

however I think I am right in saying that it is "hosted" by Plusnet - at any rate,

That would appear to be the case as your nameservers are set to force9.

In which case the domain should be showing on your Plusnet account and you can proceed as the

Plusnet fully hosted and registered domain

section in @Townman s post above

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

bathplug — Fri, 03 May 2024 17:15:20 GMT

OK thanks, that worked.

David

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

MisterW — Fri, 03 May 2024 17:29:09 GMT

It may take a few hours for the SPF record to appear on your DNS

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

msbernice7 — Fri, 03 May 2024 21:13:01 GMT

It is my understanding that problems with sending to gmail are due to gmail and nothing to do with Plusnet.

Particularly if you use Outlook as I do. Gmail changed the algorithm (or something else) which isn't compatible with Outlook. Gmail says it's OUtlook's problem and won't fix it. Outlook says it's gmail's problem and can't fix it.

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

Townman — Fri, 03 May 2024 21:27:48 GMT

Do you have references for that please?

I use Outlook 365 - note there are several products called Outlook - to send email from my Plusnet accounts to Gmail users and generally I do not have issues.

There could be a lot of devils in the detail of your statement - which version of outlook and us that outlook accessing Gmail as a client?

Certainly Gmail is causing major headaches by imposing requirements on other mail services to implement non-mandatory standards such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

Note also that these measures only apply to free Gmail accounts. They don’t want to hack off their business users, but they are happy to see Joe Public not to receive their emails.

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

msbernice7 — Sat, 04 May 2024 07:45:52 GMT

I too use Outlook in Office 365

I can't remember where I saw the info about Gmail but there are numerous threads about it on the Microsoft Community pages.

The problems I get are often intermittent. And annoying. I can be emailing people quite happily for months or even years and then their gmail account takes a dislike to me. Rather than bouncing back the emails either disappear or go to the spam folder of the recipient.

One strange anomaly is that all the staff at my church have name@domain name which is hosted by gmail. All have my email as a safe sender and all but one get my emails without problem. The latter gets my emails in his spam folder. I usually text hm to tell him I've sent an email!!!

I noticed today in this community some comments about Outlook/gmail and Fasthosts. My account is hosted by fasthosts so will look into that

Re: Sending to Gmail addresses

Townman — Sat, 04 May 2024 07:51:37 GMT

The mail space is a real muddle. My church email accounts are hosted by AWS and cannot send to @outlook, @hotmail @live etc. and sometimes @plusnet … AWS has a woefully bad reputation.