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Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

NicholasA
Dabbler
Posts: 18
Registered: ‎09-12-2016

Re: Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

Thanks for the advice.  For various complex reasons (not least that other members of my family use the domain for their emails, and forcing them to change the outgoing SMTP server may be a step too far) I think I am going to just have to move my domain hosting away from Plusnet.

Townman
Superuser
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Posts: 22,921
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

On this occasion, @MisterW was the faster typist!

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Townman
Superuser
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Re: Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

For various complex reasons (not least that other members of my family use the domain for their emails, and forcing them to change the outgoing SMTP server may be a step too far)

---------------------

A step too far?  It is not good practice to user provider B's SMTP services to send provider A's emails.  So if everyone using the Plusnet mail host is not using the Plusnet SMTP service, then this ought to be corrected.  Surely this is less onerous than migrating your hosting elsewhere, which will entail changing everyone's email configuration.

Your original description of the problem suggested that it is only YOUR email replies which are impacted here.  That being the case, it is only YOUR details which need to be checked.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

NicholasA
Dabbler
Posts: 18
Registered: ‎09-12-2016

Re: Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

My domain is hosted by Plusnet.  The nameserver is ns1.force9.net

But I don't use Plusnet's IMAP/POP3/SMTP - I use gmail suite, and have the MX records point to gmail's servers.

And because members of my family have email addresses on our domain, which they access using Gmail's webmail service, I can't have all the outgoing emails from our family domain sent via Plusnet's SMTP server.

As regards the devices encountering the issues - it's all of them. It's my home desktop - connected via Plusnet FTTC and my mobile phone (3G/4G) - and I don't use VPN for this particular domain.

NicholasA
Dabbler
Posts: 18
Registered: ‎09-12-2016

Re: Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

Many thanks for everyone's helpful comments, which I really appreciate.  But I think the solution is to move my domain hosting away from Plusnet.  I am tending to the view to terminate Plusnet as my ISP anyway, as the quality of their service has been slowly deteriorating - but the difficult question is to find someone else as my ISP who isn't worse!

MisterW
Superuser
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Posts: 14,575
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Registered: ‎30-07-2007

Re: Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

But I don't use Plusnet's IMAP/POP3/SMTP - I use gmail suite, and have the MX records point to gmail's servers.

@NicholasA  Ahh! I didnt realise you were using gmail for receiving. In that case the standard spf record may actually work for you, since (I failed to mention) that it includes wherever your mx record refers to, as well as the plusnet relays. This was primarily included for people who were running their own mail servers with domains hosted at PN.

You could try it and see what happens, if it doesnt help, then you can remove the spf by simply deleting the mx 999999 record.

But I think the solution is to move my domain hosting away from Plusnet.

Long term, you're probably right.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Townman
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Posts: 22,921
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

@NicholasA 

Hmmm I think we might have stumbled over terminology here.  From what you describe in the later posts, Plusnet is NOT HOSTING your domain, rather they are your registrar and they are providing DNS for the domain.

"Hosting" tends to refer to the party which delivers the email or webservice where the contents are stored.  The limit of PlusNet's involvement here is to point your domain to elsewhere.

It would be far tidier if everyone used the SMTP service for the other party.  That does however bring about problems in respect of the limitations of the configurability of Plusnet's DNS.  If the little known feature referred to by @MisterW does include the target MX service (but that would be the recipient server not necessarily an SMTP server, the SPF record might be adequate.

Indeed using Plusnet for domain name registration and DNS services whilst placing your hosting elsewhere can be a challenge - not a configuration I would recommend.  That said, I would never recommend using Gmail for anything other than a gash email account, for many reasons, including but not limited to, the multitude of issues seen with its interworking with other email providers.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

kjpetrie
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 214
Thanks: 31
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Registered: ‎19-12-2010

Re: Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

If other users on the same domain are not affected and are sending through the same SMTP server, the problem can't be SPF-related, since SPF relates to the domain, not the user name on the domain.

The filtering must be on something else peculiar to your e-mails rather than something common to all.

1. Cc yourself into a test mail and get another user to do the same, so you get a copy of both outgoing messages in your inbox. Then compare the source of the two to spot differences in the headers or body and experiment with those.

2. As you're sending through Gmail, you might need to contact their support to see whether they're doing something that could affect Symantec's reading of your mail.

 

MisterW
Superuser
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Re: Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

@kjpetrie the problem can't be SPF-related, since SPF relates to the domain, not the user name on the domain.

In general, I agree, it's not wholly down to spf. The problem, however, can be that if the message is determined for whatever reason to be slightly spammy, but not normally sufficient to trigger the spam filter, then the lack of spf may add to the score and trigger the spam filter.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

kjpetrie
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 214
Thanks: 31
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Registered: ‎19-12-2010

Re: Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

So there might be a marginal effect, but only for this one sender. It's not impossible, but I'd rather address the question of why this one user's mail looks spammy compared with the others. After all, it's not the occasional message from him and the occasional message from the others that get rejected, at least, that's not what he's reporting.

So let's look for something obvious first before grasping at straws.

 

NicholasA
Dabbler
Posts: 18
Registered: ‎09-12-2016

Re: Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

Managed to contact my bank manager by phone - and then the bank’s technical support team - and eventually they got Symantec to whitelist me - anyway, the bouncing emails seem to have stopped (at least for now). But I’ll never know why I was blacklisted in the first place. 

NicholasA
Dabbler
Posts: 18
Registered: ‎09-12-2016

Re: Getting 553 error when sending an email to recipient using Symanteccloud

Thanks to everyone for their helpful comments - all very much appreciated.