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We're making changes to your email - questions

corringham
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We're making changes to your email - questions

Can someone explain what is meant by

This means you’ll no longer be able to run your emails through your own server, or other email providers may reject them.

 

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JonoH
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

Hi @corringham, I'd be happy to, basically, once the change is implemented anyone sending an email from their Plusnet email address must have their mail client configured to use our outgoing server (relay.plus.net) or else risk the email not being delivered to the intended recipient. 

 

 

 Jono H
 Plusnet Community Manager
corringham
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

I run my own mail server, as do quite a few business users. Why would e-mails not be delivered?

JonoH
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

If it's not your anything@plusnetusername.plus.com email address you should be unaffected. 

There is a really clear piece of the text on the SPF Wiki that I'll pinch Smiley   

Reasons to implement 

If a domain publishes an SPF record, spammers and phishers are less likely to forge emails pretending to be from that domain, because the forged emails are more likely to be caught in spam filters which check the SPF record. Therefore, an SPF-protected domain is less attractive to spammers and phishers. Because an SPF-protected domain is less attractive as a spoofed address, it is less likely to be blacklisted by spam filters and so ultimately the legitimate email from the domain is more likely to get through 

 

edit* corrected the email address

 Jono H
 Plusnet Community Manager
corringham
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

That's OK then - I've had SPF records for all my domains for years. You had me worried for a while.

VileReynard
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions


@JonoH wrote:

If it's not your anything@plusnetusername.co.uk email address you should be unaffected.


Is anything@plusnetusername.plus.com affected?

 

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corringham
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

Yes, I believe any Plusnet controlled domain will be affected - so anything@plusnetusername.plus.com will need to be sent via the Plusnet relay. I think that is what @JonoH meant rather than .co.uk which won't be affected unless Plusnet own that particular domain.

Gandalf
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

Yep I too believe that Jono meant to say anything@plusnetusername.plus.com

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Anoush Mortazavi
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JonoH
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

I did, sorry guys.

 Jono H
 Plusnet Community Manager
summers
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

So a bit more technical. Does this mean you will filter packets on port 25? What about port 587? And what about my secure connection to my own host name?

Issue I have is my laptop at times will connect via plusnet, but at times via ANO ISP. Usually email sent via a secure connection to my domain name, so this work everywhere.

What exactly will stop propagating in the new year?

dvorak
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

No, it means that if you don't send your @plusnetusername.plus.com through the PN relay it won't be validated against the SPF record correctly and most likely be marked as spam.
If you don't use those email addresses and have your own SMTP server then this change will not impact you.
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MisterW
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

@summers

Does this mean you will filter packets on port 25? What about port 587?

No. PlusNet are implementing SPF for any domains that are contolled by them i.e all <plusnetusername>,plus.com and any other hosted domains. This will define those email servers that are authorized to send mail for those domains.

Issue I have is my laptop at times will connect via plusnet, but at times via ANO ISP. Usually email sent via a secure connection to my domain name, so this work everywhere.

That will continue to work provided you ALWAYS send mail via the Plusnet server (relay.plus.net) and you almost certainly do.

The people this change will affect, are those who run their own mail server (sending mail from .plus.com addresses) or those who send such  mail via another ISP's SMTP server.

@dvorak beat me to it.

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.

VileReynard
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

I thought Plusnet email was still broken?

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corringham
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

To explain it slightly differently - when a mail server receives an e-mail from another server, it can use SPF records to look up the domain that the e-mail claims to come from, and compare the IP addresses listed there with whatever address the e-mail actually came from. If they don't match then it is almost certainly spam, and can be discarded. If there are no SPF records defined, then any computer can send e-mail for that domain.

So Plusnet are now defining SPF records for their domains, so that any computer that isn't in their SPF records won't be allowed to send e-mails for those domains (by any MTA that checks, which is most these days).

It doesn't have any effect on any e-mails that aren't sent from a Plusnet domain, and any e-mails from a Plusnet domain will still work as before if sent via Plusnet's relay - even if you are using another ISP at the time.

summers
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Re: We're making changes to your email - questions

Ah OK, so my plusnet email address I have to send via relay.plus.net even when outside the plusnet area. I may be able to do that in thunderbird (e.g. configure the sending MX domain per email address), but connection to relay.plus.net can't be secure can it? So the email from outside plusnet  needs to go via an unsecured connection?

So what stops ANO sending an email from outside plusnet to relay.plus.net with an envelope from my email address? E.g. do SPAM apparently from me ...

[Thinking some more, perhaps its only imap that can't do secure via plusnet, and the outgoing MX has some security ... I'll check when I get home ...]