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relay.force9.net e-mail

Gilgamoth
Newbie
Posts: 4
Registered: ‎10-09-2016

relay.force9.net e-mail

I've had an e-mail from force9 that says I need to use relay.force9.net for my outbound e-mails, but I would like to know what will happen if I don't?

Cheers,

Steve

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pjmarsh
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Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: relay.force9.net e-mail

Plusnet are implementing SPF on the [username].plus.com, [username].force9.co,uk (or whatever the force9 equivalent is, sorry I forget) and other visp equivalents. After this change happens, emails that are sent from addresses on those domains not through Plusnet's Relay servers may get blocked, delayed or marked as spam by other email servers that are receiving those emails.

Basically, with SPF there is a record of the servers that are allowed to send email for that domain.  Many email servers will check that, and see if the actual sending server (the one that is listed as the smtp server in the email client) is on that list.  If it isn't then following SPF it will be regarded as spam.  The receiving server would the deal with it as spam and depending on that servers configuration it may deliver it but mark it as spam, delay delivery, or block delivery altogether.

 

Edit: I think I got the force9 domain wrong, so I've corrected it

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Gilgamoth
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Posts: 4
Registered: ‎10-09-2016

Re: relay.force9.net e-mail

Thanks for the quick response pjmarsh, just what I needed Smiley

pjmarsh
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Re: relay.force9.net e-mail

No problem  There are a few discussions about it, but others have all been in relation to Plusnet (ie [username].plus.com).  Force9 and the other similar domains are having the same as well (as evidences by you getting the email).  The change by Plusnet is the same with the same reasoning.  The only difference would be the smtp server that you would need to change to, which Matthew has given full details of them all here.

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Gilgamoth
Newbie
Posts: 4
Registered: ‎10-09-2016

Re: relay.force9.net e-mail

That's fine. As an IT Pro, I have a homelab mail server which uses a POP2SMTP connector to pull the mails from my F9 account, but sends out from my current ISP (as I use my own domain as well), so I need see about routing outbound mails based on sender address if it's going to become a problem.

Thanks again

Baldrick1
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Re: relay.force9.net e-mail

Can someone please advise:

I have my own domain that comes with a free limited email inbox service. I use POP3 to keep this within limits. There is no outgoing service unless I pay for it.

Consequently I send emails through relay.plus.net but my email headers claim to be from my domain inbox address, so that replies are properly routed.

Am I going to have problems when these SPF changes are introduced?

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MisterW
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Re: relay.force9.net e-mail

@Baldrick1 the changes shouldn't impact on you. Basically they will only affect email from *.plus.com addresses.

However if you are able to, it may be worth adding an SPF record to your domain which defines the plusnet servers as being valid for sending mail for your domain. I'm sure I've seen a definition of what it should be somewhere but can't find it at the mo...

Edit: found it here https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/SPF-entries-on-relay-plus-net-and-madasafish/m-p/1581419

From that I believe it should be v=spf1 +a +mx  +include:madasafish.com ~all

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Baldrick1
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Re: relay.force9.net e-mail

@MisterW

Thank you again for this. I have passed this on to Names.co who have offered to do the necessary for me.

I  would have expected that this information would be readily available on the Plusnet Email settings page. I have trawled through previous posts back to 2009, all giving different answers!

 

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MisterW
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Re: relay.force9.net e-mail

Can you not add it yourself through the control panel ? It's just a TXT record , see the example here https://www.names.co.uk/support/1156-changing_your_domains_dns_settings.html

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Baldrick1
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Re: relay.force9.net e-mail

I must confess to chickening out when I clicked on the 'Apply Template field' and got a list of options that meant nothing to me. I sent a support ticket to Namesco asking which I should use or whether it did not matter as they would all be set at the same default. The.reply did not answer my question but instead offered to do it for me.

I would far prefer to understand more and sort this out myself but don't want to screw up my email service. My biggest fear is messing up the advanced DNS settings and then not being able to get back to the default condition.

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MisterW
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Re: relay.force9.net e-mail

Our office domains are through Namesco it's a shame I'm not in the office though else I could have got the guy who does our domain management to explain how the control panel is used. We certainly have a number of settings we use on our domains including SPF records I'm sure.

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