Possible spam fix: DNS change
Yesterday's messages about our headers + spam made me realize we were on to something. I called Jason H. and he determined that the txt record in our DNS settings -- the GoDaddy registrar side, not the mailing list side -- needed to have an IPv6 entry (vs only an IPv4) to properly synchronize. We made that change. Jason will explain it better than I could. If it seems to be fixed then we'll inform the list company.
This time I saved the changes correctly. (There is a "finish" button after you enter the new record, but there's a separate "save" button that escaped my attention last night.)
On Thu, 5 Nov 2015, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Yesterday's messages about our headers + spam made me realize we were on to something. I called Jason H. and he determined that the txt record in our DNS settings -- the GoDaddy registrar side, not the mailing list side -- needed to have an IPv6 entry (vs only an IPv4) to properly synchronize. We made that change.
Jason will explain it better than I could.
If it seems to be fixed then we'll inform the list company.
dig lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org TXT
;; ANSWER SECTION: lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org. 3600 IN TXT "v=spf1 mx a ip4:173.246.104.112 ip6:2604:3400:dc1:43:216:3eff:fe36:d305 ~all" Mike Loewen mloewen@cpumagic.scol.pa.us Old Technology http://q7.neurotica.com/Oldtech/
Maybe it'll take some time to propagate the changes, but Mike's latest email is still showing as softfail. Kyle
I am sending this as a test (sending plain text with a link) Apple IIc Prototype. Looks legit. https://anewdayauctions.proxibid.com/asp/LotDetail.asp?ahid=3493&aid=101939&...
The change has finally propagated around and it seem to have have done the trick. On messages coming into my junk gmail account from the list, I'm seeing the following now: Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of vcf-midatlantic-bounces@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org designates 2604:3400:dc1:43:216:3eff:fe36:d305 as permitted sender) client-ip=2604:3400:dc1:43:216:3eff:fe36:d305; The basic issue is that www.mailmanlists.us can't decide if it want's to talk to google over ipv4 or ipv6. Of the message I checked, most came in over ipv6, but some still over ipv4. The SPF record that the mailmanlists.us had Evan define only contained the ipv4 address as an allowed sender. Adding the ipv6 address into that should now help across the board, not only gmail users. There is still the small issue of the fact that www.mailmanlists.us doesn't have a AAAA record or a ipv6 ptr record defined. This also has the potential to help get stuff caught up in spam filters, but that is something they need to fix on their end. --Jason There is still the issue of the fact that the hosting company can't decide if it's wants to talk to google over ipv4 or ipv6 in a consistent way, especially since they don't have an AAAA record published -- but that's a support ticket for Evan to open. I'm actually pleasantly surprised that we're not getting hammered for not having an AAAA ptr record :) On 11/05/2015 07:06 AM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Yesterday's messages about our headers + spam made me realize we were on to something. I called Jason H. and he determined that the txt record in our DNS settings -- the GoDaddy registrar side, not the mailing list side -- needed to have an IPv6 entry (vs only an IPv4) to properly synchronize. We made that change.
Jason will explain it better than I could.
If it seems to be fixed then we'll inform the list company.
There is still the small issue of the fact that www.mailmanlists.us doesn't have a AAAA record or a ipv6 ptr record defined. This also has the potential to help get stuff caught up in spam filters, but that is something they need to fix on their end.
You may also need to specify a prefix, rather than a single address, for the IPv6 SPF record. Depends on if they really only have one outgoing server in the middle of an IPv6 subnet, or if there are in fact multiple machines there on different addresses and we've only seen the one so far. Thanks, Jonathan
On 11/05/2015 12:15 PM, Systems Glitch via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
There is still the small issue of the fact that www.mailmanlists.us doesn't have a AAAA record or a ipv6 ptr record defined. This also has the potential to help get stuff caught up in spam filters, but that is something they need to fix on their end. You may also need to specify a prefix, rather than a single address, for the IPv6 SPF record. Depends on if they really only have one outgoing server in the middle of an IPv6 subnet, or if there are in fact multiple machines there on different addresses and we've only seen the one so far.
Thanks, Jonathan
Since we've only seen a single ipv4 address come through (the same *one* address that they told Evan to add to the SPF record), I'm inclined to think they're funneling all their outbound traffic through a single point. I'm happy to stick with this assumption until presented with evidence to the contrary. Regardless of our assumptions and feelings, when Evan talks to their support folks about this, it's certainly something he should ask. --Jason
I emailed the support guy and copied Jason, so he can properly explain the issue + ask our questions. (I didn't want to mis-explain it.)
participants (6)
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Christian Liendo -
Evan Koblentz -
Jason Howe -
Kyle Owen -
Mike Loewen -
Systems Glitch