If your emails to us are being rejected, please pass the following information onto your IT Department or 3rd Party IT Support.
If you have neither please see bottom of this page for further assistance.

SPAM is a problem facing all email-enabled companies, and there are various technologies and options available to combat them. Not all companies use the same filtering methods, however it's logical for all companies to ensure their servers comply with all possible RFCs and methods to ensure their email is not blocked or marked as SPAM.

Please ensure your mail server conforms to the following best practices, RFCs and general correct setups:

• Mail/SMTP Server connects using a hostname, and not just an IP Address.

This is a general good practice as well as an RFC, and most default setups comply.


• Mail/SMTP Server connects using a FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) in HELO/EHLO command.

Also ensure this is not your local server name (default on Exchange servers) e.g. exchange.domain.local this should be a FQDN accessible via the internet, and typically matches the mx record, e.g. mail.company.com Our server checks this is a FQDN and not "gwrognrw" or "paul" by checking to see if it resolves online to an IP address.

NOTE: This is a common mistake for a lot of Small Businesses, and even one or two large organisations, though usually it's more likely they have renamed and not updated the Mail/SMTP server setting to the new organisation/domain name.


• You have Reverse DNS setup for your mail server name

Most commonly enforced by a large American ISP, you will need to contact your ISP, and ask them to setup a Reverse DNS on the particular Static IP you use for your mail server (if you don't use a specific IP, you should) and give them your MX record hostname, e.g. mail.company.com
We aren't currently filtering on this technology as not everyone is aware or have implemented it, however major ISPs are using it so it's possible it will become more common in the future and we may begin filtering using it.


• You have an SPF record setup on your internet domain(s) listing all authorised mail servers for email from your domain(s)

You need to check your internet domain(s) host has an SPF record setup, some providers do this automatically, but you may need to add your Mail/SMTP Server if you send mail yourselves and not through their SMTP Smarthost. Some providers have the ability but do not set one up and others don't even support it (though it is only a simple txt record).
We aren't currently filtering on this technology as so few have adopted it, even only to give their own list and not filter by it. We do have SPF records configured in case anyone we try to send to filter or block based on this technology.


• SLS/RBL Spam Lookup Service

Check you've not been listed by a Spam listing service, you could either be listed invidually for sending unsolicited email, or caught in a wider range such as your Internet Service Provider being listed.
We are filtering on this technology as are many other companies and block emails coming from any addresses listed.


• SURBL Spam URI Realtime Blocklists

Similiar to SLS/RBL, except it looks for hyperlinks inside the email message, these usually are phising links sending you to a site asking for your private information. Try not to use hyperlinks in your emails, particularly ones not from your company.
We are filtering on this technology as are many other companies and block emails containing any listed hyperlinks. No error message is generated.


• Greylisting

Greylisting works by always rejecting an email with a temporary unavailable message, on the grounds that most spam email is never retried, but legitimate email is. When it sees another email with the same three pieces of information (Host IP, envelop sender address and recipient address) it allows it through. Unfortunately in multi server systems, the number of retries can be exhausted before attempting all servers once.
We aren't currently filtering on this technology as so few have adopted it yet, and there is currently a bug with MS Exchange 2003 processing such messages until after a reboot, generally it is best not to only have an Exchange server directly connected to the internet, however most Small Businesses do operate this way.