---------- Symptom ----------

• Clients send messages from your server , but do not show up in the MSN/hotmail inbox
• There are no error messages in the log file.
• Your server is NOT blocked or blacklisted by MSN/Hotmail.

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If you believe that the feature "Sender verify callout", is causing problems, read on to find out more. Click here to read about "Send verify callout" in this KnowledgeBase.

If you're experiencing problems sending email messages to Hotmail / Yahoo / AOL, we suggest the following:

1. Read and follow the Microsoft Technical Guidelines very carefully at: http://postmaster.live.com/Guidelines.aspx
2. Make sure all domains sending mail via your server have an appropriate SPF record ( http://spf.pobox.com).
   Add SPF entry in your DNS zones using the following:
   ""v=spf1 a mx ip4:SERVER_MAIN_IP_ADDRESS -all"
   In some situations, some of your customers might have dedicated IPs for their sites and their MX and A records point to those IPs. Those IP address ' are NOT the main IP address ' for the server. By default, on a cPanel and/or a DirectAdmin powered server(s), the main IP address is the one which sends out mail. So if the main IP of the server is 60.70.80.90, then you need the following as a minimal SPF record for all domains on that server:
   "v=spf1 a mx ip4:60.70.80.90 -all"
   
   MSN/Hotmail recommends using -all terminators in the SPF record. Click here to read about HowTo create a SPF record for a domain.
    
3. Make sure the IP address that your server sends mail from (which would be the main IP address), has:
   1. Valid reverse DNS (rDNS); and
   2. That rDNS is reflective of your hostname , rather than some generic record that your upstream IP provider has put in place.
4. Run the following two commands to see if your hostname is associated with the main IP of your server:
   nslookup your.hostname
   and
   nslookup YOUR_SERVER_MAIN_IP
   (where YOUR_SERVER_MAIN_IP is the main IP address of your server). The system should return your.hostname
5. Go to: http://www.openrbl.org and make sure your main server IP address and/or hostname is not blocked or blacklisted on any of the popular DNSBLs.
   Although your main IP or hostname might not be listed there, it doesn't mean that it is not blacklisted or negatively scored by AOL or Yahoo or Hotmail or www.rr.com. It is likely that AOL or Yahoo or Hotmail or www.rr.com negatively scored your server due to past traffic from that IP address before your server was using it.
    
6. Disable the feature Autoresponder on your server. Click here to read why are Autoresponders bad?
   
   Even after you've followed all of the above instructions, you and your users may find that their email does not arrive, or ends up in the Spam folders of Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, and so on. In this case, you need to submit a ticket with MSN/Hotmail Technical Support at: http://support.msn.com/eform.aspx?productKey=edfsmsbl&page=support_home_options_form_byemail&ct=eformts
    
7. Make sure your users aren't forwarding all of their email, which might include spam, from their accounts hosted on your server to an @aol.com or @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com email address. That will surely cause future emails from your server's IP address to be considered un-safe or spam by those entities.

Stopping customers from forwarding their email is very difficult. Since it is not possible to guarantee that all email messages forwarded from your server to AOL / Hotmail / Yahoo are not spam or don't contain spam, you need to let your customers know that their email might be rejected by those entities. As a host , you need to enable SpamAssassin, or any good spam filter, on all accounts hosted on your server. Make sure spam rules are up-to-date all the time.

NOTE
We'll be more than happy to apply the best possible spam rules, secure, harden, and optimize your server. Please contact our .