Getting email accepted by another domain has become quite a headache for systems administrators. Because of security issues, mail servers have had to clamp down on who exactly will be permitted to send mail to their users. I’m still encountering intermittent problems with some domains accepting our emails; although the big offenders like AOL and MSN/Hotmail have been largely resolved with the simple addition of SPF records to our DNS zones. However, two more providers have cropped up in my attempts to get my users open email access everywhere. Some ISPs such as consolidated.net have a baffling bounceback message either referencing an old (perhaps retired) RBL server or a cryptic, generic refusal. Whereas GoDaddy, one of the biggest domain registrars out there, has some strict requirements and configurations that I’m still trying to guess at.

I’ve added via WHM more SPF records via TXT type to not only the main domains and parked domains, but also to their nameserver records and to the hostname DNS records as well. Anything that has the remote chance of showing up in a header check now has a SPF record. Here’s to hoping I made some progress.