Lots of spam lately!

[cekman]

Thanks Luxlife - please keep us posted as to what you hear from 3DCart. I hope they can help!

[3dCartRobb]

Many ISPs are blocking what is called "Port 25" which is the port used to send e-mail. They are doing this to cut down on the amount of spam that is sent from their networks.

All e-mail sent via the Internet is routed through the port 25, the channel used for communication between an e-mail client and an e-mail server. Even though port 25 blocking has become an industry standard, however, the filter can create problems for e-mail servers and block legitimate e-mail as well as spam.

Port 25 blocking allows ISPs to block spam sent out through their networks, but it tends to punish the innocent that have a need to send through e-mail servers other than those belonging to their ISP. The ISPs that block port 25 require their SMTP server to be used instead of the remote SMTP server or a SMTP server running on your computer.

All e-mail sent via the Internet is routed through port 25. When an e-mail server that runs on your computer delivers messages, it always uses port 25 to transmit data to remote e-mail servers. Therefore, if your ISP is blocking the port, your messages will not get through.

We understand that email is vital to an online business, and we take steps to troubleshoot every issue our customers may have. A few troubleshooting steps you can take are:

If you are using Windows XP, do the following:
Go to Start
Go to RUN
Type in CMD, hit enter

Now you are looking at a command window, type in the following:

telnet mail.yourdomain.com 25 (replace yourdomain with your domain and hit enter)
If you are NOT being blocked, you should see the following:
220 mail.informart2000.com

If you are seeing no response, or nothing at all, then you are being blocked.

If you are being blocked, how do you fix it? Well, you would need to use the outgoing mail server of your ISP's.

You may be concerned that your customers may think you are nor professional by using a generic ISP's outgoing mail server. Unless someone looks in your headers, they don't know what mail server its coming through, and its pretty much transparent as to what outgoing mail server you use. Also, ask yourself this. When was the last time you looked at an email you received from someone, and cared what outgoing mail server they used?

If you are not being blocked, but still having trouble sending mail, you can still change it to your ISP's outgoing mail server and see if that alleviates your problem. If that does not work, we would suggest first calling them to find out which outgoing mail server you should be using, and then, either calling us or opening a support ticket.

It would be helpful if you provide to us the following:

Your ISP
Which outgoing mail server you are using in your settings

We can't stress this part strongly enough: If in doubt, please open a ticket or give us a call.

We are here to help you, and will do everything we can to assist in troubleshooting this and coming up with a solution.

-Robb
3dCart Support Team

[3dCartRobb]

Originally Posted by cekman

Rungreen - I had the same response from 3DCart for mail not getting to my customers also. They refuse to even consider that they can do anything to help. I've never worked with a company before that won't help when emails get blocked or delayed. The receiving server company will ONLY work with the email administrator (3DCart) - not with the inidvidual (me) 3DCart says I have to take care of it as it's my DOMAIN that is causing the problems. No one will work with me and as a result some of my customers don't get any of my emails, either automated or directly from me.

Cekman,

I believe we assisted and addressed this problem. We are more than willing to assist you in any way that we can.

Please give me a call at 1-800-828-6650 x118 and I will see if there is anything else I can do to help you.

-Robb
3dCart Support

[cekman]

Thanks Kildare for the detailed message.

Couple of questions?

1.) What if only some emails are not getting to their destination. Does this Port 25 info still apply? For example - my emails only are affected to customers with a comcast.net address or any address with rr.com (road runner?)

2.) If I'm understanding you correctly this would indicate our internet service provider is preventing our email from being delivered correct? But how would that affect the automatic emails that are being delivered from our cart - for example the NEW ORDER or CUSTOMER REGISTRATION emails that we don't initiate ourselves? Since we don't send them - how could our ISP 'block' those?

I will gladly do all I can on my end - just trying to understand.

Also - I have Vista - do your steps still apply?

Thank you so much for your detailed response

[cekman]

Robb - Thank you for your reply. No - nothing was done by 3DCart - other than to say it was a domain issue on my end. Things got a little hairy and I don't want to have a poor relationship with 3DCart. I actually feared I may be 'sanctioned' so I just dropped the issue.

I think 3DCart support is superb except for this one issue. I have to leave for an appointment today and will call tomorrow to the number you provided. No one offered previously to talk to me that I can rememer and I would gladly go over this issue with someone from support - I appreciate the offer.

Also - Please don't close/lock this thread - I think the topic is being handled in a very NICE and professional way. Business owners are trying to help each other with this very important issue of contacting their customers.

Thank you again for your response.

[3dCartRobb]

Originally Posted by cekman

Thanks Kildare for the detailed message.

Couple of questions?

1.) What if only some emails are not getting to their destination. Does this Port 25 info still apply? For example - my emails only are affected to customers with a comcast.net address or any address with rr.com (road runner?)

Comcast and Roadrunner are tricky beasts. Comcast allows its regions to dictate how and when it will block port 25. So Boston users may be able to use an outgoing mail server, but someone in Florida, will not, and they're both Comcast users. Typically, your user may have inadvertently deleted your email, it is moved to the spam folder, or it may have been blocked by the ISP's spam filter. The best way to find out is to contact the ISP and ask to speak with their abuse department.

Originally Posted by cekman

2.) If I'm understanding you correctly this would indicate our internet service provider is preventing our email from being delivered correct? But how would that affect the automatic emails that are being delivered from our cart - for example the NEW ORDER or CUSTOMER REGISTRATION emails that we don't initiate ourselves? Since we don't send them - how could our ISP 'block' those?

Whether you are manually clicking the send button, or the cart is sending them out automagically, does not matter. All the mail server sees is that this mail was sent, from your domain name.

Originally Posted by cekman

Also - I have Vista - do your steps still apply?

Thank you so much for your detailed response

In order to use Telnet on Vista, you will need to install it manually. Its out of our scope of technical support, but here's how to install it:

By default, Vista doesn't install the Telnet client. The client is for text-based communication with remote systems. You can install it by following these steps:

1. Click Start then select Control Panel.

2. Select Programs and Features.

3. Select Turn Windows features on or off.

4. Select the Telnet Client option.

5. Click OK.

6. A dialog box will appear to confirm installation. The telnet command should now be available.

[3dCartRobb]

Originally Posted by cekman

Robb - Thank you for your reply. No - nothing was done by 3DCart - other than to say it was a domain issue on my end. Things got a little hairy and I don't want to have a poor relationship with 3DCart. I actually feared I may be 'sanctioned' so I just dropped the issue.

One of the most frustrating things in Technical Support, is when you have to tell a customer that there is nothing you can do. We don't like to do it because it doesn't solve the customers problems. In your instance, we researched things on our mail server and there was no problems going on. We also did some research online, and found some similiar issues and the course of action involves the domain holder calling the ISP and speaking with them. The reason why we requested you contact them via phone, is because when you send email, it goes to an outsourced email provider overseas, who uses canned responses and they get paid per email answered. Generally, not a great place to seek help from.

You have certainly not been sanctioned. We would never do that to any of our customers and welcome your questions and concerns. One thing that gets lost in translation is that it would be much easier and quicker if we did have the ability to just contact a company to get a problem solved but sadly, there are times when the answer is out of our control

Originally Posted by cekman

I think 3DCart support is superb except for this one issue. I have to leave for an appointment today and will call tomorrow to the number you provided. No one offered previously to talk to me that I can rememer and I would gladly go over this issue with someone from support - I appreciate the offer.

I look forward to hearing from you. Also, keep in mind. Our mail servers are used by thousands of customers. If there was an issue on the server, it would effect everyone, not just a few here and there. If Roadrunner or Comcast was blocking our customers on a 3dcart level, then that would be something we COULD get involved in.

Originally Posted by cekman

Also - Please don't close/lock this thread - I think the topic is being handled in a very NICE and professional way. Business owners are trying to help each other with this very important issue of contacting their customers.

Thank you again for your response.

I'm not an admin, but have passed on your wish to have this thread be open. Typically we will not close or lock a thread unless it passes the line of being open and helpful and gets into hairy territory. I think in closing your thread we eliminated the chance of losing site of the real issue, which is your mail being blocked on a domain level by RR and Comcast.

[cekman]

Originally Posted by Kildare

The best way to find out is to contact the ISP and ask to speak with their abuse department.

Thank you - this however is the problem - when I contact their abuse dept they will only speak the the email administrator- which is 3DCart - they will not work with individuals. I have tried to communicate with them - they simply respond that they must speak to the email administrator and then will be glad to help.

[3dCartRobb]

If you'd like to give them my #, they can call me directly and I can answer their questions.

[cekman]

kildare - sent a detailed email to the abuse email address for roadrunner yesterday. I included your phone number and a copy of the error message I get when sending email to their customers. Just wanted you to have a heads-up - I'm really hoping they call you or at least respond with something other than a 'canned' email. Thanks again for your time.