Exchange Help - SCL rating

[timbo343]

Ive been told that MS are chucking any emails from our exchange server to Junk Emails. I've tested this by setting up an outlook.com account and started sending test emails to this email address.

 

Looking at the header, i see even though ive set the SCL rating on my exchange to 0 via a hub transport rule.

 

Received: from AM4PR07MB1475.eurprd07.prod.outlook.com (10.165.248.139) by

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Received: from AMXPR07CA0033.eurprd07.prod.outlook.com (10.242.64.33) by

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Server (TLS) id 15.1.466.12; Thu, 21 Apr 2016 08:42:03 +0000

Received: from HE1EUR01FT057.eop-EUR01.prod.protection.outlook.com

(2a01:111:f400:7e1f::208) by AMXPR07CA0033.outlook.office365.com

(2a01:111:e400:1000::33) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 15.1.477.5 via

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HE1EUR01FT057.mail.protection.outlook.com (10.152.0.208) with Microsoft SMTP

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Received: from mail.school.co.uk ([***.***.***.***]) by COL004-MC1F36.hotmail.com over TLS secured channel with Microsoft SMTPSVC(7.5.7601.23143);

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2016 09:42:13 +0100

From: ME

To: "[email protected]" <*********>

Subject:

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Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2016 08:42:13 +0000

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Can anyone help please.

[Sagima]

My first thing to check would be that your SPF record is set up correctly and hasn't changed from what it should be

[timbo343]

this is my SPF record for mail.*domain*.co.uk

 

v=spf1 a mx ptr mx:mail.*****.co.uk ip4:***.***.***.*** a:mail.****.co.uk -all

[timbo343]

Hang on a chow!!! ive just found a spelling mistake in the SPF... i missed a letter out the :mail.**domain**.co.uk

[timbo343]

Just tested with the updated settings, thats not worked.

[Sagima]

Hang on a chow!!! ive just found a spelling mistake in the SPF... i missed a letter out the :mail.**domain**.co.uk

 

Well hopefully that will sort it out

[Sagima]

Just tested with the updated settings, thats not worked.

 

I didn't think internet DNS updated that quickly

[timbo343]

Ok, ill give it 30 mins to see what that does. I thought SPF records updated straight away.

[Sagima]

Can't say I've ever timed it - I've just always found when doing it in the afternoon its updated by the following day.

 

There's probably a couple of different internet spf checker you can use to see if it has updated in other places.

[Domino]

Ok, ill give it 30 mins to see what that does. I thought SPF records updated straight away.

 

Depends on the TTL and whether other servers actually honour it - I usually use MX Lookup Tool - Check your DNS MX Records online - MxToolbox or similar to see what's presented externally.

[timbo343]

Ive used mstoolbox in the past.

 

When i test mail.**domain**.co.uk - no records exist.

 

When i test **domain**.co.uk - it resolves to mail.**domain**.co.uk

 

What is interesting, when i use my send connector to reply mail to outlook.com, mail ends up in the inbox

Edited April 21, 2016 by timbo343

[timbo343]

Now i cannot receive emails from google!!! Can anyone help!!??

[Domino]

I'm confused as to what you've done here.

 

The SCl:5 in the top headers looks like the outlook.com side stamping as that - and that also didn't feature an SPF fail (which if there was a typo shouldn't have happened).

 

Do you get a bounce to the google address? anything in message tracking in exchange?

[timbo343]

Ok the gmail emails are now coming through , i dunno what happened there.

 

Ive had a bit of a tidy up with help from another Network Manager on my external DNS settings.

 

My TTL are 60 mins so i will be trying again about 13:15 to see what outlook.com gives me. I have a feeling that it will still be the same.

 

Is there any way of contacting MS about getting my domain added to the safe senders list as default?

[timbo343]

Both Yahoo and Gmail accept our mail without any problems. Outlook.com personal is still refusing our email and setting the SCL rating to 5. I have even set a transport rule with Priority 0 setting the SCL to 1 - makes no difference. Setting a rule up on outlook.com doesnt make a difference either.

[Domino]

The SCL setting on your side has no bearing on theirs - otherwise every spam you receive would be stamped with SCL:-1.

 

Have you checked to see if you're on any DNS blacklists?

[timbo343]

Yeah ive checked spamhaus.org & mxtoolbox and nothing listed as blacklist.

 

I've tried emailing @yahoo.co.uk, @gmail.com, @hotmail.co.uk, schools hosted on office365. All these work. The problematic ones are @hotmail.com and @Outlook.com which are giving readings of 5.

 

i have even filled out an online form for MS to see what they can do about it. Im not holding my breathe though.

Edited April 21, 2016 by timbo343

[timbo343]

Well well well, after all the stressing of today the form i filled into MS seems to have done the trick. Now i just need to test a hotmail.com address and i think we are a winner. I got an email from them. Ive just tested an email from my OnPrem exchange to my test outlook.com mailbox. It delivered into the inbox first time and the SCL rating was a 1. I think i need a strong drink now. I hate external DNS, SPF records and MX records.

 

Dear *****

 

 

We have completed reviewing the IP(s) you submitted. The following table contains the results of our investigation.

 

 

Conditionally mitigated

***.***.***.**/29

Our investigation has determined that there are no active blocks against these IP(s); however, some messages were filtered. We have confirmed that these IP(s) are eligible for conditional mitigation, but may be subject to low daily email limits until they have established a good reputation. Please note that this mitigation does not guarantee that your mail will be delivered to a user's inbox.

 

Mitigation may take 24 - 48 hours to replicate completely throughout our system.

 

If you feel your issue is not yet resolved, please reply to this email and one of our support team members will contact you for further investigation.

 

 

Regardless of the deliverability status, Outlook.com recommends that all senders join two free programs that provide visibility into the Outlook.com traffic on your sending IP(s), the sending IP reputation with Outlook.com and the Outlook.com user complaint rates.

 

 

Junk Email Reporting program (JMRP) When an Outlook.com user marks an email as "junk", senders enrolled in this program get a copy of the mail forwarded to the email address of their choice. It allows senders to see which mails are being marked as junk and to identify mail traffic you did not intend to send. To join, please visit http://support.msn.com/eform.aspx?productKey=edfsjmrpp&page=support_home_options_form_byemail&ct=eformts.

 

 

Smart Network Data Services program (SNDS). This program allows you to monitor the ‘health’ and reputation of your registered IPs by providing data about traffic such as mail volume and complaint rates seen originating from your IPs. To register, please visit http://postmaster.live.com/snds/.

 

 

There is no silver bullet to maintaining or improving good IP reputation, but these programs help you proactively manage your email eco-system to help better ensure deliverability to Outlook.com users.

 

 

Thank you,

 

 

Outlook.com Deliverability Support

Edited April 21, 2016 by timbo343

[timbo343]

Looks like i'll be filling out the form again for hotmail.com this time. Just setup another hotmail.com address as i deleted the last one and low and behold my emails end up in the junk folder with a scl rating of 5, well done MS!!

 

I did notice that there were 4 domains to choose from.. outlook.com, hotmail.com, live.com and msn.com. maybe i need to find someone who has a live.com and a msn.com address to test with too.

[timbo343]

Heres the form if anyone else is having a problem with emails going to junk on hotmail.com/outlook.com/msn.com/live.com https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/getsupport?oaspworkflow=start_1.0.0.0&wfname=capsub&productkey=edfsmsbl3&locale=en-us&ccsid=635969029413660128

[timbo343]

Well, after asking MS to look into the hotmail.com domain, it looks like they aren't interested in sorting the issue.

 

Hello,

My name is Mohan and I work with the Outlook.com Deliverability Support Team.

We have reviewed your IP(s) (***.***.***.[***-***]) and determined that messages are being filtered (i.e. sent to the Junk folder) based on the recommendations of the SmartScreen® Filter.

Email filtering is based on many factors, but primarily it's due to mail content and recipient interaction with that mail. Because of the proprietary nature of SmartScreen® and because SmartScreen® Filter technology is always adapting and learning more about what is and isn't unwanted mail, it is not possible for us to offer specific advice about improving your mail content. However, in general SmartScreen® Filter evaluates specific words or characteristics from each e-mail message and weights them, based on their likelihood to indicate that a message is unwanted or legitimate mail.

Unfortunately, after reviewing the information you provided and in compliance with our mail policies, we are unable to offer immediate mitigation for your deliverability issue. However, we have some specific recommendations for you to consider that can help you to improve deliverability over time.

Here are some specific recommendations for you to consider:

Brand your mail

Ensure mails are cleanly formatted and clearly identifiable as originating from your service.

 

Follow content and formatting best practices

There are numerous Internet resources which offer advice and best practices, we recommend you refer to these resources for assistance creating well formatted and more deliverable email.

 

Highlight Opt In

Clearly mark your emails so that Windows Live Outlook.com customers are able to identify that they requested or subscribed to emails from your service.

 

Ensure your email lists are up to date

Remove those who do not want to receive the emails and consider making the unsubscribe process more visible to ensure you are only delivering mail to interested recipients.

 

Join the Junk Mail Reporting Program (JMRP)

We believe that your recipients are the best indicator that the email you are sending is wanted. The JMRP program allows you to see which of your emails Outlook.com users have marked as junk or unwanted mail. Reviewing the results in JMRP will provide to the most direct information on what characteristics of your email, customers, and ultimately SmartScreen®, consider to be unwanted. This helpful feedback mechanism allows you to ensure that mails being sent from your IP are not resulting in negative feedback that could impact your sending reputation. Being vigilant about users who mark your e-mail as unwanted or the types of messages that are being marked as unwanted can help you keep mailing lists updated with only interested users and modify future campaigns. In addition, monitoring user complaints can help you identify unintended mail traffic or detect a potentially compromised account sending unwanted mail to your customers. Enroll at https://postmaster.live.com/snds/JMRP.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0.

 

Join the Smart Network Data Services program (SNDS)

The SNDS program provides data about traffic seen originating from your registered IP, such as mail volume and complaint rates. The data is built from the log files of the inbound mail machines and other servers at Outlook.com and Microsoft and represents factual information about the traffic from your mail servers to Outlook.com users. For more information about this free program refer to https://postmaster.live.com/snds/FAQ.aspx. To register, please go to http://postmaster.msn.com/snds/. (Tip: As part of the enrollment process, you are asked to sign the JMRP program agreement and then send a response to Support indicating that it has been signed. It's not uncommon for that step in the enrollment process to be missed.)

 

We encourage you to take an active role in managing your email practices and infrastructure. The SmartScreen® filter is not static and it is possible to improve deliverability over time. Implementing and maintaining email best practices such as those described above can help.

We also encourage you to download and apply the industry best practices found in our Outlook.com Enhanced Deliverability white paper.

Sincerely,

 

Hello,

We understand that you have additional questions regarding how to improve the content of your mail and, thereby, improve deliverability of your email to Outlook.com users.

For your background, deliverability to a user's inbox is based on many factors including the reputation of the sending IP(s), the format of the mail and also user settings and preferences.

After reviewing your case, I have some additional suggestions for you to consider that may assist you in the future with avoiding the deliverability issue you've been experiencing.

Mail Formatting and user management

User/Subscription Management:

• Ensure you keep mailing lists up to date. Consider having inactive users confirm their subscription and remove them if inactive for certain period of time.

• If you enroll in JMRP, consider removing users who mark your mail as unwanted. This helps keep your email lists populated with only interested users.

• Ensure that the unsubscribe process is visible and that you respond to requests to remove a user from your mailing list in a timely fashion.

• To ensure interested recipients are receiving mail in their inbox, encourage users to add you as a contact or as a safe sender in their Outlook.com options.

• Many senders include a statement like the following in their welcome mail when user subscribe: To ensure delivery to your inbox, please add [email protected] to your address book.

 

Mail formatting:

o Clearly mark your emails so that Windows Live Outlook.com customers are able to quickly and easily identify that they requested emails from your service.

o Avoid urgent calls to action in email notifications, invites or advertisements such as "Must sign up today!" "Log in right now!" "Update immediately!" since these are common tactic used by malicious senders.

o If you have enrolled in JMRP and are seeing feedback on certain types of mail messages:

 Consider giving user's more control over the volume and types of mails they receive. For example, allow them to configure mail frequency: daily, weekly, etc. and opt-in to the types of mail messages they are interested in receiving: daily offers, sales only, gift reminders, holidays only and so forth.

 If you receive complaints about your legitimate emails then there is something about these emails that customers do not like or find suspicious. You should evaluate the complaints and adjust your emails to address those issues.

 

While there are no guarantees of improvement, most senders find that structuring emails to address the complaints in JMRP has a beneficial effect on deliverability.

In addition, if you haven't already done so I encourage you to sign up for the two free programs we recommended: the Junk Mail Reporting Program (JMRP) and the Smart Network Data Services program (SNDS). Actively using the information these programs provide can help you identify and monitor issues that can impact Outlook.com sending reputation.

• Junk Mail Reporting Program (JMRP) - As we noted before, your recipients are the best indicator that the email you are sending is wanted. This helpful feedback mechanism allows you to ensure that mails being sent from your IP are not resulting in negative feedback from your users. Enroll at https://postmaster.live.com/snds/JMRP.aspx?wa=wsignin1.0.

 

• Smart Network Data Services program (SNDS) - The SNDS program provides data about traffic seen originating from your registered IP, such as mail volume and complaint rates. For more information about this free program refer to https://postmaster.live.com/snds/FAQ.aspx. To register, please go to http://postmaster.msn.com/snds/. (Reminder: As part of the enrollment process, you are asked to sign the JMRP program agreement and then send a response to Support indicating that it has been signed. It's not uncommon for that step in the enrollment process to be missed.)

 

If you have a deliverability issue in the future, we encourage you to file a new ticket to have your issue investigated. We have streamlined and improved the Deliverability Support process by implementing an automated system the reviews your sending IP(s) and responds with a Deliverability Report which provides a status on each IP submitted.

This system is able to automatically mitigate many deliverability issues. If your issue can't be automatically mitigated or the system can't take action, the Deliverability Report includes a link you can use to submit additional information so that our 24 x 7 Deliverability Support team can investigate and respond to you. For your reference, the link to report an issue is http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=614866&clcid.

 

I hope you find this information helpful.