Question Emails from Plesk (whatchdog, fail2ban, updates, etc.) in Gmail spam

[Giorgio1]

I have a dedicated server. I set the server hostname as "server1.domain.com" and rDNS of the main IP of the server as "server1.domain.com". In the DNS settings of the domain, I have an A record with "server1.domain.com" pointing to the main IP of the dedicated server.

I hope that everything is ok until here.

domain.com is a "secondary domain": I installed some IP failover (OVH) for my "production" websites and they use G Suite or another external SMTP server.

The problem is that all emails coming from Plesk (for instance whatchdog, fail2ban, emails about updates, etc.) go directly to the spam folder in Gmail (of course I set a gmail email address to receive these information). How can I avoid this?

One example. I received one email that inform me about "Notification of the site creation.". What I see is:

"Name and surname" <[email protected]>via "server1.domain.com" to "me"

During the first configuration of Plesk, I set as Administrator my name and surname and mail gmail address.

Should I create an email address in Plesk "[email protected]" to manage these emails? Should I change the information about Administrator and the relative email address?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Sergio Manzi]

From the top of my head:

• wrong SPF record (most probable)
  
• wrong DKIM/DMARC
• IP address flagged as a spammer (try something like MX Lookup Tool - Check your DNS MX Records online - MxToolbox to check...)

 

[Giorgio1]

Thanks Sergio for your reply. The IP is not flagged as spammer.

I think the problem is that I set my gmail address in the user info of the server administrator. I may try to create an "[email protected]" email and set it in the user details.

 

[Bart_NL]

Hi,

I think this works as to be expected.
I've never put credentials for the deamons to use when sending out email, And I dont even have an registerd with [email protected] for it to use.

Things like MX-toolbox probaly will say everything is OK, you could check it in gmail by using the option "show original", theres probaly a divrence between the way you send e-mail out and the way the plesk server uses to send out e-mail.

I would set the emails to be deliverd to [email protected] and, if you really need the mail in G-Suite, use pop3 from gmail to check that e-mailadres.

 

[Giorgio1]

I tried to set "[email protected]" as administrator email.. I will see what will happen!

 

[Sergio Manzi]

@Giorgio1 I have a configuration which is very similar to yours:

• my main domain, "example.com", is using Google G Suite (GMail)
• my plesk server IP address is listed as the A record for example.com
  
• I'm sending notification to [email protected]
• I've listed my domain A record in the SPF policy (together with the ones required by GMail): "v=spf1 a include:_spf.google.com -all"

... everything is working!

In my Plesk server I also created a "domain" for myhostaname.example.com and in DNS I created MX and SPF records to himself:

myhostname.example.com.          86400   IN      MX      10 myhostname.example.com.
myhostname.example.com.          86400   IN      TXT     "v=spf1 +a +mx +a:myhostname.example.com -all"

the above is probably redundant, but it has benefits, at least for me...

 

[Ihtshama]

Hello, Sergio, Boss!
How are you? I am having same problem. i checked at Newsletters spam test by mail-tester.com and found 10/10 for the test. Emails delivery to other servers is fine, like sending to hotmail or other emails are fine. Recently we moved our website DNS to cloudflare, i believe, after that this problem started, just doubts, not sure.

Can anyone please advise a solution?

 

[Sergio Manzi]

Hello @Ihtshama !

No idea... To get a rough feeling of what's going on I should look at the full header of one of such failing (spammed) email: try to send an email to smz (at) smz (dot) it with "Test from Ihtshama" as the subject (so I can quickly identify it...)

P.S.: please advice here once you have sent the email...

 

[Sergio Manzi]

OK, I got the email. In spam!

At first sight I'm not seeing anything wrong. Only problem I see (but I'm unsure if that can matter...) is that your server is sending from an IPv6 address for which the PTR record is defined (pointing to your mail host name), but there is no AAAA record for that hostname, only the A record...

 

[Sergio Manzi]

... it might matter because in your MX record you have your host name and then in your SPF you reference MX, but nowhere there is a reference (direct or indirect through the MX record) to the IPv6 address of your host.

Try adding the AAAA record and maybe too the IPv6 address in the SPF (IP6:your-ipv6-address-here).

Weird thing is that Google says SPF for your domain/IPv6 address is "pass": I can't imagine how it is accepted as it is not defined anywhere....

 

[Ihtshama]

I have just added one AAAA record for mail.domain.ch to IPv6. and tried emailing, it is still landing in gmail spam. Let me send you one too at your email address.

But i couldnt understand your point of adding ipv6 to SPF record.
thank you for your help dear.

 

[Sergio Manzi]

Let me send you one too at your email address.

go!

 

[Ihtshama]

Sent.


But i couldnt understand your point of adding ipv6 to SPF record. you mean creating a TXT record? CUrrentls it is

v=spf1 +a +mx +a:mail.professionaldesigner.ch -all

 

[Sergio Manzi]

Got it! NOT in spam! Cheer-up, my friend!

 

[Sergio Manzi]

But i couldnt understand your point of adding ipv6 to SPF record. you mean creating a TXT record? CUrrentls it is

v=spf1 +a +mx +a:mail.professionaldesigner.ch -all

What I meant was to modify the spf record:
v=spf1 +a +mx +a:mail.professionaldesigner.ch +ip6:your-ipv6here -all

 

[Sergio Manzi]

... but setting the AAAA record for the mail exchanger apparently did the trick.

Also, +a:mail.professionaldesigner.ch is redundant if the A (and AAAA) addresses for professionaldesigner.ch and mail.professionaldesigner.ch are the same

 

[Ihtshama]

Thanks for the help. But emails to gmail are still ending into spam folder. Surprised. Any thought on it.

Also,

I have edited the SPF record as advised. lets see.

 

[Sergio Manzi]

But emails to gmail are still ending into spam folder.

Not here... my domain smz (dot) it mail is hosted on GMail (G Suite) and it doesn't goes to spam...
Try sending to smanzi (at) gmail (dot) com ....

 

[Sergio Manzi]

the one sent to @gmail.com has gone to spam, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with it...

send one more, always at gmail.com: I've moved the one you sent to inbox (as I previously did for the one sent @smz.it), so maybe that was the real cause for not going into spam anymore...