Emails to Hotmail disappear

mylinear

Member
When I send an email to a Hotmail account, it is successfully sent out from the VPS. There is no delivery failure, no bounce, no other errors.

The VPS IP is not on any spam block list. There is reverse DNS and SPF record. The Hotmail account is working as it receives mails from other domains on other servers.

However, the email does not end up in Hotmail Inbox or Junk folder. It just disappears, apparently dropped on the Hotmail side, probably due to their filtering.

If you first send a message from Hotmail to the VPS, then reply to that message, the reply arrives at Hotmail.

I have submitted a ticket and support has looked into it. They say it is possible Hotmail has blocked my IP as the logs indicate there were some other failures sending/receiving to/from Hotmail. They confirm the logs indicate the message is delivered to Hotmail and can't say what happens on the Hotmail side. I am not sure if Hotmail will be helpful on this.

I am wondering if anyone else is facing the same problem or has a solution. Or has contacted Hotmail about this and has more info.
 
Thanks ppc for the links. I had already done a search and read most of the related threads. So far, none of the options I tried has solved the problem.
 
Yes I did as support suggested that too. But... who knows whether Hotmail received it...?? Maybe they use the same filters that blackholes their support tickets as well... But I will update here if I get a response.
 
I had this problem and they solved it for me sorry I do not know the technical things but it is easy to solve. They will do it for you:)
 
Well, KH has done troubleshooting and say it is a problem on the Hotmail side. Hotmail replied (probably a standard template) and provided the link to their Postmaster page.
http://postmaster.hotmail.com/Troubleshooting.aspx

And to fill in a form with some 30 fields most of which seems irrelevant to the problem as it seems to be for issues with bulk mailing lists. This after I had described the problem in detail with logs from KH which it appears Hotmail did not read.
 
Just another follow-up...

Hotmail has solved this for me by removing my IP from their filters. Emails seem to be arriving at Hotmail accounts now.
 
Wow! Consider yourself very lucky. You're the first person I know who has ever been able to actually get through to them and have them change things for you.

Mission #2 if you choose to accept: AOL. :D
 
I must say I was pleasantly surprised too after reading so much about people having similar problems with Hotmail. Yes, maybe I was just lucky. I actually did not fill up the form for a few days thinking it wouldn't lead to anything. But then I did, and it took just over 1 day for it to be resolved with a few email exchanges in a timely manner.

Having said that, I have now submitted a similar request for another IP elsewhere but this time I don't seem to be having the same result yet. Maybe they think that I am going to submit an IP a day and help spammers or something.... Maybe I've used up my single free pass... I'll update here later.
 
Hotmail replied and resolved my 2nd issue as well. There is still a problem, but I think it is on my side / DC side now. Point is, Hotmail did reply and help. So anyone having a similar issue should give it a shot.
 
Hello mylinear,

I am formas of webhostingtalk forum. Thank you for your help guy.

I have the same problem here. I am not able to sent emails to hotmail from my VPS. Hotmail support saied that my IP was blocked. So I change my IP. But exactly thus the problem still persist.

I asked to knownhost support if my VPS have RDNS and SPF correctly configured and they told me that all is fine and the problem is on hotmail side.

So I dont know what i must to do now :confused:. I will try to reply to hotmail support, but I really dont believe that hotmail will fix the problem.

The most probable is that my customer will go to cancel this VPS if the problem to persist :(
 
fteixeira, sorry, I saw this post only after I saw the WHT post. I have replied on WHT, so please check that.

Like I said there, if your new IP is .167, please ask support to check if RDNS is setup for this new IP as I don't think it is. I also don't see a SPF / TXT record for the domain.

And do not reply to Hotmail until you are sure you have all the correct settings on your side first or it will create more confusion.
 
fteixeira, I now see RDNS has been setup for your new .167 IP address. I also now see a SPF record for your domain. However, I think the SPF record is generic and may still cause a problem with Hotmail.

If you still have problems with Hotmail, change your SPF from:
"v-spf1 a mx ptr ~all"
to
"v=spf1 ip4:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx a mx -all"
where xxx.xxx.xxx is your new IP of xxx.xxx.xxx.167 (which I assume is the mailserver IP on your VPS)
 
If you still have problems with Hotmail, change your SPF from:
"v-spf1 a mx ptr ~all"
to
"v=spf1 ip4:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx a mx -all"
where xxx.xxx.xxx is your new IP of xxx.xxx.xxx.167 (which I assume is the mailserver IP on your VPS)

Hi mylinear,

Thanks a lot for your help.

I change SPF records as you told. But the issue still persist.

The problem is exactly the same that you had. I test and I send a message from Hotmail to the VPS, then reply to that message, and hotmail accept my reply.

I update my ticket on hotmail support. Now I am awaiting.
 
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