Glenn (and everyone else who commented here or dropped me an email) .. thank you very much. All this helps in getting an idea of what the actual problem might be.

I simply can’t rely entirely on something the companies tell me … they will inherently have a certain inertia in dealing with a large problem, and like GoDaddy now, find it easier to just throw the problem back at me and say something else is the cause.

Just witness the way it has shifted from being Optonline who is the cause, to BlueHost that is the cause.

In an ideal world, these big companies would co-ordinate their efforts better and actually DEAL with this much larger problem of handling spammers .. instead of just shifting it onto Spamhaus or whoever.

As you can imagine, I am really frustrated by this. However, I just don’t have the time or knowledge to effectively and consistently deal with this via GoDaddy.

I’m currently out of the country, and will attack this again when I get back home and have some free time again later on.

thanks!

Neil vN

What’s most likely happening is your emails are given a spam score with multiple filters, and both of those issues hurt your score to the point that some of your email is dropped (one or the other might get through). The solution is to get off those lists, period. Servers rarely get on those lists for no reason, and a competent admin is needed to get them off.

While I sympathize with you, understand that dealing with the onslaught of spam and downright malicious user without services like Spamhaus\SORBS is impossible. Servers for the companies I work for would be overwhelmed in a matter of weeks if we didn’t filter. Our second level spam filters would be unmanageable, we simply must completely drop emails with a high enough spam score. Likewise, our websites would be filled with drone users, prying for ways to spam comments sections, etc.

A properly configured email server will fix these issues permanantly. Dealing with your clients ISP (GoDaddy today, a million others tomorrow) is a problem you will never fully resolve, and since you aren’t a paying customer, they won’t have resources to help much. If you must deal with GoDaddy, try to enlist a client to contact them.

If your email host isn’t solving this issue, leave and send them a very clear explanation for taking your business elsewhere. Same with your webhost and ISP. Using your ISPs email servers is generally a bad idea, always use your email hosts secure SMTP servers if possible. This way, the submitting IP (your bad ISP) shouldn’t even come into play.

An update.

I’ve now discovered that the emails bounce when I include my signature which has two links to my websites. When I don’t include the links, the emails usually go through.

When I got in touch with the techies at GoDaddy about this, they shifted the cause of the emails bouncing. So apparently now the problem isn’t my service provider, Optonline, which has a block of addresses listed on Spamhaus …

.. but that my wedding photography site / domain – http://oneperfectmoment.com/ – is black-listed by SORBS (Spam and Open Relay Blocking System)

So now GoDaddy has once again shifted the cause of this problem away from them, onto some other reason for this.

The way I see it, Godaddy should be more involved in this process of figuring out the problem and help solving it, since they chose to use Spamhaus and Sorbs.

Neil vN

You can find info in the [email]-[Email Accounts]-[configure mail client] section of http://www.planetneil.com/securecontrolpanel

Enjoying your site a lot!

Rob, yes. Optonline is my internet service provider.

Neil vN

Are you sending mail as planetneil.com through optonline?

Rob

David, I can’t use a Yahoo / Gmail / Hotmail address, since the optonline server is what gets blocked.

I need to either use my iPhone and disable the wireless connection so that it uses the Edge network … or go sit in a Starbucks and reply to GoDaddy emails. Either way is a pain.

Neil vN

Instead of having to use your iPhone, why not set up and use a Yahoo or Hotmail e-mail account solely for the purpose of contacting your customers under difficult circumstances?

You can then get in touch with your customer, explain the problem and ask them to reply to your normal e-mail address or phone you with alternative contact details.

Because they are replying to your normal e-mail address or phoning you they will know it is a genuine request.

Kind regards,
David

Gareth, I am with Bluehost. I just can’t email anyone with a GoDaddy address while using my internet service provider, Optonline.

So what I do now with important emails to clients, is to email them via my iPhone (just using the Bluehost account and AT&T’s connection), and then asking for a non-GoDaddy email address .. and then I can email them properly via my Outlook.

It’s a real pain.

Neil vN