= Email Deliverability Strategies = Our goals are: * Prioritize sending of individual email over sending of bulk email * Reduce the number of times we are blocked * Reduce the labor/time it takes to recover from being blocked == Using mail.mayfirst.org == All users should set their email clients (phone and desktop) to use `mail.mayfirst.org` as the outgoing/smtp server. By focusing on one domain we can better ensure deliverability. When an IP address gets blocked, see [wiki:individual-mail-relay our individual-mail-relay page] for instructions on how to change the sending IP. == Use bulk.mayfirst.org == All web sites that send bulk email (e.g. CiviCRM) should be configured to relay through bulk.mayfirst.org (assata) which will relay via our [wiki:bulk-mail-relay bulk email relay servers]. By using our bulk mail relay servers, we ensure a high volume of legitimate email which offsets bad email. == Reduce impact of forwarded spam == Like most providers, we allow people to forward mail sent to their MF/PL email address to another email account. As a result, spam sent to a user's MF/PL account is also forwarded, which gives the impression that we are spammers. See #7556 for work on a solution to this problem. == Monitoring == Via Nagios, we currently monitor the following: === spambox deliveries === If our email ends up in the spam box of any of the three major corporate providers, we get an alert. ==== What do to ==== See [wiki:filter-check filter-check] for more information on how to debug the problem. === mailq === If the mailq goes over 200 messages on any server we get a warning and if it goes over 500 we get an alert. ==== What to do ==== Run `mailq` to review the messages in the queue. Run `postcat -q ` to view the messages in the queue that look suspicious Run `mf-mailq-delete ` to mass delete messages in the mailq that are spam === blocked messages === If we have more than 20 blocked messages that fit a possible pattern of spam we get a critical alert. ==== What do to ==== Run `mf-check-blocklist -b` to get a human readable report of the blocked messages. Scan the mail.log to determine who and why we have the problem. === Email relayers === If a single sasl username relays more than 100 messages in a 24 hour period we get an alert. ==== What do to ==== Run `mf-check-relayers` to see who is being reported. Try to determine if they are sending illegimate email. === Check block lists regularly === See: Use [http://exchange.nagios.org/directory/Plugins/Security/check_dnsbl/details the check_dnsbl Nagios plugin]: #5736 == Pursue bulk mailer status and apply for feedback loops for our email list servers with major mail providers == See [wiki:email-deliverability-status] for current status of our bulk mail and feedback loop applications. Followed up in: #6314 == Provide tools for release mailq back log == See current process: [wiki:bulk-mail-relay bulk mail relay]. Thanks to taggart for the idea. We have multiple relay servers and have our bulk mail servers use round robin DNS to randomly pick the relay servers. See: #6662. We are also rate-limiting outgoing messages when it seems to help. == open deliverability tickets == === Open Tickets tagged `blocklist` or `email-deliverability` === [[TicketQuery(format=table,status=new|assigned,keywords=~blocklist|email-deliverability)]]