cblaisd

I don't even know how to begin to track down...

1. I use a pop3 client (Pegasus mail) to download and send mail.
2. For sending, I use the smtp server for for gmail address. It's always worked fine.
3. I have a domain through GoDaddy which has four email addresses, all of which forward to "real" email inboxes.
4. About half of the emails sent to me or my spouse in the last few days are failing to be forwarded to our real email addresses.
5. An online support chat with GoDaddy was pretty useless.
6. If I move the domain hosting to the isp where our "real" email inboxes are located would that help?

I've sent several test messages and about half of them to [email protected] get forwarded to my real email address and the other half don't. I've missed many emails from work colleagues and others in the last few days.

Be gentle...

slowmail

There are a number of reasons why forwarded email doesn't get delivered.

The most common would be the origin domain has enabled the DMARC p=reject policy (Eg: yahoo; this effectively instructs mail servers to reject any mail from a yahoo address, if it isn't sent from a yahoo mail server. As such, godaddy won't be able to foward any messages sent from a yahoo address.)

If this is the reason, there isn't a whole lot that you can do. You won't have this problem if you aren't forwarding mails. You can try using Zoho for your domain's emails. It's free for up to 25 addresses.

Alternatively, your email forwarder needs to rewrite/wrap the headers, so that the sending domain is one that is under your control; however, this isn't a great solution.

Paint Horse

Unless there is some weird forwarding going on if some are coming through I don't think it is total rejection problem.

Try to avoid forwarding as some email servers do object to this. Just use one email address to the server associated with the domain name.

cblaisd

After a very unhelpful exchange with GoDaddy, am in the process of doing just that.

gfunkdave

All of my mail forwarding issues disappeared when I set up SPF records in DNS for my domains.

cblaisd

I recognize some of those words

But whatever it means this is the sort of technical answer I expected from the GoDaddy "product expert" rather than cluelessness and trying to sell me stuff

Paint Horse

Hum. Interesting. I have never used SPF entries. My provider says:

"What is Spoofing?
Spoofing can mean many different things, but in the context of email, it's a technique commonly used by spammers to hide the origin of their emails. When an email is delivered, it will appear to be from one email address, when it actually is from another. Think of it as if you got a letter in the mail with a return address that was forged to appear to come from someplace else. A common reason that spammers will spoof your email is to attempt to trick the recipient into making a damaging statement or releasing sensitive information, such as passwords."

and then

"How can I prevent my email address from being spoofed?
There are many ways to help prevent spoofing. Many of these methods are very complicated and technical. None of them are full-proof.

This method involves adding a DNS record to your domain, called an SPF record, to allow receiving servers to check whether the mail originated from you. This method is dependent on the receiving servers actually verifying this information. Not all servers do this level of authentication, but this level of security is rapidly increasing."

Paint Horse

Yes, Go Daddy does not impress me. I looked into moving everything to them at one time, but the instructions they provide and the technical support people were just useless.

gfunkdave

You know, I reread this and realized I had it backwards. I don't think SPF will help here - it would help if you were sending emails from your custom domain addresses and people weren't receiving them.

In any case, this is what I'd said before my a-ha moment:

Basically, the idea behind SPF records is that when a mail server receives an email purporting to be from you, it checks to see if the server that sent the message is authorized to be sending mail from your domain.

As Paint Horse alluded, it's not a cure-all. I just suggested it because it helped me. Perhaps the disappearing emails are failing an SPF check. It's just an idea.

If GoDaddy (and only GoDaddy) is forwarding your mail, add a TXT record where the host is just an @ sign, and the content is:

I hate GoDaddy - annoyingly cluttered website that constantly tries to upsell you, all kinds of annoying spammy emails. Blah.

cblaisd

A long time ago, ScottC recommended them, although I understand he no longer does.

I have a phone appointment tomorrow with the local isp that has been the home of my and Mrs. cblaisd's real email inboxes for 17 years; they are going to walk me through moving the domain hosting to them. (My monthly cost will also drop) They recommended leaving the domain registration, though, with GoDaddy because their experience is that there is no other registrar from which it's so hard to move a registration; the support guy at the isp where our mailboxes live (who answers emails within 5 minutes and it's always the same person) said they had just completed such a move for one of their customers and it took a full two weeks to get GoDaddy to give up the domain name registration.

I had been exchanging DM's with the GoDaddy Twitter support. He suggested (seriously) that I send a copy of one of the emails that I had failed to receive to their online chat "support." He also said that they have no trouble-ticket system and that the only support venue is online chat with a "product expert" [sic] or via phone.

When I first registered the domain with them, probably 15 years ago I think, the support was much much better.

gfunkdave

Interesting. I'd suggest moving away from GoDaddy anyway - why give a lousy company your business? I'm in the midst of transferring my domains to Google. It's cheap ($12/year for a .com) and I like that I can just use my Google login. It may be painful to switch for a couple weeks, but it'll be over and you'll be happier for it.

I'd been on Namecheap for the last year - I'd also recommend them. But Google includes private registration for free, while Namecheap charges for it.

cblaisd

Once the domain hosting is successfully moved, I may well think about moving, depending on how likely it is that the process of the move would leave email missing, etc., for how long. Domain doesn't expire with GoDaddy until June so have a bit of time.

gfunkdave

In order to make as seamless a transition as possible, replicate all your domain settings in the new registrar before initiating the transfer.

Google's transfer process included this step.

pseudoswede

When moving domains away from Go Daddy, you have to remember to...

* Unlock the domain
* Cancel any private registration
* Download your authorization codes in CSV format

Then maybe Go Daddy will allow you to transfer your domain. I have one domain remaining; can't wait to be rid of that company.

Xyzzy

1&1 was pretty hard to move away from as well ... but seriously -- the *FIRST* thing I'd do after moving the email is to get my domain away from G Daddy.