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I'm having some trouble trying to get my company emails to return a better score from Port25s authentication verifier service. I'm scoring neutral on most of the results. I've included the report below.

I have come across reverse dns, I'm told it's vital to proving my mail servers credibility? A reverse dns check on my ip address resolves as

ip-97-74-4-207.ip.secureserver.net

Is this correct or should I contact my hosting provider?

I recognise the vagueness of this question and apologise, I am lacking in knowledge in this area and would be immensely grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.

From:   [email protected]
Sent:   12 November 2015 15:09
To: [email protected]
Subject:    Authentication Report

This message is an automatic response from Port25's authentication verifier service at 
verifier.port25.com.  The service allows email senders to perform a simple check of various sender 
authentication mechanisms.  It is provided free of charge, in the hope     that it is useful to the email 
community.  While it is not officially supported, we welcome any feedback you may have at <verifier-
[email protected]>.

Thank you for using the verifier,

 The Port25 Solutions, Inc. team

==========================================================
Summary of Results
==========================================================
SPF check:          neutral
DomainKeys check:   neutral
DKIM check:         neutral
Sender-ID check:    neutral
SpamAssassin check: ham

==========================================================
Details:
==========================================================

HELO hostname:  p3plsmtps2ded01.prod.phx3.secureserver.net
Source IP:      208.109.80.58
mail-from:      [email protected]

----------------------------------------------------------
SPF check details:
----------------------------------------------------------
Result:         neutral (SPF-Result: None)
ID(s) verified: [email protected]
DNS record(s):
    health-n-life.com. SPF (no records)
    health-n-life.com. 3600 IN TXT ""v=spf1 +a +mx +ip4:97.74.4.207
~all""

----------------------------------------------------------
DomainKeys check details:
----------------------------------------------------------
Result:         neutral (message not signed)
ID(s) verified: [email protected]
DNS record(s):

----------------------------------------------------------
DKIM check details:
----------------------------------------------------------
Result:         neutral (message not signed)
ID(s) verified: 

NOTE: DKIM checking has been performed based on the latest DKIM specs    (RFC 4871 or draft-ietf-dkim-
base-10) and verification may fail for older versions.  If you are using    Port25's PowerMTA, you need to 
use version 3.2r11 or later to get a compatible version of DKIM.

----------------------------------------------------------
Sender-ID check details:
----------------------------------------------------------
Result:         neutral (SPF-Result: None)
ID(s) verified: [email protected]
DNS record(s):
    health-n-life.com. SPF (no records)
    health-n-life.com. 3600 IN TXT ""v=spf1 +a +mx +ip4:97.74.4.207    ~all""

----------------------------------------------------------
SpamAssassin check details:
----------------------------------------------------------
SpamAssassin v3.4.0 (2014-02-07)

Result:         ham  (1.2 points, 5.0 required)

 pts rule name              description
---- ---------------------- -------------------------------------------------
-0.0 RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_H3      RBL: Good reputation (+3)
                        [208.109.80.58 listed in wl.mailspike.net]
 0.4 MIME_HTML_MOSTLY       BODY: Multipart message mostly text/html MIME
 0.0 HTML_MESSAGE           BODY: HTML included in message
 0.8 BAYES_50               BODY: Bayes spam probability is 40 to 60%
                        [score: 0.5025]
-0.0 RCVD_IN_MSPIKE_WL      Mailspike good senders
 0.0 TVD_SPACE_RATIO        No description available.

==========================================================
Explanation of the possible results (from RFC 5451) 
==========================================================

SPF and Sender-ID Results
=========================

"none"
      No policy records were published at the sender's DNS domain.

"neutral"
      The sender's ADMD has asserted that it cannot or does not
      want to assert whether or not the sending IP address is authorized
      to send mail using the sender's DNS domain.

"pass"
      The client is authorized by the sender's ADMD to inject or
      relay mail on behalf of the sender's DNS domain.

"policy"
     The client is authorized to inject or relay mail on behalf
      of the sender's DNS domain according to the authentication
      method's algorithm, but local policy dictates that the result is
      unacceptable.

"fail"
      This client is explicitly not authorized to inject or
      relay mail using the sender's DNS domain.

"softfail"
      The sender's ADMD believes the client was not authorized
      to inject or relay mail using the sender's DNS domain, but is
      unwilling to make a strong assertion to that effect.

"temperror"
      The message could not be verified due to some error that
      is likely transient in nature, such as a temporary inability to
      retrieve a policy record from DNS.  A later attempt may produce a
      final result.

"permerror"
      The message could not be verified due to some error that
      is unrecoverable, such as a required header field being absent or
      a syntax error in a retrieved DNS TXT record.  A later attempt is
      unlikely to produce a final result.


DKIM and DomainKeys Results
===========================

"none"
      The message was not signed.

"pass"
      The message was signed, the signature or signatures were
      acceptable to the verifier, and the signature(s) passed
      verification tests.

"fail"
      The message was signed and the signature or signatures were
      acceptable to the verifier, but they failed the verification
      test(s).

"policy"
      The message was signed but the signature or signatures were
      not acceptable to the verifier.

"neutral"
      The message was signed but the signature or signatures
      contained syntax errors or were not otherwise able to be
      processed.  This result SHOULD also be used for other
      failures not covered elsewhere in this list.

"temperror"
      The message could not be verified due to some error that
      is likely transient in nature, such as a temporary inability
      to retrieve a public key.  A later attempt may produce a
      final result.

"permerror"
      The message could not be verified due to some error that
      is unrecoverable, such as a required header field being
      absent. A later attempt is unlikely to produce a final result.


==========================================================
Original Email
==========================================================

Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from p3plsmtps2ded01.prod.phx3.secureserver.net (208.109.80.58)    by verifier.port25.com id 
h8i0ms20i3g2 for <[email protected]>; Thu, 12 Nov 2015    07:09:18 -0500 (envelope-from 
<[email protected]>)
Authentication-Results: verifier.port25.com; spf=neutral (SPF-Result: None) 
[email protected]
Authentication-Results: verifier.port25.com; domainkeys=neutral (message not signed) 
[email protected]
Authentication-Results: verifier.port25.com; dkim=neutral (message not signed)
Authentication-Results: verifier.port25.com; sender-id=neutral (SPF-      Result: None) 
   [email protected]
Received: from ip-97-74-4-207.secureserver.net ([97.74.4.207])
    by p3plsmtps2ded01.prod.phx3.secureserver.net with : DED :
    id gc9A1r04x4TzU1d01c9AVU; Thu, 12 Nov 2015 05:09:11 -0700
x-originating-ip: 97.74.4.207
Received: from [37.211.64.190] (port=62782 helo=MoPC)
by ip-97-74-4-207.secureserver.net with esmtpa (Exim 4.86)
(envelope-from <[email protected]>)
id 1Zwqgg-0002Bm-8T
for [email protected]; Thu, 12 Nov 2015 05:09:10 -0700
From: "Mo Gould" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: TEest
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2015 15:09:07 +0300
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
    boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0018_01D11D5C.1591D2D0"
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 15.0
Thread-Index: AdEdQuwnhjHqgzOYRNeC2ozux0z9gw==
Content-Language: en-gb

This is a multipart message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_000_0018_01D11D5C.1591D2D0
Content-Type: text/plain;
    charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Test message


------=_NextPart_000_0018_01D11D5C.1591D2D0
Content-Type: text/html;
    charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<html xmlns:v=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" = xmlns:o=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-
com:office:office" = xmlns:w=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" = 
xmlns:m=3D"http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" = 
xmlns=3D"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><META = HTTP-        EQUIV=3D"Content-Type" 
CONTENT=3D"text/html; = charset=3Dus-ascii"><meta name=3DGenerator     content=3D"Microsoft Word 
15 = (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
    {font-family:"Cambria Math";
    panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
    {font-family:Calibri;
    panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
    {margin:0cm;
    margin-bottom:.0001pt;
    font-size:11.0pt;
    font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
    mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
    {mso-style-priority:99;
    color:#0563C1;
    text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
    {mso-style-priority:99;
    color:#954F72;
    text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
    {mso-style-type:personal-compose;
    font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
    color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
    {mso-style-type:export-only;
    font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
    mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
@page WordSection1
    {size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
    margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext=3D"edit" spidmax=3D"1026" /> </xml><![endif]--><!-    -[if gte mso 9]><xml> 
<o:shapelayout v:ext=3D"edit"> <o:idmap v:ext=3D"edit" data=3D"1" /> 
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=3DEN-GB =     link=3D"#0563C1" 
vlink=3D"#954F72"><div class=3DWordSection1><p = class=3DMsoNormal>Test 
message<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>
------=_NextPart_000_0018_01D11D5C.1591D2D0--
1

1 Answer 1

1

Well, you should at least set up the DKIM infrastructure. It's not SO difficult, if you know what you are doing. I suggest you to start here: http://www.gettingemaildelivered.com/dkim-explained-how-to-set-up-and-use-domainkeys-identified-mail-effectively

Then I'll modify the SPF record, changing "~all" to "-all". You have to be sure that all the mail originating from your domain is sent by your server at the IP specified.

In that way you should score well in both test, improving you reputation.

2
  • Thank you very much for your reply. I have gone into cpanel to attempt to enable DKIM. It's already active but comes with a warning: Status: Enabled WARNING: The system cannot verify that this server is an authoritative nameserver for “health-n-life.com)”. [?]. Could this be the cause of my issue? Thank you again! Nov 17, 2015 at 17:35
  • This happens because cPanel wants itself to be the authoritative nameserver for the domain. This is NOT mandated by DKIM, but by cPanel. You can ignore the warning IF (and only if) everything is setup correctly The authoritative DNS is on another host? Nov 18, 2015 at 10:17

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