VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

CarynClark · Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 3:22 pm Post subject: email issues

So, one of my new agents just called me b/c they've been trying to email me an audition and it's bounced back to them twice. My email is apparently bouncing it b/c it thinks it's spam.

Now, I've corresponded with these folks via email in the past. Why would this start all of the sudden?

And the bad news? They never got an audition I sent to them on Tuesday for another project (my first audition for them... that doesn't look good, does it). I received their automated confirm that they got it, but they didn't. Nor did the lead agent receive my reply to her very kind email welcoming me to the agency.

I look like a buffoon.

I just hung up with the service provider. They say there's nothing wrong. And then he tried to sell me a 5 year plan for my web site content management system. You have to be kidding me.

Thoughts? Any recommendations for switching to other providers? Thanks!
_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

flaspots · Contributore Level V Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Posts: 191

On any correspondence of importance, I always follow up with a telephone call about a quarter-hour after I transmit e-mail.

glittlefield · Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 4:57 pm Post subject:

Caryn,

At the very LEAST, your provider should be able to whitelist the agency's domain (unless they use something like Hotmail or Yahoo...) to see if that does the trick.

Of course, that's assuming they have a spam filter set up for all inbound smtp traffic to the domains they host.

I have some friends in Austin that do email and site hosting and will check on rates for everyone since this has been a topic of discussion.
_________________
Greg Littlefield
VO-BB Member #59

Deirdre · Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject:

I'll tell ya, my hosting service hates one of my corespondents' IP address so much, the email doesn't even get put into the bulk mail folder.
Someone, somewhere in his server is/was a spammer. So anything close to that node gets blown back with a fatal FU error.

The solution?

Gmail.
_________________
DBCooperVO.com

louzucaro · Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 6:30 pm Post subject:

Folks, I could tell you stories that would...well, bore you to tears, but also shed light on why no less than 50% of my time in the office SINCE FEBRUARY has been dealing with these types of issues.

Caryn, if either you or your agent has e-mail service through SBC/AT&T/SWBELL or possibly Hotmail or Yahoo! then that is the issue right there.

The first four employ Symantec's "Brightmail" system which is so overly-aggressive that it often flags mail as spam that users from another domain send to THEMSELVES at the AT&T network domain.

Yahoo!'s mail system is broken, period, and their whitelisting feature simply does not work IF they've decided to "defer" all mail from a particular server.

In all of the above situations, you will not get ANY concrete info from the networks as to WHY the mail in question never made it to its destination. Just something like "The mail seemed like spam to our automated system."

It's a mess and I strongly encourage everybody to dump those providers if you use them for e-mail.

If you must use a free e-mail service, GMail seems much more reliable and smartly-managed.
_________________
Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"

CarynClark · Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 7:00 pm Post subject:

Ding ding ding.... DB's the winner!!!

Well, at least my webmail provider said that was the problem. My agent's IP address is apparently flagged/blocked b/c someone who uses the same IP must have spammed.

However, in requesting it to be "unblocked" I was denied. They said that my agent must call her ISP and request a Reverse DNS (RDNS).

We'll see if this is really the solution. Thanks everyone for your input. I'll keep you posted. This stuff is all good stuff to know.
_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

ricevoice · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 9:44 am Post subject:

Count me as another fan of Gmail... been using it for 4 years, love it.
_________________
Chris Rice - Noisemaker
www.ricevoice.com

Audiogal · Posted: Sat May 24, 2008 10:13 pm Post subject:

Another vote for gmail. I've used it for my personal email for several years now. Has a very good spam filter.
_________________
Mary

CarynClark · Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 5:51 am Post subject:

The problem is, I don't want my addy to be caryn@gmail.com. I want my domain name in there so it remains caryn@carynclark.net. I know I can forward to gmail, but I would think it would still have to go through carynclark.net server to get there, so I don't think that's a viable solution. ?
_________________
Caryn Clark... The Hip Chick Voice!

"A positive mental attitude and having faith in your ability is quite different from being irresponsible and downright stupid." - Dave

Lizden · Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 7:48 am Post subject:

Caryn,
You can use Gmail & still have your domain in the return address.
(instructions in the Settings - Accounts section of Gmail - or call & I'll walk you through it)

I use it & I think Bob Souer & Kafer do as well.

I don't think it does through your domain server (not be sure about that though!)

L.
_________________
Liz de Nesnera O.A.V. ~ Livin' The VO Dream!
English/French Bilingual VO w/ ISDN
HireLiz.com / liz@hireliz.com

Audiogal · Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 8:23 am Post subject:

Liz is correct. The only caveat with using gmail is that your gmail address is not hidden. In order to avoid spammers using their service, gmail does show your gmail address in some recipient's mail programs. (Outlook?) It may say: From you@gmail.com on behalf of you@yourdomain.com.
_________________
Mary

louzucaro · Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 12:33 pm Post subject:

I think maybe there are different things being discussed here.

Caryn, you're right to want to stick with caryn@carynclark.net and although you can use Gmail to send/receive that mail (it's called POP Retrieval), it will still go through the carynclark.net servers, which means that it's not going to change any issues related to whether or not your mail gets filtered, either coming in or going out.

Alternatively, you can send from a @gmail.com address but set it up so that it looks like it came from caryn@carynclark.net but as has been posted, recipients will in fact be able to see that it actually was sent from gmail.com.
_________________
Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"

anthonyVO · 14th Avenue Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 1470 Location: NYC

You can use Google's servers for your email for your own domain - and it has nothing to do w/ using your domain as a return address, etc.

Go to:
http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new

Check "Administrator: I own or control this domain" then enter your domain name... follow the instructions from there.

In the end, you will be using your own domain's email but have all of the functionality of Gmail... it requires you going into your admin or control panel and changing your email servers from your host's to Google's.

All of my AnthonyVO.com emails are handled by Googlemail's servers... whatever IP's my host blocks will not affect my email because, again, ALL of my email is not going through their mail servers so they're not affected by their policies.

KG put me onto this and I have had absolutely NO issues sending or receiving emails ever since.

EDIT: After you're all set up, you go to http://mail.google.com/a/yourdomain.com to log into your email via the web or set up POP on any device or outlook per the instructions and BOOM! YOUR email @ carynclark.net working better and faster than any host's!

PEACE.
-Anthony

louzucaro · Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 7:27 pm Post subject:

And that would be the third thing Smile

_________________
Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"

Deirdre · Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 7:51 pm Post subject:

Wow— this is just insanely great.

Thank you, Kevin and Anthony!
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DBCooperVO.com