Mail not arriving when set to my own domain

only receiving my form submissions when I use my own email address as the recipeint

I’m guessing you actually mean to say “.. as the sender” — or perhaps you didn’t notice the from address changing as a side-effect of changing the recipient?

First:

• https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/emails-sender-is-wrong?replies=3
• https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/emails-wont-send-unless-use-my-email?replies=26
• https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/very-strange-problem-2?replies=17.

Bottom line: emails only work reliably when the from address is your own.

Second:

Make sure these client domains have a valid SPF record installed. Follow the instructions for configuring GoDaddy SPF.

Jason

Thanks Jason for the tips and links. I’m trying to follow correct protocols, but still running into trouble, I’m afraid.

I’m guessing you actually mean to say “.. as the sender” — or perhaps you didn’t notice the from address changing as a side-effect of changing the recipient?

No, I meant the recipient – the address in the “To” field in my form settings under Mail.

I tested setting this to my main personal email address, and I receive it. I changed it to an alternate address which forwards to my personal address, and it still worked as expected – but the From address didn’t change. So, I’m a little confused by that.

But more to the point, both these successful tests happen with the From: field set to “wordpress@[my-domain-name].com”. I’ve set up the wordpress@ address, as a forwarder to my personal email, and tested that it works.

But when I set the To: field to the address it really needs to go to, auditions@[my-domain-name].com, it doesn’t go through. Not to the inbox, not to Bulk Mail (where spam is set to go). Sigh.

This happens whether the From: field is set to “wordpress@[my-domain-name].com” OR
auditions@[my-domain-name].com, the same as the To: address.

Given all this, I’m assuming that my next avenue of pursuit is to use the Postman plugin to make sure the correct SMTP server is being used?

It’s either that or your second suggestion, the SPF record. I looked at the page showing how to add it – no problem there. But… how do I know what code to add under “TXT Value”? I guess that could be rephrased as, “how do I know what SPF record I”m trying to add?” Or is this dealt with within the Postman plugin?

Thanks for you help, and your patience with these questions!

Adam

Last but not least… and I realize this is probably outside the range of your help.

I’ve got Postman almost all set up, but it wants a username and password for my SMTP server; and for the email address linked to my WordPress admin account, there IS NO password, as that address is a forwarder only.

In fact, there’s only two addresses set up at the domain in question that aren’t forwarders, and they’re both used for other purposes. Would it matter if I used their credentials for my Postman mail-sending purposes? Or does the email have to be the one listed for the Admin account on the WordPress install?

The water is getting pretty deep, hope you can help! Thanks!

Adam

This happens whether the From: field is set to “wordpress@[my-domain-name].com” OR
auditions@[my-domain-name].com, the same as the To: address.

Are these two domains – [my-domain-name].com – the same?

But… how do I know what code to add under “TXT Value”? I guess that could be rephrased as, “how do I know what SPF record I”m trying to add?”

This depends on who your email provider is! Who is your email provider?

and for the email address linked to my WordPress admin account, there IS NO password, as that address is a forwarder only.

I think you’re getting closer to the problem then; the From address should be a real mailbox with a username and password. Google for example, won’t allow a forwarder as a from address.

there’s only two addresses set up at the domain in question that aren’t forwarders, and they’re both used for other purposes. Would it matter if I used their credentials for my Postman mail-sending purposes?

Yes, use one of those as both the from address in your email and the mailbox that does the SMTP authentication.

Would you please post the Diagnostics Data from Postman? It would help.

Are these two domains – [my-domain-name].com – the same?

Yes, they are.

Who is your email provider?

The emails associated with this domain are handled by GoDaddy, as is the hosting and itself and URL.

the From address should be a real mailbox with a username and password.

Indeed, that seems like the best clue so far. I’ll use one of the “hard” email addresses (what is the usual term for a “real”, non-forwarding address?) as the sender and for the Postman credentials.

But, since you asked, here’s the diagnostics data from Postman:

OS: Linux p3plcpnl0965.prod.phx3.secureserver.net 2.6.32-531.29.2.lve1.3.11.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Thu Dec 18 06:49:17 EST 2014 x86_64
HTTP User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_10_3) AppleWebKit/600.6.3 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/8.0.6 Safari/600.6.3
Platform: PHP Linux 5.4.37 / WordPress 4.2.2 en_US
PHP Dependencies : iconv=Yes : spl_autoload=Yes : openssl=Yes : sockets=Yes : allow_url_fopen=Yes
WordPress Plugins : Akismet : Audio player : Contact Form 7 : Event Organiser : FeedBurner FeedSmith : Improved Include Page : Jetpack by WordPress.com : JS Banner Rotate : Postman SMTP : WordPress Database Backup
WordPress Theme: City Opera
Postman Version: 1.6.10
Postman Sender Domain: cityoperavancouver.com
Postman Transport URI: smtp:tls:plain://relay-hosting.secureserver.net:25
Postman Transport Status (Configured|Ready|Connected): No|No|undefined
Postman Deliveries (Success|Fail): 0|0
Postman Bind (Success|Fail): No|No
Postman TCP Timeout (Connection|Read): 10|60
Postman Email Log (Enabled|Max): Yes|10
Postman Run Mode: production
Postman PHP LogLevel: 40000

Thanks!

One thing I’m wondering, as I make these changes: what effect does setting that particular “real” email address as the sending address in Postman, have on various other email functions within WordPress? i.e. will notices of version updates or other admin messages now be emailed to that address, instead of the one that’s set as the admin user’s email? (That one was a forwarder so I couldn’t use it…) Or does it not have anything to do with that?

Thanks, and I’ll report on what the results are of the latest settings.

[EDIT:] Aha, I see there’s checkboxes in Postman to “force this sender email address for all messages” – I assume that unchecking that box addresses my concerns.

OK… status report time.

Postman still failed to send a test email, even when set to the “real” address at my domain, the one I’m also attempting to reach with the form. The error was:

535 Incorrect authentication data

Even though I’m entering the exact SMTP username and login, as listed by GoDaddy in “email setup” – which is the same user/login I am using (successfully) to reach webmail for the same address.

A phone call to GoDaddy didn’t get me very far – they couldn’t offer any other advice.

Reaching the end of my rope here, but I really need to solve this… hope you can advise. Thanks!

Adam

A phone call to GoDaddy didn’t get me very far – they couldn’t offer any other advice.

Better no advice than bad advice.

535 Incorrect authentication data

I’ve seen this at GoDaddy before. While smtp:tls:plain://relay-hosting.secureserver.net:25 are GoDaddy’s published settings, they don’t always work. Probably because they didn’t create an account for you on that server. Read this thread for a solution; i.e. change your server to localhost, authentication to none, and in cpanel set your mail server to “remote”, whatever the heck that means.

But when I set the To: field to the address it really needs to go to, auditions@[my-domain-name].com

Possibly a GoDaddy bug? I’ve never used a GoDaddy forwarder so I can’t comment on how well it works. FYI there are other options for commercial mail that are known to be reliable: Google Apps for Work email for example is known to work with GoDaddy-hosted websites.

what effect does setting that particular “real” email address as the sending address in Postman, have on various other email functions within WordPress? i.e. will notices of version updates or other admin messages now be emailed to that address

It only means that mail created by WordPress will have the From header set as that address. It has nothing to do with the recipient. Unchecking “force this sender email address for all messages” is never recommended – but it is there for those who know what they are doing ??

what is the usual term for a “real”, non-forwarding address?)

User.. or mailbox. However mailboxes can be set to forward as well. An address just for forwarding is often called a group mailbox or list.

how do I know what SPF record I”m trying to add?

Follow these instructions to setup SPF on a GoDaddy managed email domain.

I think you’re almost there. Post the settings in your Contact Form 7 Mail: section next.

Jason. You are a lifesaver. I have no idea how I would ever have discovered that solution without you pointing me in the right direction.

Needless to say… it worked!

Even GoDaddy themselves were no help on this one…

Thank you again!

Do you have a “buy me a coffee” link? I think I owe you… 8^)

My pleasure! Glad you got it working. Kindly mark this thread as resolved.

.. and don’t forget to create the SPF record. You still need it.

??

One last thing, Jason. That SPF record. I’ve read through the entire Wikipedia entry about these, but I can’t for the life of me confirm if I’m supposed to put anything different for the actual text of the record, or if the example given on that page of “v=spf1 a mx include:secureserver.net ~all” is exactly what I should enter. I’m assuming so, but nowhere does it explicitly say so…?

Sorry but this whole SPF thing is kinda making my head spin. I’m simply not clear on how to know what it should say in my case.

Thanks,
adam

Well, I found the official instructions on the GoDaddy help pages, and I ‘think’ I’ve set it correctly by following those instructions:

v=spf1 a mx ptr mx:smtp.secureserver.net mx:mailstore1.secureserver.net include:secureserver.net -all

I ran it through the SPF Tester, and got this message:

“Results – record processed without error.

The result of the test (this should be the default result of your record) was, ambiguous . The explanation returned was, SPF Ambiguity Warning: No MX records found for mx mechanism: smtp.secureserver.net”

So, it worked – yay! But wondering about that warning….

“v=spf1 a mx include:secureserver.net ~all” is exactly what I should enter

That’s right

v=spf1 a mx ptr mx:smtp.secureserver.net mx:mailstore1.secureserver.net include:secureserver.net -all

Mmm… you don’t need that much detail. As the error said, smtp.secureserver.net doesn’t even have MX records. But that record is still valid.

Great. Thanks for the extra info! And for all your help on this.