Emails from .africa domain to .gov.za don't seem to reach their intended recipient.

S

StefanVVeens

New member
Joined
Jul 31, 2023
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Apologies in advance if this has already been asked - please refer me to the right place. Also my first time trying to figure out this domain stuff (ja, complete newb here).
Ok, I have recently acquired a .africa domain which I've now also tried to migrate my work emails onto (from gmail...). The trouble is that I send a lot of emails to .gov.za addresses, and many of these don't seem to reach their intended recipients. So far, at least kzntransport.gov.za, dardlr.gov.za and umngeni.gov.za seem to have trouble receiving from my .africa domain.
How do I best go about resolving this?
 
StefanVVeens said:
How do I best go about resolving this?
Click to expand...
By starting what your .africa domain is called so we can do some checks.

However you can also start doing an important check yourself.
Go to:
www.mail-tester.com

Newsletters spam test by mail-tester.com

mail-tester.com is a free online service that allows you to test your emails for Spam, Malformed Content and Mail Server Configuration problems
www.mail-tester.com www.mail-tester.com
and follow the instructions there.

You should have at least a 9/10 to get good mail transfers, 10/10 is even better.
 
Hi Ri
Richard G said:
By starting what your .africa domain is called so we can do some checks.
Click to expand...
Domain is geodesign.africa

I did the test, got 8.7/10.
1. Got -0.999 for domain being younger than 14 days.
2. I don't have a DMARC record. I'll have a look at this all a bit later and see what I can figure out to resolve these issues.
 
StefanVVeens said:
I did the test, got 8.7/10.
Click to expand...
If that's only those 2 things, then it's no problem.
1.) It will age over time so that is good.
2.) You don't need a DMARC record. SPF or even better DKIM and SPF should be enough.

However, I see that you are using external mail filters for receiving mail, being se-filterXX.tld-mx.com where XX is a certain number.
Probably an external spam system.

This made it a bit harder to see the settings on your server for outgoing mail.
I would suggest to install and use DKIM on your system for the mail.

In SSH do the following:
Code: 
cd /usr/local/directadmin
./directadmin set dkim 1 restart

Then:
Code: 
cd /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild
./build update
./build exim
./build eximconf

After that, login to DA, go to the domain you want DKIM to be enabled under email accounts and enable DKIM there.

P.s. I presume SPF is already existing on your system.
 
Richard G said:
If that's only those 2 things, then it's no problem.
1.) It will age over time so that is good.
2.) You don't need a DMARC record. SPF or even better DKIM and SPF should be enough.

However, I see that you are using external mail filters for receiving mail, being se-filterXX.tld-mx.com where XX is a certain number.
Probably an external spam system.

This made it a bit harder to see the settings on your server for outgoing mail.
I would suggest to install and use DKIM on your system for the mail.

In SSH do the following:
Code: 
cd /usr/local/directadmin
./directadmin set dkim 1 restart

Then:
Code: 
cd /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild
./build update
./build exim
./build eximconf

After that, login to DA, go to the domain you want DKIM to be enabled under email accounts and enable DKIM there.

P.s. I presume SPF is already existing on your system.
Click to expand...
As I said, complete newb - where exactly do I find 'in SSH' and do the above? I've tried to find it on my domain admin portal, but not winning.
 
StefanVVeens said:
As I said, complete newb - where exactly do I find 'in SSH' and do the above? I've tried to find it on my domain admin portal, but not winning.
Click to expand...
I also reset my DKIM signature via my email domain administrator, and my score went down to 5.3! Ok, now I'm really well and truly puzzled.
 
I don't know how you managed to reset your DKIM signature, but especially if you are complete new at this, you shouldn't do things you're not sure about what the result will be.

StefanVVeens said:
where exactly do I find 'in SSH' and do the above?
Click to expand...
Oh you might really want to consider do some basic learning of Linux console, or maybe better, hire somebody to manage your server or do tasks.

SSH = Secure SHell. It's a way to get into console mode (so to say) of your server/vps. This is done as root.
You need a program to login to SSH at your system. One of the most used program's to do this is Putty. You can download and use that for free.

However, since you will be working as root in console mode (ssh) you have to be extremely careful because actions can not be undone. So if you delete the wrong files, you might be in real trouble.

Having that said... the commands I gave are good.
You should have been given a root password by your vps or server provider which can be used to login on your server.

Use that password in Putty to login to your server and do the commands I gave or hire somebody to do them for you.

I only wonder if you don't already have somebody, because normally email filters are not set up.

Which DA license do you own?
 
I bought the geodesign.africa domain about two weeks ago from domains.co.za.
The control panel is da14.domains.co.za.
On this control panel was an option to 'disable' and 'enable' DKIM. I hit this button to see what it would do, and ran the spam test only for it to tell me the DKIM signature was invalid. I don't know if this kind of thing takes a few days to sort itself out?
That's how we got here. I was, at the same time, looking for something where I could 'in SSH do the following' - clearly I was looking in the wrong place.
I've logged a ticket with domains.co.za to see what they can do.
 
I was becoming afraid of that too @Active8 hence my question.

@StefanVVeens I'm sorry. But you're in the wrong place. This forum is only for support to license holders, so admins (server owners), not for end customers of hosting companies.
You have to contact your host for support.

So you put in a ticket there, they have to help you further, they should provide you with help for your issue, and if they don't know, they have to start ask questions here, not the customers. ;)
 
This explains much of my frustration. This is, however, the forum they direct customers to for support directly from the client facing control panel.

Anyway, domains.co.za got back to me and they did some back-end stuff and said they'd reset my DKIM and SSH keys and signatures or whatever they needed to do, so I'll run that test and see how it all behaves now.
 
StefanVVeens said:
This explains much of my frustration. This is, however, the forum they direct customers to for support directly from the client facing control panel.

Anyway, domains.co.za got back to me and they did some back-end stuff and said they'd reset my DKIM and SSH keys and signatures or whatever they needed to do, so I'll run that test and see how it all behaves now.
Click to expand...
A solid 9/10! Now for the domain to age beyond 28 days.
Thanks for your help, gentlemen. Have a great weekend.
 
StefanVVeens said:
This is, however, the forum they direct customers to for support directly from the client facing control panel.
Click to expand...
Yes well... they shouldn't do that. They know they should do customer support themselves and they try to make life easy for themselves this way, but that is not how it works. We don't do customer support here, only admins/license holders. So now you know for next time. Kick them in the but. ;)

The back-end stuff they did probably was what we were talking about here via SSH. But I'm glad to hear it's fixed now.

As for the help. You're welcome, have a great weekend too!
 
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