Outgoing RetailVista email does not arrive, is seen as spam

This document describes the sending of outgoing RetailVista emails. Please note: This document specifically refers to RetailVista and not RetailLink. The latter has a completely different way of handling emails.   

Emails can be sent from RetailVista. Most emails are sent from the task scheduler (especially the 'bulk' emails), some emails are sent directly from the front office, back office, and a few other servers. All outgoing emails are ultimately sent by the ams1-gensrv1, the 82.201.9.82 server.

The outgoing emails are delivered directly to the destination by this server. They are not sent through an anti-spam/anti-virus environment. All outgoing RetailVista emails have the domain @retailvista.net as the sender.

Anti-spam measures

To ensure that receiving parties do not classify these messages as spam, SPF and DMARC techniques are used to provide more clarity to the receiving party about the legitimacy of the messages. The correct functioning of the SPF and DMARC settings can be tested, for example, via https://mxtoolbox.com by entering the domain 'retailvista.net' there.

Logging

As indicated in the introduction, all outgoing email is sent via the ams1-genserv1 server. All outgoing message traffic is logged in the \Windows\Logfiles folder. If an email does not reach a customer/destination, the logfile can be used to trace what happened to a message.

The following line shows how the delivery of a message failed because the receiving party actively refused it. In the refusal, this receiving party took the trouble to indicate why the message was rejected, namely 'Blocked using hostedmeail.com'. They also provide a URL where more information is displayed about the specific blockage.

2019-07-11 12:00:45 64.98.36.

4 OutboundConnectionResponse SMTPSVC1 AMS1-GENSRV1 - 25 - - 554+5.7.1+Service+unavailable;+Client+host+[82.201.9.82]+blocked+using+urbl.hostedemail.com;+Listed+in+Abusix+Mail+Intelligence,+see+https://abusix.ai/search?q=82.201.9.82 0 0 171 0 562 SMTP - - - -

https://www.abusix.ai/search?q=82.201.9.82

The background of this blocking was not having fully set up a combination of Reverse DNS, SPF, and DMARC. On the specific website abusix.ai, the sender IP address 82.201.9.82 could be unblocked, after which the combination of DNS, SPF, and DMARC settings were correctly configured.

Blacklisting

It is possible for a sent email server to end up on a blacklist. With proper system administration, this chance is not high, but if an email server ends up on that list, many recipients will reject the mail from that server as 'spam'.

On the website https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx, the IP address 82.201.9.82 or the domain name ams1.smtp.retailvista.net can be tested. If the server is known to one or more anti-spam hosts, then the support desk of NedFox should be contacted to resolve this. It is important to note that not all individual mail servers worldwide are connected to these blacklist hosts. A server like abusix.ai from the previous example is not connected to these blacklist hosts. Consulting this blacklist only provides an initial (albeit reliable) impression, but does not guarantee 100% exclusion of problems at the individual server level. Analyzing the log files ultimately provides definitive clarity.

Buffering

The ams1-gensrv1 mail server