UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums UBB.threads 6 Version 6 Support E-mail problem.

The problem is the following - users should get various letters from the forum to the address they give at the registration.
Those letters do not always reach them because their mail servers (actually almost all Russian mail servers) treat them as spam
This occurs because of the RCPT TO field
I would like to have an opportunity to change this field and to hear your suggestions and comments regarding this matter

Thanks

Have a look in ubbt.inc.php, MAILER CLASS. All of the headers are in order within that class. If you need to add or change a header that would be the place to do so.

Often the free email services - like hotmail, yahoo mail (or similar russian services) will place all non-human generated email into a junk or spam filter. Users need to be told to check those folders after registration.

And one of the most "interesting" ones is Hotmail with people having set their spam settings to Max = "receive email only from the contacts in my address book". The emails from the board then ends up directly in the Junk mail folder. I have at least 5 queries per day as to why haven't people received their verification email when registering in a forum I have and the funny thing is that even if I reply since I am not in their contacts my reply ends up in the junk mail as well.

You could make an announcement first in your board and tell users to allow the particular address to send them emails. Then you can have a look whether the IP address that your server/domain has the reverse dns feature (look www.dnsstuff.com). If not then contact your ISP and tell them you want that. Most anti spam filters look that thing first.

I hope this helps a bit.

Also having a problem with users not receiving their emails, and the server is then flooding my mail box with the following type of email:

----------
The message identifier is: 1CUCeG-0003um-KR
The subject of the message is: Password for Forum mecz.pl
The date of the message is: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 00:22:08 +0100

The address to which the message has not yet been delivered is:

[]tripla@o2.pl[/]
Delay reason: SMTP error from remote mailer after RCPT TO:<tripla@o2.pl>:
host mx4.go2.pl [193.17.41.44]: 450 <nobody@server.mecz.org>:
Sender address rejected: Domain not found
----------

Now I'm using the mecz.org domain name, and my hostname seems to be set as server.mecz.org. But why are emails being "bulk-rejected" due to the domain not being found?

Ok thank.
There is a new problem - with "Member titles". We use cirillic font for all of them, but now some titles on boards look like &#241;&#242;&#224;&#240;&#238;&#230;&#232;&#235; (in html view)
In databases w3t_UserTitles and w3t_Users evetything looks fine.

If you try to traceroute the server.mecz.org it does not resolve. This is most probably your problem. Your server says that its name is server.mecz.org yet the dns servers do not resolve it. You might want to take this up with your ISP.

[]Ok thank.
There is a new problem - with "Member titles". We use cirillic font for all of them, but now some titles on boards look like &#241;&#242;&#224;&#240;&#238;&#230;&#232;&#235; (in html view)
In databases w3t_UserTitles and w3t_Users evetything looks fine. [/]
This usually happens due to a wrong encoding on your browser either while storing the data or retrieving it. When I post in Greek for instance I can see in the text box that everything is all right but when I navigate to the preview screen the letters change to characters similar to the ones you have. When I set the default language/encoding of my browser to Greek the problem disappears.

Chnge encoding in browser not fix this problem <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />


here is what it takes from Mysql when taking the user info from the control panel -&acirc;&aring;&ograve;&aring;&eth;&agrave;&iacute; (KOI -> MAC)
and it is member title!

and here is what is being saved after pressing update member (this is when in member title field I haven’t made any changes)
&#226;&#229;&#242;&#229;&#240;&#224;&#237;

And this is about Member Title field only, because Full Name field remains correct (written in Russian) while inquiring it from MySql and also after updating Mysql

Member title info is saved in the file, while full name is saved in the database

Hmm....

Dimopoulos, thanks for the info!

If for instance I change the name of my hostname then should I go along and click on "add an A entry for your hostname"?

From time to time I get an automatic email about this:
IMPORTANT: Do not ignore this email.
The hostname (server.mecz.org) resolves to . It should resolve to 64.132.144.116. Please be sure to correct /etc/hosts as well as the 'A' entry in zone file for the domain.

Some are all of these problems can be caused by
/etc/resolv.conf being setup incorrectly. Please check this file if you
believe everything else is correct.


You may be able to
automaticly correct this problem by using the ' Add an A entry for your
hostname ' under ' Dns Functions ' in your Web Host Manager

You'll also need to set a username. I'm fairly sure this is no actual account named 'nobody'

"Set a username"? Can I set a username to use with Threads? If I create an account just for use with Threads then how can I set it up so that all emails are sent from that account?

Overall I reckoned that it's just a hostname issue on the entire server.
At present the vast majority of emails are not reaching my customers and the reason is that the hostname itself doesn't exist (isn't even traceable via traceroute). Most popular isp's are treating this as spam because the hostname seems like a voodoo one.

Is the hostname itself the problem here... or could it be the fact that I haven't set up an email account dedicated to my Threads board?

Yes I am sure that it will solve this problem. If you have access to your DNS zones you can add the A zone to resolve to 64.132.144.116.

Dave's suggestion is also correct which might save you from future problems. Set up the nobody user as the email and because it is a valid email on your server it will be OK.

Problem with encoding Member Title :
Fix it: admin/showusers.php
close this line(70)
$usertitle = htmlentities($usertitle); -->
//$usertitle = htmlentities($usertitle);

<img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> but it work

[]Dave's suggestion is also correct which might save you from future problems. Set up the nobody user as the email and because it is a valid email on your server it will be OK. [/]

OK, so if I set this up as an actual email account (with PASSWORD) then this won't somehow prevent Threads from using it?

This is what I'm getting nowadays, seems like some sort of anti-spam block is being used. Don't know what's going on, but I see SMTP error, rev DNS... and polityka_antyspamowa which basically translates into anto-spam policy.

==========[i]
This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

[]pac6@wp.pl[/]
SMTP error from remote mailer after initial connection:
host smtp.wp.pl [212.77.101.160]: 550 [IP:64.132.144.116] revDNS zobacz strone http://profil.wp.pl/polityka_antyspamowa.html / DNS error - see http://profil.wp.pl/bulk_email_policy.html

------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------

Return-path: <forum@mecz.org>
Received: from nobody by server.mecz.org with local (Exim 4.43)
id 1CVa4e-00042m-Hn
for [email]pac6@wp.pl;[/email] Sat, 20 Nov 2004 19:35:04 +0100
To: []pac6@wp.pl[/]
Subject: Verify email for
From: []forum@mecz.org[/]
From: []forum@mecz.org[/]
Reply-to: []forum@mecz.org[/]
X-Mailer: UBB.threads
Message-Id: <E1CVa4e-00042m-Hn@server.mecz.org>
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 19:35:04 +0100


To activate your account for you need to verify your email address. Please se the following link:

]http://www.mecz.org/ubbthreads/verifyemail.php?verify=56596-KMeF5KJR[/i]
==========

"rejection of any transmission originating from an incorrectly configured DNS or RevDNS server"

Could this be it? RevDNS?

Reverse DNS is a feature that a lot of mail servers use to reject spam. What it means is that if you ping say www.infopop.com it comes up with an IP address say 10.0.0.1. Now the reverse dns means that if anyone wants to translate this IP address it must come back as www.infopop.com.

You can check if your mail server has the reversedns feature using tools located in www.dnsstuff.com. If it is not then you must contact your ISP so that it can enable this feature for you.

I know for sure that AOL uses this reversedns feature to block spam and if your boards send quite a bit of emails to AOL users you will find yourself blocked as a spammer.