Pocket PC Thoughts Newsletter Showing up as Garbled Code?

[Jason Dunn]

<img border="1" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//spt/auto/1209095437.usr1.png" alt="" /><br /><br />What's that? You're having trouble reading the Pocket PC Thoughts weekly newsletter? Yeah, um, sorry about that. Since the post-hack emergency server move a few things have broken, and there's a specific type of setting in our newsletter that some email clients have trouble with. Outlook 2007 reads it just fine, but other email clients do not. We were supposed to have it fixed for tomorrow, but post-move we also changed our server time from GMT -7 to UTC, so the newsletter went out this evening (my local time). By next week we hope to have all the glitches with the newsletter ironed out.

[Phillip Dyson]

Are news letters going out now? I haven't been receiving them.

Come to think of it, I don't receive notifications from thread that I've subscribed to. I hadn't said anything before because I thought it was a part of the Pending work being done for subscriptions.

In hindsight, I suppose that there doesn't seem to be a connection between the two.

[Jason Dunn]

Are news letters going out now? I haven't been receiving them.

Yes, they've been going out for a couple of weeks now since the move (there was a period of, I think two or three weeks where there were no newsletters).

Come to think of it, I don't receive notifications from thread that I've subscribed to.

Were these thread subscriptions on our old site, the phpBB-based one? Sadly those were not transferred to the new vBulletin-based systems. You'll have to re-subscribe to threads on the new forum system, or configure your profile to automatically subscribe you to any thread that you respond to.

[bbarker]

I am using Outlook 2007 and it was all messed up for me, too -- text and HTML code.

[Phillip Dyson]

Were these thread subscriptions on our old site, the phpBB-based one? Sadly those were not transferred to the new vBulletin-based systems. You'll have to re-subscribe to threads on the new forum system, or configure your profile to automatically subscribe you to any thread that you respond to.


I'm setup to subscribe with instant notification. All of my subscriptions are setup for instant. I didn't even get notified from this thread.

[buzzard]

Got mine on 4/24, no problems.

[Jason Dunn]

I'm setup to subscribe with instant notification. All of my subscriptions are setup for instant. I didn't even get notified from this thread.

Hmm. I'm gettng mine, so our server is definitely sending them out. The thing to look at would be spam filters - I'm assuming you've checked your spam folder, but it might be getting blocked higher up in the chain, something that you can't even see.

[Jason Dunn]

I am using Outlook 2007 and it was all messed up for me, too -- text and HTML code.

Yeah, we can't quite figure that part out - why some Outlook 2007 clients render it fine, and some don't. Hopefully we'll be able to fix it for everyone before next week. :o

[Phillip Dyson]

Hmm. I'm gettng mine, so our server is definitely sending them out. The thing to look at would be spam filters - I'm assuming you've checked your spam folder, but it might be getting blocked higher up in the chain, something that you can't even see.

Thanks Jason, I checked my spam folders and turned off any inbox rules that referenced the ThoughtsMedia sites. I do remember having some problems with DigitalHomeThoughts, then DMT sometime ago centering around changing my email address. It was probably user error, but someone had to eventually unlock my account for me. I haven't received anything from any of the sites after 3/31.

I've swapped to another email address to see if I get them. If it works then perhaps I'll try switching back to my primary. Maybe there's a ghost in the machine.

[Phillip Dyson]

I did my experiment and the other email worked just fine. When I switched back to my primary, I didn't even receive the email verification email.

I have a comcast"dot"net primary forwarding to my exchange account. I turned off any filtering on the comcast side, an there's nothing in my junk email or suspect folder. I even check my deleted folder. Nothing.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Sorry for hijacking the thread.

I do get forum updates from Howard Forums and others.

[Jason Dunn]

I did my experiment and the other email worked just fine. When I switched back to my primary, I didn't even receive the email verification email.

Aha - interesting! At least now you know where the problem lies.

I have a comcast"dot"net primary forwarding to my exchange account. I turned off any filtering on the comcast side, an there's nothing in my junk email or suspect folder. I even check my deleted folder. Nothing.

Who are you using for Exchange hosting? I suspect there's something they're running that's blocking us - it might be a bad header we have mis-configured on our server, or somehow our mail server might be blacklisted. Ask them to look for records of email coming from castle.thoughtsmedia.com, IP 75.125.197.19.

If you can chase this down with them, it might help us fix this problems for others - because where one person is having trouble, likely others are as well.

[Phillip Dyson]

Who are you using for Exchange hosting?

I'm using 4smartphone.net
I'll check with them about the blacklist.

[Jason Dunn]

I'm using 4smartphone.net
I'll check with them about the blacklist.

Oh. Well...I'm using them too, and they're coming in fine for me. That's sure strange! :confused: They had trouble with the phpBB thread updates before, but have been fine with the vBulletin updates.

[Phillip Dyson]

Here is what I got back.

Our Senior technicians report that they were not able to find any errors or bounces for ***.comcast.net and ***.msoutlookonline.net (http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/redir.aspx?C=5612b7932866460d8e6e042dba7b4190&URL=mailto%3apdyson%40pdyson.msoutlookonline.net) on the 27th and 28th of April.
Also they were not able to find any connections from the provided IP address.

Please provide us with information on a specific message you would like us to track for further investigation.
Contacting sender mail admins would also be helpful because if there was a bounce that says 'message content rejected' it's 99.9% because of non-compliant headers.


Do you think thoughtsmedia might be getting bounce backs from the Comcast.net domain?

I'll try and pose the same question to comcast as well.

thanks for you help

[Jason Dunn]

Do you think thoughtsmedia might be getting bounce backs from the Comcast.net domain?

It's certainly possible that Comcast is using their own blacklist and we're on it without knowing about it. :(

[Phillip Dyson]

I sent an email to comcast support and waiting for a response. Its been a couple of days.

[Phillip Dyson]

I never got a response from Comcast about their domain. However I'm still not seeing the PocketPC thoughts Weekly digest email even though I'm using a non-comcast email address.

I do however get the thread updates to my other email address.

[Jason Dunn]

I never got a response from Comcast about their domain. However I'm still not seeing the PocketPC thoughts Weekly digest email even though I'm using a non-comcast email address.

We've added a newsletter subscribe box to our home page (I haven't announced it yet because we're not quite ready to do it across all sites) - try re-subscribing and see if the newsletter shows up this Friday.

[Phillip Dyson]

Thanks Jason,
I tried subscribing both of my emails to see which one wins.

Is this a ThoughtsMedia newsletter, or specific to PocketPCThoughts?

[Jason Dunn]

Is this a ThoughtsMedia newsletter, or specific to PocketPCThoughts?

It's the Pocket PC Thoughts newsletter that you know and love. :)

[Phillip Dyson]

So, the plot thickens...
I registered both of my email for the PPCT newsletter. The one that I currently have registered with my ThoughtsMedia profile (which receives forum reply notifications), and my other email (which did not receive forum reply notification for some reason).

The PocketPCThoughts Newsletter came through to them both successfully.
However, the email registered with ThoughtsMedia profile had ***SPAM*** pre-pended to the subject.

Do the forum replies and newsletters come from a different domain?

[Jason Dunn]

So, the plot thickens...I registered both of my email for the PPCT newsletter. The one that I currently have registered with my ThoughtsMedia profile (which receives forum reply notifications), and my other email (which did not receive forum reply notification for some reason). The PocketPCThoughts Newsletter came through to them both successfully.

Ok, so then that probably means that somehow you'd become un-registered in our system and weren't supposed to be receiving the newsletter.


However, the email registered with ThoughtsMedia profile had ***SPAM*** pre-pended to the subject. Do the forum replies and newsletters come from a different domain?

No, the forum replies and the newsletters should both be coming from @thoughtsmedia.com in the reply-to email address. Do you perchance have access to the headers for the email that was marked as spam? I'd really like to see the headers to understand the rating system that considered it spam.

[Phillip Dyson]

I find it strange that I can receive that Newsletter to my Comcast email, but the last time I tried, the forum reply notifications nor the registration confirmation email would come through. Perhaps something changed and it will work now. I'll give it a shot. Except if it doesn't work I could be locked out.

Also, I PM'ed you the header for the email that was marked as spam in my other email account.

[Jason Dunn]

I find it strange that I can receive that Newsletter to my Comcast email, but the last time I tried, the forum reply notifications nor the registration confirmation email would come through.

The unfortunate reality of using email on a service where you can't really see what's going on behind the scenes (Comcast, Hotmail, etc.) is that it's virtually impossible to track down what the problem is. That's why I always do my own email hosting - I can't stand leaving it up to someone else.