Does anybody successfully email pairings with WinTD? My problem is not with WinTD, but rather with finding an smtp server that works. The server I use for most purposes works but limits me to 50 emails every 5 minutes. I have a private domain that let’s me send out unlimited emails, but probably because of that, it has a high rejection rate. Verizon and ATT seem to block all texts from it. Gmail and Yahoo don’t seem to want to play with WinTD at all. Has anybody been successful with this in a tournament of any size?
Can’t help you specifically with WinTD generated email, but I’ve maintained several email servers over the years, and there are several steps you can take to help with delivery issues. You may want to contact your ISP to ask what they can do to help.
One is to have an SPF record in the DNS record for your domain that identifies your mail server by IP address. Another is to use DKIM authentication for your messages, but that’s not as easy to set up. There are some other steps you can take but they’re even more work to set up, such as a hash key to ensure that your message hasn’t been modified en route.
I have recurring problems with AOL, Yahoo, and AT&T (among others); they will blacklist you if you send too many emails, though you can ask to be whitelisted. You may or may not get a response from them, sometimes you have to make multiple requests or provide copies of the type of email messages you send.
Even Outlook can be difficult, as recurring threads from members who are having trouble contacting US Chess staff members shows.
A couple of years ago I switched ISPs and it took well over a year to get some of the email services to recognize my email server’s new IP address. One of them still rejects some email. (And of course individual email accounts can filter or block email from you, too.)
If you can configure your messages to go out through a 3rd party email server, they generally do a pretty good job of dealing with blockages, but there’s a charge based on the volume of messages you send.
And chat messaging services (like iChat or SMS) seem to be a bit better at getting through, but there can be a per-message charge for those as well.
You are correct that gmail (and I assume yahoo) no longer are particularly useful for this. I’m surprised that you are having a problem with the dedicated IP address. Are you sure you’re not sharing traffic with other customers of the ISP? I would check what the situation is with the provider. Just the fact that you are allowed unlimited outgoing e-mails shouldn’t by itself get it blacklisted—you would typically have to have run afoul of one of the e-mail blacklist systems.
I’ve occasionally had problems with some e-mails (typically installation instructions) running afoul of the spam filters at gmail in particular, where minor (basically blind) changes to the wording got them passed. (gmail is highly unlikely to tell you what phrases are triggering their filters). I haven’t had a problem with vtext.com, txt.att.net or tmomail.net (the SMS domains for Verizon, ATT and T-Mobile) so it would have to be the originating IP address that is being blocked, not the content.
Tom, I’m not terribly techie and perhaps private domain is not the right word. I have a personal domain but I assume I’m sharing space with a few million other people on some computer somewhere (Utah, I believe) so I don’t really know whether I have a dedicated IP address or not. I don’t use it for email in general, so it’s hard to see why I would personally be marked as a spammer. I did try to send out a tournament announcement to about 350 addresses a few months ago and most of the yahoo ones (but not 100%) bounced. I tried texting and it worked perfectly with my and my wife’s phones, but then I tried some Verizon and ATT accounts and was shut out. I’ll keep piddling and maybe eventually I’ll figure it out. It would be very handy for large scholastic tournaments if I could get it to work.
I would check with your ISP. I’m guessing that your outgoing e-mails are sharing an IP address with other customers and the blacklist is from some of the other customers and obviously you have no control over what they are sending.
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