Our system has detected an unusual rate of unsolicited mail originating from your IP

[GumboStandards]

Reading around on the web suggested that the recently occurring Google email delivery delays I've been experiencing -- with Zen Cart's auto-generated emails (Order Confirmation No. and Order Update sent to the customer and [New Order] Order Confirmation No. sent to store staff) on a domain using Google Apps to handle its email -- might be due to the mismatched addresses for the return-path ([email protected]) and from ([email protected]) in the email header. FWIW, manually-created emails are sent/delivered without delay.

So how do I correct the "return-path" so that it is [email protected]? Or am I barking up the wrong tree in trying to fix the recent issue in Google delaying delivery of these auto-generated emails?

For three years there had not been a problem. Then four or five days ago... wham! Delays of up to a day began occurring. To help me troubleshoot, the web host tech team for mydomain.com sent me the following info (with IP starred to protect privacy) from an email log on the server:

2013-06-11 14:16:06 1UmVZf-0009Jd-0l SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data: host alt2.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com [74.125.130.27]: 421-4.7.0 [**.**.**.*** 10] Our system has detected an unusual rate of\n421-4.7.0 unsolicited mail originating from your IP address. To protect our\n421-4.7.0 users from spam, mail sent from your IP address has been temporarily\n421-4.7.0 blocked. Please visit http://www.google.com/mail/help/bulk_mail.html\n421 4.7.0 to review our Bulk Email Senders Guidelines. d10si14583045yhd.42 - gsmtp

FWIW, there is no bulk mailing done whatsoever and rarely is the cc: function even used (maybe once for every 1000+ emails sent). Regardless, I reviewed Google's Bulk Email Senders Guidelines and created an SPF TXT record in the DNS zone. But the SPF bit in the header sometimes reads "neutral" instead of "pass". DKIM is troubling though. The web host only appears to enable DKIM for incoming mail through CPanel, so I may have to do some more research here and/or work with the web host to get that fixed for outgoing email.

Or maybe I have the email options incorrectly configured? Currently they are:

E-Mail Options

Title . . . . . . . Value

E-Mail Transport Method . . . . . . . PHP
E-Mail Linefeeds . . . . . . . LF
Use MIME HTML When Sending Emails . . . . . . . false
Send E-Mails . . . . . . . true
Verify E-Mail Addresses Through DNS . . . . . . . false
Email Archiving Active? . . . . . . . true
E-Mail Friendly-Errors . . . . . . . false
Email Address (Displayed To Contact you) . . . . . . . [email protected]
Email Address (sent FROM) . . . . . . . [email protected]
Emails must send from known domain? . . . . . . . No
Email Admin Format? . . . . . . . HTML
Send Copy of Order Confirmation Emails To . . . . . . . [email protected]
Send Copy of Create Account Emails To - Status . . . . . . . 0
Send Copy of Create Account Emails To . . . . . . . [email protected]
Send Copy of Tell a Friend Emails To - Status . . . . . . . 0
Send Copy of Tell a Friend Emails To . . . . . . . [email protected]
Send Copy of Customer GV Send Emails To - Status . . . . . . . 0
Send Copy of Customer GV Send Emails To . . . . . . . [email protected]
Send Copy of Admin GV Mail Emails To - Status . . . . . . . 0
Send Copy of Customer Admin GV Mail Emails To . . . . . . . [email protected]
Send Copy of Admin Discount Coupon Mail Emails To - Status . . . . . . . 0
Send Copy of Customer Admin Discount Coupon Mail Emails To . . . . . . . [email protected]
Send Copy of Admin Orders Status Emails To - Status . . . . . . . 0
Send Copy of Admin Orders Status Emails To . . . . . . . [email protected]
Send Notice of Pending Reviews Emails To - Status . . . . . . . 0
Send Notice of Pending Reviews Emails To . . . . . . . [email protected]
Set "Contact Us" Email Dropdown List . . . . . . .
Allow Guest To Tell A Friend . . . . . . . false
Contact Us - Show Store Name and Address . . . . . . . 0
Send Low Stock Emails . . . . . . . 0
Send Low Stock Emails To . . . . . . . [email protected]
Display "Newsletter Unsubscribe" Link? . . . . . . . true
Audience-Select Count Display . . . . . . . true
SMTP Email Account Mailbox . . . . . . . [email protected]
SMTP Email Account Password . . . . . . . ***************
SMTP Email Mail Host . . . . . . . smtp.gmail.com
SMTP Email Mail Server Port . . . . . . . 465
Convert currencies for Text emails . . . . . . .

[DrByte]

Emails must send from known domain? . . . . . . . No

Set that to Yes.

[DrByte]

E-Mail Transport Method . . . . . . . PHP

You specified that your SMTP email Host is smtp.gmail.com ... but since you've got it set to 'PHP', it will not use any of your SMTP settings. Instead it's entirely using your own webserver's email engine (according to your server's internal PHP configuration) for sending messages ... thus your emails aren't actually sending through gmail.
So, if your intention was to send your site's email through google's servers, you'll need to change your email Transport to SMTPAUTH.

[RodG]

To help me troubleshoot, the web host tech team for mydomain.com sent me the following info (with IP starred to protect privacy) from an email log on the server:
SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data:
host alt2.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com [74.125.130.27]: 421-4.7.0 [**.**.**.*** 10]
Our system has detected an unusual rate of\n421-4.7.0 unsolicited mail originating from your IP address.

I've no idea why you would think that the IP is somehow a privacy issue. These are no more 'private' than a domain name, and unless a domain name is made available to the public there is no point in its existence. Nonetherless, can you confirm that the IP address that you've starred out is indeed the *same* as the IP address of the store (or not).

So how do I correct the "return-path" so that it is [email protected]? Or am I barking up the wrong tree in trying to fix the recent issue in Google delaying delivery of these auto-generated emails?

Barking up wrong tree.

FWIW, there is no bulk mailing done whatsoever and rarely is the cc: function even used (maybe once for every 1000+ emails sent). Regardless, I reviewed Google's Bulk Email Senders Guidelines and created an SPF TXT record in the DNS zone. But the SPF bit in the header sometimes reads "neutral" instead of "pass". DKIM is troubling though. The web host only appears to enable DKIM for incoming mail through CPanel, so I may have to do some more research here and/or work with the web host to get that fixed for outgoing email.

None of which will help.

Or maybe I have the email options incorrectly configured? Currently they are:
E-Mail Transport Method . . . . . . . PHP

As DrByte pointed out (which got me thinking), with this setting you won't even be using the google servers for sending, which, as long as the starred IP address matches your servers IP address, then even though it probably isn't you doing the spamming, someone using the same shared server is (or was).

You have two possible solutions.
1) Contact google and have your hosts IP address removed from *their* blacklist.
2) Configure ZenCart so that it really is using SMTP & the google servers.

Option 1 will be good until another spammer comes along and abuses your same shared host. It could be a day, it could be in another three years.
Option 2 is a little more tricky to set up, but no one blocks the google servers :)

Cheers
Rod

[allthingsidLeroy]

I suppose I might be parroting what the above posters have said, but I'll throw in my two cents.

Setting up both SPF and DKIM require you to be able to change your DNS records (both TXT records). This is something that I don't think you will have to worry with as it sounds you're using Google to send email, but I could be reading this wrong.

The best option probably is using SMTP to authenticate and send mail from a known mail server (yours, or Google's if you have your email setup through them).

The Sendmail option might work if the machine you're using is also the mail server for whatever domain you are using.


When you mention setting a `return-path', most mail servers will set this automatically. If you really don't think this is being set, for whatever reason, send a test email (or look at an email you already have) from this domain and `view the source' of it. This will show you all the headers that have been sent from the mail server (the raw email, I suppose). Thunderbird has an option to do this under an `Other Actions' pull down menu.