Can I use an email not associated with my web host?

[CosmosK]

So, my order confirmations go out from [email protected]. The problem is "mydomain.com" is thought to be junk mail by many junk filters. For example, I can't setup a Facebook account for my business because FB doesn't trust the email address.

I'm becoming more aware that my customers are not getting there order confirmations nor are they getting their tracking when I send it (because they've been calling me)

My email is setup through my web hosting (bluehost). Can I change my zencart email address to be something other, like a yahoo address? Does it matter as long as it's a valid address?

Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks!

[DrByte]

Are you sure it's a problem with the "mydomain.com"? (Does your domain name consist of "bad words"?)

Or is that you haven't properly configured appropriate email "authentication" for "mydomain.com"? ie: things like DomainKeys, SPF records, etc?

If you don't set SPF and DomainKeys and proper MX authorization records for another email service, you're going to run into the same problem even if you change your email to that other service.

The following articles may help:
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.p...Of_Lost_Emails
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.p...Email_Problems



You can probably fix the problem quickly by contacting your hosting company's support desk and telling them you want to set up SPF and DomainKeys on the domain, and verify that all MX records are properly configured. They'll know what all of that means, and should be able to do it for you quickly, or probably tell you how you can do it yourself in your cPanel tools.
The articles above also contain some links to 3rd party tools that can assess your email configurations and recommend fixes for SPF/DK/MX.

[CosmosK]

Ok, I will check into those, thanks for the links and the info.

Can you use one not associated with the host though? I'm not understanding how the mechanics of ZC's emails work. For example, there is no sent email record in the email account it sends from, so it makes me wonder if it's actually using my host email server or if it's an internal thing.

All those items are new to me, thanks for the info.

[CosmosK]

I contacted bluehost, and they saw nothing out of the ordinary with my settings. They only have a few hours of mail server activity, and I haven't had an order today, so they were not able see if the confirmation email actually go through their server.

So, does zencart actually send the email, or does it tell my hosting companies email server to send one?

Thanks

[carlwhat]

i think you need to read a little more on the mechanics of email....

i have not seen any configuration where email from ZC will end up in a sent folder of an email account. i'm not saying that it could not be done, but i have not seen it....

with regards to what server sends the email, you need to look at the configuration > e-mail options. depending on the configuration there will indicate which sever is ultimately sending the email.

i'm not that familiar with bluehost and their customer service. but plenty of level 1 techs would probably miss some of the things drByte mentioned. you can use an online tool, such as http://mxtoolbox.com/, to check your DNS mx records.

good luck!

[DrByte]

there is no sent email record in the email account it sends from

There never will be.

Zen Cart sends email "on your behalf", but doesn't open the email program on your computer or phone to do its sending, and it's your own email program that saves copies in the "sent" folder. Those are two completely different concepts.

In the links I shared, it talks about utilizing SMTPAUTH to provide a username+password+server/host for your Zen Cart to log in to your actual email account (whether that's "at your hosting provider", or "at gmail" or "at mailgun" or "at rackspace", and use that server to send the email. It simply hands the email off to that server to do the actual delivery.

If your delivery problems are because your domain-name contains "bad words", you might need to reconsider what domain you send email from.

If your delivery problems are simply misconfigurations (ref mxtoolbox for analysis), then much of this discussion is moot.

Still, if you're not using SMTPAUTH I recommend that you do.

And, if you need a transaction to test with, login and make a purchase from your own store to test it. (Create a temporary $0.01 product if that eases your mind.)

[CosmosK]

I can read more Swahili, but it still makes little sense ;) Thanks, I will keep trying.

[CosmosK]

no bad words.

Thanks I will do some more digging.