Email settings and server changes

My store is built on a shared server where I also have a WP site. I noticed that, too often, emails sent from my WP site were flagged as spam or simply rejected from recipients' email service. That is apparently common on shared servers and although it is annoying, nothing could be done on my end (other than upgrade to VPS).

It turns out that I have a VPS plan for another site, and was suggested to "re-route" all the emails from my "shared server domain" (which includes the store) through the VPS. That is what I did, changing various settings on the WP installation and Cloudflare. That is using the same domain as my store.

Now, today, one purchase was made in the store but the invoice never reached me, nor the customer (I double-checked with him), so I contacted my host support and they asked me to make sure of this:

"I updated the Wordpress site so the SMTP settings pointed from the shared server (secure281.xxxxxxx) to the VPS (vps66728.xxxxxxx). So it's possible you may need to login to the Zencart site and do the same. But as long as the Zencart mail settings are configured to use the VPS then fixing the SPF should allow messages to be sent from the Zencart site."

Now my question is where do I see this setting? I looked at the SMTP Email Account Mailbox and all the settings after that seem to be "blank" or by default as it shows "YourEmailAccountNameHere". Interestingly, all the normal emails were sent previously, so I am not sure if/when/where the SMTP was set or if the settings are unrelated to that.

Can someone help me make sense of that and guide me to set things correctly?

Three things need to be set in your DNS settings for your site:

SPF

DKIM

DMARC

The most important nowadays is the DMARC. What you are describing tells me your email does not have DMARC.

SPF is generally added automatically by a host.

If your host provides a current cPanel, then you probably had DKIM setup for you as well.

DMARC is like an SSL for email and GoneDaddy makes you buy a special hosting plan to get it.

Go to mxtoolbox.com and enter your domain name. That will tell you where you stand on the DMARC. Near the middle of the page is a link for "spf lookup". If DMARC is not found, you want to check the spf.

dbltoe:

Three things need to be set in your DNS settings for your site:

SPF

DKIM

DMARC

The most important nowadays is the DMARC. What you are describing tells me your email does not have DMARC.

SPF is generally added automatically by a host.

If your host provides a current cPanel, then you probably had DKIM setup for you as well.

DMARC is like an SSL for email and GoneDaddy makes you buy a special hosting plan to get it.

Go to mxtoolbox.com and enter your domain name. That will tell you where you stand on the DMARC. Near the middle of the page is a link for "spf lookup". If DMARC is not found, you want to check the spf.

I have set those three on Cloudflare. Do I need to set something else (like the SMTP) in the Zencart?
On mxtoolbox.com everything checks out fine except these:
Status Warning SMTP Banner Check Reverse DNS does not match SMTP Banner Information More Info
Status Warning SMTP TLS Warning - Does not support TLS. Information More Info
Status Warning SMTP Transaction Time 15.282 seconds - Not good! on Transaction Time

Although I never set the SMTP Email before (and had no issue), should I set them now?

I am still seeing some transactions go through, but the invoice is not received by the customer. I don't know if it is not sent at all, or if it is sent but somehow lost in transit, so to speak.

OK, I updated all the SMTP information (that I never had to) and ran a test: the customer got the invoice, but I didn't get a copy myself.

Anywhere else I should check to set up that email notification to myself?

There's so many nuances involved when setting up SMTP in a cloudflare environment.

Some providers will use other than the standard ports and harsh spam filtering.

You might have missed one something in credentials or missed setting SSL/TLS

All guesses without being ablte to see your setup. What is your host doing to help with this? Are they providing the email or is it coming from something like GoneDaddy?

dbltoe:

All guesses without being ablte to see your setup. What is your host doing to help with this? Are they providing the email or is it coming from something like GoneDaddy?

My host is InMotion and the emails are all through them.

The "problem" is only with Zencart. My other site on the same domain, and same hosting, using the same email works fine so that is making me think that the information on Cloudflare is correct, but maybe there is another place in Zencart to change the settings, somewhere I don't know of.

I have been in contact with my host and they gave me all the strings to add to Cloudflare to go through the VPS. That is where I also got all the SMTP information to set up the emails outgoing from my site (and Zencart), etc. Unfortunately, they don't support Zencart so it is harder for them to know if there is something else I should do.

Not being able to see into the server, I have to make some WAGs

It will save some time if you gave the settings (minus password of course).

dbltoe:

Not being able to see into the server, I have to make some WAGs

It will save some time if you gave the settings (minus password of course).

Hopefully, this will make sense:

SMTP Email Account Mailbox - admin @ creationcassel . com
SMTP Email Account Password - xxxx
SMTP Email Mail Host - vps66728.inmotionhosting.com
SMTP Email Mail Server Port - 587

Would you also need the SPF, DMARC and DKIM from Cloudflare to make sense?

While I look at other things, check with inMotion on the spf.

mxtoolbox is complaining about too many lookups and requesting flattening.

See if inMotion has a problem with the following:

v=spf1 ip4:YOUR_IP include:spf.antispamcloud.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:smtp.servconfig.com mx -all

E-Mail Transport Method?

587 should be the correct port for encrypted but, if they have you on a "older" server for older PHP, they may actually be using the old 465 for SMTP and the technicician was used to just saying, "587".

"Flattening" an SPF record refers to the process of reducing the number of DNS lookups required to evaluate the SPF record. SPF records can be nested, meaning that they can include other SPF records, which can in turn include other SPF records, and so on. Each time an SPF record includes another SPF record, a DNS lookup is required, which can increase the latency of email delivery.While they may be measured in miliseconds, too many delays can be a problem as well.

dbltoe:

While I look at other things, check with inMotion on the spf.

mxtoolbox is complaining about too many lookups and requesting flattening.

See if inMotion has a problem with the following:

v=spf1 ip4:YOUR_IP include:spf.antispamcloud.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:smtp.servconfig.com mx -all

mxtoolbox is showing 14 lookups in the original spf :ohmy:

most of ours are just ```
v=spf1 ip4:YOUR_IP +a +mx ~all

dbltoe:

While I look at other things, check with inMotion on the spf.

mxtoolbox is complaining about too many lookups and requesting flattening.

See if inMotion has a problem with the following:

v=spf1 ip4:YOUR_IP include:spf.antispamcloud.com include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:smtp.servconfig.com mx -all

This is what I have:

v=spf1 +mx +ip4:23.235.194.63 +include:spf.antispamcloud.com +include:spf.protection.outlook.com +include:smtp.servconfig.com -all

The only difference I see is the +mx is somewhere else.

> E-Mail Transport Method?

Not sure what that means.

> 587 should be the correct port for encrypted but, if they have you on a "older" server for older PHP, they may actually be using the old 465 for SMTP and the technicician was used to just saying, "587".

The emails are coming through in my Outlook using that, and from my WP site using 587. Would it be different for Zencart or would that be the same thing through all those locations?

And I got one more purchase this morning that didn't send me the invoice. I set all those SPF last night (about 12 hours ago). If they are correct, it MIGHT not have populated yet.

YourAdmin >> Configuration >> Email
First Selection is E-Mail Transport Method. Should most likely be smtpauth but might work with one of the sendmail settings.

dbltoe:

YourAdmin >> Configuration >> Email
First Selection is E-Mail Transport Method. Should most likely be smtpauth but might work with one of the sendmail settings.

Oh... It is set to PHP. Should I change that to smtpauth ?

Won't work well without that setting.:cool:

I am seeing issues like this (DKIM/SPF, etc.) more and more frequently.

Thanks to the work of @dbltoe and others, we have some good documentation on this topic:

https://docs.zen-cart.com/user/email/advanced_email_troubleshooting/#11-spf-dkim-and-dmarc