Web Design Tips: Delayed Mail to Xtra / Yahoo E-mail Addresses
Xtra and Yahoo NZ (they are the same thing) use spam prevention policies that are unique in the web design and email services industries and often cause emails sent to their customers to be delayed or sometimes even rejected.
Symptoms
When you receive one of the following emails back from Xtra / Yahoo it may be because you are experiencing this problem:
- 451 Message temporarily deferred
- 421 Message from x.x.x.x temporarily deferred
These messages indicate that you have attempted to send a message to an Xtra / Yahoo email address and your email was not accepted by the Xtra / Yahoo servers. It is not a permanent error; the sending email server will automatically re-try later. But it does delay your email, often for several hours.
Cause
The Xtra / Yahoo spam policies seem to be designed to accept email from two types of sources:
- Large email providers and ISPs such as Gmail, Yahoo or Slingshot. Such providers are known to Xtra / Yahoo and are given a trusted status.
- Email servers that host a single domain name. For example, if your business has a mail server on a unique IP address and that mail server sends email for a single domain name (such as www.anyware.co.nz) then you are less likely to have a problem with Xtra / Yahoo.
If you use an email service that sends email for multiple domain names (e.g. Anyware.co.nz, PhilsPhones.co.nz, MikesMopeds.co.nz AND KalpeshsKayaks.co.nz) then unless Xtra / Yahoo has defined that mail server as a trusted sender, it is likely to defer emails that you send to their customers. The more domain names your server sends emails for the more likely they are to be affected.
Thousands of email servers around the world suffer from this problem. It should be clear that the problem is with the Xtra / Yahoo spam policy and not with the email servers sending the email.
Scenarios
There are two common scenarios where emails you send to Xtra / Yahoo users can be delayed:
1. Anyware FormMail - web site enquiry and order forms.
Your web site uses an enquiry form or order form and enquiries are directed to an @xtra.co.nz email address.
2. Anyware Mailbox Service
- If you use mailboxes on Anyware's server AND,
- you send email from Outlook/Thunderbird using Anyware's SMTP servers or you send email from your Anyware webmail AND,
- you send an email to an @xtra.co.nz email address.
Solutions
Options to prevent your emails from being delayed include...
For scenario 1, Anyware FormMail
- Deliver your enquiry or order e-mails to a mailbox on the Anyware server instead of to an @xtra.co.nz email address ($5 per month for up to 5 mailboxes)
- Deliver your enquiry or order e-mails to any non Xtra / Yahoo email address. Free Gmail or paid Google Apps accounts both work well.
For scenario 2, Anyware Mailbox Service
- Change your Outlook or Thunderbird email program to send mail using your ISPs SMTP server (which Xtra / Yahoo probably trusts)
- Encourage recipients of your emails to use a more modern email service (such as Gmail).