Email problems with trial license requests

[Juan Conejero]

Hi all,

Some people that have submitted trial license requests recently are not receiving our email messages. In particular, for some reason that we cannot understand, Yahoo email seems to be blocking all messages sent from our corporate email server (@pixinsight.com). People using Yahoo email accounts for their trial license requests won't receive our notification emails, including the email with license activation codes and download/installation instructions. This email is sent automatically by our licensing system when we approve a trial license.

Our email server provides a valid SPF record (Sender Policy Framework, see http://www.openspf.org/), which is an open standard for email authentication. There is not much more that we can do to demonstrate that our emails are legitimate. All our emails are sent from our own VPS, which does not share IPs with other websites.

For Yahoo email users, we recommend to use a different email provider for their trial license request. As an example, Gmail accounts are free and work perfectly. Other email providers might be blocking our messages as well, although we still haven't confirmed this.

[Niall Saunders]

Hi Juan,

I wonder whether you might therefore need to point this problem out on the PixInsight website - advising prospective users to avoid using the likes of Yahoo email accounts to sign-up for PI trial licenses (and, presumably, for PI Forum membership as well) ?

Cheers,

[RBA]

I sent you a private email, Juan. Deliverability of legitimate email is the #1 concern in one of my businesses, so I know a thing or two... If you're not spamming (and obviously you're not) Yahoo isn't difficult to deal with - at least it wasn't last time I had to. If they're still as efficient as they used to be, you should be thankful the problem is with them. If it was with Google, you're pretty much at their mercy, literally...

[h0ughy]

is this still happening?  There have been a few Ice in Space forum members (www.iceinspace.com.au ) where I have linked the trial download register page that have been having trouble?

[RobF2]

is this still happening?  There have been a few Ice in Space forum members (www.iceinspace.com.au ) where I have linked the trial download register page that have been having trouble?

Yep - I requested a trial licence twice and even sent back a terse request as to why I was being ignored before I thought to check the Yahoo email spam directory.  I should have just used my ISP email address.

I certainly think it would be a big help to have a warning re Yahoo on the "Application for Trial licence" page if this keeps happening.

[Nocturnal]

I think everyone with a spam filter needs to keep a close eye on it, especially when they're expecting an email that's not arriving. I have two layers of spam filtering (pobox.com and gmail) and I check the contents every day. If some activation or confirmation email is not showing up I know to check there. Unfortunately it's the cost of doing business these days.