Ok, finally got round to looking at why the 1000’s of AOL readers on our mailing lists don’t always receive their daily or weekly emails. Aside from some truly abhorrent anti-spam policies, it appears AOL likes you to have SPF records for each sending domain. So, after a few quick checks at dnsstuff.com I determined, just as I thought, we had no such entry against any of the domains.
For the terminally DNS challenged like me, a Sender Policy Framework is simply way for the receiving email system to verify that the email is being sent from a server authorised to do so. And it is a simple one line update to each domain record. You can see the effects from different IPs from here : SPF Validation
A few ping-pong emails to our ISPs support desk later, and we have 5 brand spanking new SPF records. I remain to be convinced this will help get through the AOL eye of a needle but – ho hum – can’t but help can it.
As for other reasons – work your way though AOLs guide here. [grumble]
