Author Topic: Not getting email notifications.. (Read 3796 times)

Piston · « **on:** August 16, 2010, 02:32:03 pm »

I suddenly stopped getting email notifications? I didn't change any settings in my profile and I have made sure I have "notify" clicked when posting a reply but I haven't had an email notification in weeks?

I just posted a couple threads and I have quite a few replies but no notifications, I usually rely on the notify feature to let me know when someone replies to my post, or adds to a post i'm subscribed to.

Can anyone help me get my notifications back?

Jeff · « **Reply #1 on:** August 16, 2010, 02:42:48 pm »

Have you checked your junk mail? Could be for some reason your ISP is blocking forum mail as well. Swamp Donkey's notifications stopped awhile back and then mysteriously started again. The forum is sending, for some reason, you just aint getting.

Jeff · « **Reply #2 on:** August 16, 2010, 02:45:22 pm »

I bet it is yahoo. The forum server had been getting lambasted by kickbacks from them. I think due to a spammer forging the send on mail from webmaster@forestryforum.com there is no such email address and never has been one, and thats the one that yahoo was kicking back at us as spam when we didnt even send them. Could be they have blocked others as well now.

Larry · « **Reply #3 on:** August 16, 2010, 02:53:25 pm »

Email notifications mostly stopped for me maybe a month ago. Sometimes a few get through but most times none at all.

My email is yahoo. It's a disposable one that forwards email to my real email if that makes sense.

Jeff · « **Reply #4 on:** August 16, 2010, 04:02:25 pm »

You might try changing your forum email to something other then a yahoo email and see if that works. Make sure in your profile under account settings that your email address is hidden. (if its ticked, it's hidden, however you can still see it, the forum admins can see it, but no one else can see it or get at it)

Piston · « **Reply #5 on:** August 17, 2010, 03:24:42 am »

Jeff,
Is there an email address that the yahoo mail recognizes from the forum notifications? If so could I add that address to my contacts list? I checked my spam folder and there is nothing in there from the forum, I think yahoo must be blocking it before it even gets to my spam folder.
If there is no address I can add to my yahoo mail contacts then I will try setting up a gmail account and forwarding the emails through that.

Jeff · « **Reply #6 on:** August 17, 2010, 07:48:03 am »

The emails would be coming from noreply@forestryforum.com

Piston · « **Reply #7 on:** August 21, 2010, 04:37:45 am »

Well I tried adding that email address to my contacts and still nothing. Then yesterday I updated my email address to a different one I use sometimes, still didn't get anything from there. I double checked that I am 'enabling notifications' and I don't see any reason I'm not getting them? My other address is a gmail address.

When I changed my email to my gmail address It said I needed to check the verification email, however I didn't get one on my gmail address? Somehow I can magically login now though (probably thanks to Jeff).

Am I just doomed and I'll never get email notifications again? Maybe it's something I said?

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #8 on:** August 21, 2010, 08:52:07 am »

Neither Jeff or I did anything on our ends when my notifications stopped, then mysteriously began again. Internet burp or something.

Warbird · « **Reply #9 on:** August 21, 2010, 11:01:24 am »

Have you clicked on the "Spam" folder in gmail to verify that FF emails aren't being flagged as spam? That happened to me once, long ago.

Also, I'm wondering why you need email notifications on every thread you have posted to? Just stop by and hang out more often and check the threads. Stay a while and chat more.

Piston · « **Reply #10 on:** August 21, 2010, 12:55:45 pm »

Quote from: Warbird on August 21, 2010, 11:01:24 am

Have you clicked on the "Spam" folder in gmail to verify that FF emails aren't being flagged as spam? That happened to me once, long ago.

Also, I'm wondering why you need email notifications on every thread you have posted to? Just stop by and hang out more often and check the threads. Stay a while and chat more.

I did check the spam folders in both yahoo and gmail but nada.
I do like subscribing to the threads and getting the email updates, personnel preference I guess.
If there is some kind of way to see how much I've been on the forum lately I'm sure you would all think I had nothing else to do!

Warbird · « **Reply #11 on:** August 21, 2010, 03:54:08 pm »

Heh. I practically live here while doing other stuff. Not sure I want to know how many hours a day I'm around.

Jeff · « **Reply #12 on:** August 21, 2010, 05:42:59 pm »

try killing all your notifications then adding some back.

WDH · « **Reply #13 on:** August 21, 2010, 09:25:57 pm »

Just about a month ago, I stopped receiving e-mail notifications when I got a PM from someone on the Forum. Interesting. Something is going on, and my e-mail account is not yahoo or gmail.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #14 on:** August 21, 2010, 09:39:03 pm »

Mine is only Bell/Aliant here, has been from the start except a yahoo account that I stopped 2 years ago with my website. But, it's always been the Bell/Aliant I use on the forum account. It goes under the old name of NBnet, which was a crown corporation called NBTel. It's (telecom. company) been sold a couple times since.

Anyway, just throwing that out there as information in case we run out of ideas to figure what's going on or not going on.

Jeff · « **Reply #15 on:** August 21, 2010, 09:41:56 pm »

I've reconfigured the forum software just now to use php mail server from smtp. see if that makes a difference.

Piston · « **Reply #16 on:** August 22, 2010, 02:22:23 am »

I'll give that a try Jeff

Thanks for all your help guys!

John Mc · « **Reply #17 on:** August 28, 2010, 12:49:09 pm »

I'm not getting email notifications either. My ISP is Wildblue (satellite internet). They contract with Google for email services. It does seem odd that both Google and Yahoo would pick the same time to start blocking spam.

I've checked my gmail spam folder, and there is nothing from the Forestry Forum there either. I wonder if one of the intermediate servers that the mail passes through is blocking it before it gets to google/gmail ?? I had that problem once in the past (before Wildblue started contracting with Google). Took a long time for them to figure out what was going on. In the mean time, I was not getting emails from two family members, and from anyone in my employer's domain. Nothing ever showed up in the spam folders, and the sender never got any error messages.

John Mc

Piston · « **Reply #18 on:** August 28, 2010, 02:54:57 pm »

John,
I've tried everything recommended but still nothing. I'm hoping it will magically start working again just as it magically stopped one day. Not really sure what else we can do?

Magicman · « **Reply #19 on:** August 28, 2010, 05:38:35 pm »

Quote from: Piston on August 28, 2010, 02:54:57 pm

..........magically start.....magically stopped......

Don't drag the Magicman into it.
He didn't see nothing, he didn't do nothing, he didn't said nothing, he didn't know nothing.

John Mc · « **Reply #20 on:** August 28, 2010, 08:00:12 pm »

Quote from: Piston on August 28, 2010, 02:54:57 pm

John,
I've tried everything recommended but still nothing. I'm hoping it will magically start working again just as it magically stopped one day. Not really sure what else we can do?

I might put a notice in to my ISP and/or Google to get then working on it. It took a while last time I ran into this, but they eventually got it fixed ... after a couple of months on my ISP's part denying there was any problem.

John Mc · « **Reply #21 on:** August 29, 2010, 12:55:05 pm »

Jeff -

Are you getting delivery error messages on any of these, or not? I'm wading through the help files on Gmail, and they asked this question. I have to go through all of that before I can submit a trouble ticket.

If you are getting an error message back, they ask me to chose from the following:
'Our system detected an illegal attachment on your message.'
'Over quota' or 'Inbox full'
'Your message exceeded Gmail's size limits.'
'Our servers have detected a mail loop.'
'This Gmail user does not exist.'
'The Gmail user you are trying to contact is receiving mail at a rate that prevents additional messages from being delivered.'
'We weren't able to find the recipient domain.'
'Parse Error: Illegal To: address (invalid domain name)
None of the errors above

Is what you are seeing any of the above?

They also offered this link as help for administrator's whose domain is having trouble getting messages through to gmail recipients:
http://mail.google.com/support/a/wildblue.net/bin/answer.py?answer=80369

Might be worth a look.

John Mc

Jeff · « **Reply #22 on:** August 29, 2010, 10:32:28 pm »

None of the above.

John Mc · « **Reply #23 on:** August 31, 2010, 11:17:19 am »

Are you getting any error messages back at all, or are the notifiactions just vanishing into oblivion?

Jeff · « **Reply #24 on:** August 31, 2010, 11:27:59 am »

The problem is that we have a problem. The email webmaster@forestryforum.com, which does not now and never has existed, is somehow responsible for sending out boat loads of spam. This is resulting in forum email being banned from all over until we can find a solution. I can get the bans rescinded until we can find a way to stop the spam fountain. We have top levek Linux administrators working on the problem, but as of yet, they cannot find where or how the spam is being generated. It just is. I'm not at all happy about their inefficiencies in finding the problem. I'm sure its not the forum software, as I have disabled it completely in the middle of the night along with any other scripts we use, and the spam continues to show up in the mail log files. Lots of it. So the dedicated server is responsible, but the Forestry Forum is not, but its our I.P. getting banned.

John Mc · « **Reply #25 on:** August 31, 2010, 01:56:20 pm »

Thanks for the info, Jeff.

I'm wondering if I can convince the gmail folks to white-list the specific email address that the notifications come from ("noreply@forestryforum.com" if I recall one of the previous posts on this thread). That way, they may still be able to block the spam.

John Mc

Jeff · « **Reply #26 on:** August 31, 2010, 02:21:26 pm »

John, Your address of record here is not a gmail email address.

beenthere · « **Reply #27 on:** August 31, 2010, 02:50:05 pm »

Jeff
Seems a while back we were asked to not use the email notifications. Has that changed due to new servers?
I will admit that it didn't take me long to grow used to the fact that I wasn't getting them anymore. In fact, it was just plugging up the email box with extra messages.

Anything important can be PM'd IMO

Jeff · « **Reply #28 on:** August 31, 2010, 04:01:50 pm »

I don't recall asking you not to use them, I just stated that I felt them to be un-necessary. The notifications that people miss, are when they want to be notified when a particular thread has been posted in.

I sometimes use that notification when I am watching a thread (usually on the chainsaw board

)that I feel may have the potential to cross a conduct line. That way I know right away.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #29 on:** August 31, 2010, 05:29:18 pm »

That's most the email I get is those notifications.

Besides the odd spam that you end up with from signing up to a site with a free trial of their software.

I'm pretty sure some of those outfits share emails as another revenue source. Otherwise, as in my case, I have no idea how you could draw it out of the air.

Warbird · « **Reply #30 on:** August 31, 2010, 07:38:24 pm »

Jeff, did you try those things I suggested? I'm at home now and will be for the rest of the evening. Feel free to give a call.

Jeff · « **Reply #31 on:** September 01, 2010, 02:02:04 am »

Warbird and I have been working on this until just a few minutes ago. We got the spam fountain stopped and hopefully the exploit they used patched. Now I'll have to try and see about getting our server I.P. address back in good standing, or maybe easier, changed.

Piston · « **Reply #32 on:** September 01, 2010, 07:04:13 am »

Thanks guys,
Although now that I'm used to just using the two links at the top "show my unread posts" and "show new replies to my posts" I don't think I'll use the email notifications anymore....

John Mc · « **Reply #33 on:** September 01, 2010, 09:04:34 am »

Quote from: Jeff on August 31, 2010, 02:21:26 pm

John, Your address of record here is not a gmail email address.

Actually, it is a gmail address. Wildblue contracts with gmail to provide their email service. All of the email systems are handled by and hosted on gmail, including spam filtering, or in this case, blocking the message entirely.

John Mc

Warbird · « **Reply #34 on:** September 01, 2010, 09:35:12 am »

It may not be too difficult to remove us from the various mail blacklists. I have 2 friends at work who have been email admins (running email servers for thousands of users). They have had to deal with this from time to time. Let me ask them about this when I get to work this morning. Might be a lot easier than trying to change the IP and having to wait for DNS to propagate.

Jeff · « **Reply #35 on:** September 01, 2010, 09:38:14 am »

Warbird, I have 32 I.P,'s assigned to that server, so I'm thinking all they would have to do is maybe change some configure files to have sendmail sending from one of the other I.P, address;s already associated with the server? Maybe I'm crazy.

Deal is, I don't know who or how many are blocking us.

Warbird · « **Reply #36 on:** September 01, 2010, 09:42:55 am »

I just sent you an email with something I saw this morning that I thought might be troubling. But upon further investigation, it may not be so I sent another email following that up. You'll have to say whether those are legit or not.

Let me ask these guys about this morning. Give me a few hours? It's only 5:30am here and I won't have the opportunity to ask them until 9 or 10. If memory servers, it wasn't that big if a deal to get 'er done (get us removed from the blacklists).

Jeff · « **Reply #37 on:** September 04, 2010, 08:23:23 pm »

I'm still jumping through the hoops required by the various email providers to get our name cleared. Yahoo is a pain in the u-no-watt. I've had to develop a privacy page and answer a long drawn out questionare including a lot of personal contact information to get them to consider allowing mail again. I've probably got at least 12 hours in searching out filling out forms and sending and responding to emails related to just the I.P. block and I still don't know if any of it has been fruitful yet.

Comcast
charter
verizon
gmail
yahoo
hotmail
AOL
ATT

and probably several unknown others to come as I discover them.

I swear, if I could get my hands on the freak...

Jeff · « **Reply #38 on:** September 04, 2010, 08:24:26 pm »

Anyhow, I forgot to ask what I needed to ask. As soon as some of you that have not been getting your stuff, start getting your stuff again, please let me know so I know what is fixed and what is not.

Thanks!

Warbird · « **Reply #39 on:** September 05, 2010, 11:10:45 am »

Sorry to hear it's that much of a pain, Jeff. I haven't been checking lately but have things still been looking good on the server?

John Mc · « **Reply #40 on:** September 05, 2010, 11:26:29 am »

It's probably intentional that the process of clearing your name is a pain in the rear... that dissuades most of the spammers from going through it.

If testimonials from members, or complaints that our providers are blocking you would help, let us know.

John Mc

Jeff · « **Reply #41 on:** September 05, 2010, 11:34:54 am »

Spammers could care less.

John Mc · « **Reply #42 on:** September 06, 2010, 04:06:04 pm »

Got an email notification today at 1:09 PM, so apparently your efforts are meeting with success... at least with gmail.

John Mc

Jeff · « **Reply #43 on:** September 06, 2010, 04:28:31 pm »

I see a bunch of bounced yahoo messages in our mailq, so no luck there yet.

Jeff · « **Reply #44 on:** September 06, 2010, 05:00:10 pm »

Well, let's see if this answer is actually the answer.

Quote

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Mail.

We have made appropriate changes to the IP address you have submitted
within our database. However, we cannot fully exempt your mail server
from our SpamGuard technology. This should help with delivering mail to
the appropriate Yahoo! folders.

Please be aware that Yahoo! Mail users are able to set their own
preferences for the manner in which they receive your mailings. If the
recipients of your messages want to ensure they receive your emails in
their Inbox, you may want to ask them to set up a filter in Yahoo! Mail
specifically for your emails, or have them add your email address(es) to
their Yahoo! Address Book.

Please refer to the Help page below for more information on our
recommended best practices for sending mail from any mail server to
Yahoo! Mail users.

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/mail/postmaster/basics/mltapbprctcymal.html

Please contact us at your earliest convenience if you still need any
assistance.

Your patience is greatly appreciated.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Mail. Your case number for this
issue is XXXXXXXX. Please reference it in all future communication about
this particular issue.

Regards,

Kan Li

Yahoo! Customer Care

75175844

For assistance with all Yahoo! services please visit:

http://help.yahoo.com/

Larry · « **Reply #45 on:** September 07, 2010, 07:16:12 am »

Got two notifications from Yahoo this am. Maybe ya fixed it.

Yahoo seems to do an excellent job handling spam...much better than either hotmail or gmail. Maybe that's why they are hard to work with.

Jeff · « **Reply #46 on:** September 07, 2010, 08:51:45 am »

That's good Larry, as I was seeing the ones sent to you hung up in the mailq. Maybe we did get it.

John Mc · « **Reply #47 on:** September 07, 2010, 11:36:46 am »

I've not seen anything further on notifications since 1:09 PM yesterday. I've got a several threads I'm following which have had new posts since then. Nothing is in the Gmail webmail spam folder, so it's not a matter of my choosing to let them through. Kind of a pain in the neck when they start pre-filtering even before it hits the spam folder... I've got nothing to tell them they blocked it in error.

John Mc

John Mc · « **Reply #48 on:** September 16, 2010, 10:07:52 pm »

I seem to be getting one out of every 10 or 15 notifications I should be getting now... so a few are making it past gmail's barriers, but not many.

Warbird · « **Reply #49 on:** September 16, 2010, 10:09:11 pm »

Keep checking your Spam folder. Even once they've made the changes at their border, your personal inbox spam filter could be catching it.

Jeff · « **Reply #50 on:** September 16, 2010, 10:12:07 pm »

You do realize the forum does not send a notice for every new post, only that a post(s) have been made since your last visit?

John Mc · « **Reply #51 on:** September 17, 2010, 10:27:35 am »

In the past, I got a notice for each topic I'm following. I have a bunch of topics flagged, and anything I post in is set to be flagged. I used to get multiple notifications per day from the various topics. Now I get one every few days.

I am logging on more frequently now, since I wasn't getting notifications, and wanted to keep up. Does my just logging on stop the notifications, or do I have to actually read that individual topic to not get a notification for that topic?

Warbird · « **Reply #52 on:** September 17, 2010, 10:32:55 am »

If I'm understanding Jeff correctly, yes, that is exactly what he is saying. For the times that the forum 'sees' you online, no email notifications are sent (even on threads you are following).

Given this, it is important to note that even after you go 'inactive' or close your web browser, the forum records you as still online for 15 minutes after that.

Jeff, do I have this right?

Jeff · « **Reply #53 on:** September 17, 2010, 11:10:37 am »

Not exactly. If you get a reply notice, then come to the forum and read the topic, you should get another notification the next time the topic is posted on. However, if you do NOT come and read the thread that time, you will not get another reminder for additional posts until you return to read. This stops you from getting a couple dozen emails on a hot topic if you are not around.

The notification's should work on a per topic basis and on how you view them individually, not on just the fact that you visit the forum as a whole.

Just a note for those that have a default set for notifications sent on threads you post in. if you post in a lot of threads, and have been here a long time, that's a lot of data. The personal preference settings tables of the database, which also holds that type of notification data, are the largest parts of the Forestry Forum's database outside of the topic replies themselves.

The forum really does not recognize you as being on for 15 minutes after you leave. It stops that the instance you stop moving data, which is after your last click and page load. It just takes 15 minutes for that data to be purged from the database table that holds and returns that specific information.

Piston · « **Reply #54 on:** October 11, 2010, 02:43:10 am »

Well,
Something happened

I checked my email tonight and had 30 something email notifications from the forum.

Turns out, now that I got used to not using the notifications, and using the links at the top for checking the recent posts, I don't need the notifications anymore, nor do I want them.

Oh well, guess I'll have to go back and 'disable' my notifications.

However just wanted to let you know that the issue seems fixed, so good job!

This is about the time that Warbird comes back and says "I told ya so!"

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #55 on:** April 26, 2011, 08:17:09 pm »

Seems notifications have stopped here again. Just a heads up. It may not be the case for everyone.

Jeff · « **Reply #56 on:** April 26, 2011, 08:26:17 pm »

Can you give a little more information, like for how long?

Jeff · « **Reply #57 on:** April 26, 2011, 08:30:22 pm »

I've sent you two test emails. One from a forum address via my computer, and another directly from the server. Let me know what you do and do not get.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #58 on:** April 26, 2011, 08:58:02 pm »

Not precisely sure what Happened Jeff. I got your test mails. But from 6:00 to 9:00 pm I never got notifications. BUT, I think it was a Thunderbird issue. I closed it a bit ago and reloaded and it retrieved the emails off the server. Thunderbird has been whacky since they changed some functions to add-ons. Like if I go offline and later log on to my internet connection I have to reset Thunderbird sometimes. So, I guess it's just troubles on my end for some reason.

Jeff · « **Reply #59 on:** April 26, 2011, 09:39:34 pm »

It had only been 3 hours? Lordy Donk.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #60 on:** April 26, 2011, 09:59:34 pm »

Well...I just happened to be here during them 3 hours.

Actually, I was a little occupied with maps here, so it wasn't too hard on me.

Been going stir crazy the last 3 weeks, glad to see them maps to start getting busy again.

Warbird · « **Reply #61 on:** April 26, 2011, 10:29:17 pm »

Quote from: Jeff on April 26, 2011, 09:39:34 pm

It had only been 3 hours? Lordy Donk.

Agreed.

News:

Author Topic: Not getting email notifications.. (Read 3796 times)