My emails aren’t getting through!  

Some companies (and some District Councils) have started to get extremely fussy about where emails come from. At Access by Design, the Premium local web developmentcompany, this has never been an issue, as we have a separate mail relay with CXS Host, the fab company who looks after our servers. This means that emails get sent from a different location to our dedicated server, which gives an extra layer of security and means that emails get through without an issue. However, where the emails are originally sent from (in other words, your own IP address) is now also a factor and if you do not have a static IP address of your own, there is a chance that your IP address may be blacklisted. If you are with one of the large providers, this is far more likely.

By the way, your IP address is the one assigned to your by your ISP or Internet Service Provider. You can find out what it is right now by following this link.

Why are there so many blacklisted IP addresses?

The reason for this is that the world is running out of IP addresses. If you have a floating IP address, it may change every few days between as many as 20 different ones. If anyone else on the same telephone exchange as you has ever been hacked, they might well have been sending out SPAM emails without realising. That IP address get flagged up as unsafe and, until it is cleared, it means that anyone using that same IP address is also now finding that not all of their emails are getting through at the other end. One of our clients had this experience: they have a floating IP address for their Internet connection and they discovered that 19 out of the 20 available IP addresses had all been blacklisted!

What shall I do?

I would suggest that you have 4 options available to you:

1. Keep current setup with a Floating IP address. This will lead to continuing problems with sending emails to many companies because of the blacklisting issue. Not recommended.
2. Keep current setup but with a fixed IP address. This should allow you to send emails to anyone, however there is always a possibility that this IP address could get blacklisted if one of the computers gets hacked. Please call your ISP and ask if this is possible.
3. Static IP address with Exchange Server. This has the added advantage of having the server handle all of the emails (inbound and outbound) and allow any of you to access your emails on any of the computers (or mobile devices) in your network. It will also ensure your emails are backed up across all of your email accounts. This will require an Exchange Server being installed at your place of work.
4. Hosted Exchange. This will not require a change of IP address, all of your accounts are handled by a hosting company  with a delivery guarantee, access to emails anywhere with continual backup.

Obviously they vary in terms of cost. If you would like to know who we recommend for these options, please do get in touch.

Final thought

Although businesses are using many different forms of communication these days, email is still the most popular method and it is in your best interests to make sure that your own emails always get through!

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