Mail Not Delivered To Hotmail/MSN Accounts

May 8th, 2007

If you have a VPS or your own dedicated server and you can’t send mail to Hotmail or MSN email accounts, the good news is that the solution is easy. I manage a few Postfix mail servers and I was getting lines like this in my /var/log/mail.log file.

May 8 05:46:07 hostname postfix/smtp: 23E507C950: to=, relay=mx1.hotmail.com[65.54.244.136]:25, delay=0.6, delays=0.26/0.01/0.15/0.18, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (250 <20070508054607.23E507C950@hostname.com> Queued mail for delivery)

Mail was successfully leaving my server and Hotmail was reporting back that the mail was successfully sent yet the mail was not ever getting delivered to my hotmail inbox. The solution is to make sure you have a valid SPF record for your domain. Microsoft has an online wizard to help you create the SPF record.

When you are creating the record, make sure not to include a “ptr” lookup. I got this email from Microsoft when trying to figure all this out.

We reviewed your SPF record and note that it includes the “ptr” or reverse DNS lookup mechanism. The specification for SPF records (RFC 4408) discourages use of “ptr” for performance and reliability reasons. This is especially important for Windows Live Mail, Hotmail and other large ISPs as a result of the very high volume of mail we receive each day. We highly recommend you remove the “ptr” mechanism from your SPF record and, if necessary, replace it with other SPF mechanisms that do not require a reverse DNS lookup, such as “a”, “mx”, “ip4” and “include.” This will help ensure that Sender ID validation is performed as accurately as possible, maximizing your email deliverability while protecting your domain from spoofing.

Finally, you need to create a TXT DNS entry. Allow about 24 hours or so, and Hotmail and MSN will start accepting your mail. Note, however, they may be sending it to your Junk Mail folder.

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One Response to “Mail Not Delivered To Hotmail/MSN Accounts”

  1. Jonathan Grellas Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 7:03 pm

    Hi Lee,

    I found you in a Google search because I’m having the same mail problem you were having. Strangely, we have the correct SPF record but out mail either doesn’t show up or gets junked at hotmail.com.

    Do you have any contacts at hotmail who might be able to help? We’re an internet startup company and successful email delivery is critical to our business.

    Thanks,
    Jonathan

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