We highly recommend the following practices to ensure our server IPs stay off the RBLs (Real Time Black Lists), and that your outgoing emails end up successfully delivered to the intended recipient, as well as to prevent email forgery and Spam.
- Use an extremely strong password - When setting up your email accounts, please use the built in password generator or use an extremely strong password that is not a plain english word and also contains numbers, symbols, and special characters.
- Enable Email Authentication in your cPanel. - In your cPanel, click Email Authentication and enable both SPF and DKIM. Click these links to learn more about SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail).
- DO NOT forward domain based mail (you@yourdomain.com) to another outside email account. - The reason for this is when your domain email account RECEIVES SPAM emails, those spam emails get automatically forwarded by our server to your other email account. When the other email provider receives these forwarded spam emails, it flags the mail as spam, and reports our server IP as a source of sending spam and can possibly place our IP on the blocklist. Please do not do this. If you have @yourdomain.com email accounts, please don't forward them. Access them directly using a POP/IMAP mail program on your computer or smartphone, or use Webmail. You will be doing yourself a favor.
- Enable Spam Assassin and the Auto-Delete feature. - In your cPanel, you will find "Spam Assassin" or "Apache Spam Assassin" under the Email Account section. Please enable this. You will also find an "Auto-delete" feature on the same screen. Enabling Auto-delete under a certain threshold will make sure incoming spam is auto-deleted and does not make it to your inbox. (1 is strongest, and 10 is the weakest filter - Shoppe Pro recommends a setting of 1, as this will block the most spam). This will also make sure that the incoming spam email does not bounce or get forwarded to an outside email account if you have enabled email forwarders, putting our server IP at risk for becoming blacklisted by the RBLs.
- Do Not set a "Default Address" - in your cpanel, under Email Accounts, you will find "Default Address". These settings determine what the server will do with an email that comes in for any account that does not exist and was not set up by you. Please set this setting to either "Discard" (Under Advanced Options), or "Discard with error to sender (at SMTP time)".
- Do Not put your email address in plain text or mailto link on your website. - One sure-fire recipe to end up with an Inbox full of spam is to openly publish your email address on the Web. Whether it appears in the Contact section of your Web site, or on postings you've made to a forum, blog or guestbook, spam robots will be quick to snatch it up and direct tons spam your way. Just don't do it. Use a contact form to receive communication from your website. Not a plain-view email address.
