Do you use @shaw.ca email on beyond? You might not get your emails.

[rage2]

I spend a hell of a lot of time from users that use @shaw.ca emails that complain their not getting notifications, can't register (not getting validation email) and it's always been a struggle. Fix one problem, and it stops working again.

With the latest upgrade we moved to a more robust email service, and finally getting some visibility on what's happening. Basically, Shaw is ridiculously aggressive in spam control, to the point where it's fucking over it's users. I talked about it briefly here:

http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread.php?threadid=398677

So what's happening is that we have a lot of Calgary users using @shaw.ca emails, and Shaw's system actively blocks connections from our email server if it detects too much traffic coming from it. I did a small test this morning on a small subset of users, and sure enough, after around 50 emails in an hour, we get blocked. Any emails to @shaw.ca users gets blocked from that point on.

May 26, 2017 7:51:24 AM
554 mi05.dcs.int.inet cmsmtp Connection refused - 168.245.18.13 

May 26, 2017 7:51:24 AM
554 mi07.dcs.int.inet cmsmtp Connection refused - 168.245.18.13 

May 26, 2017 7:51:22 AM
554 mi07.dcs.int.inet cmsmtp Connection refused - 168.245.18.13 

May 26, 2017 7:51:14 AM
554 mi04.dcs.int.inet cmsmtp Connection refused - 168.245.18.13 

May 26, 2017 7:51:06 AM
554 mi06.dcs.int.inet cmsmtp Connection refused - 168.245.18.13

At this point, I can't fix this. We have more than enough @shaw.ca active users where we will send a modest volume of emails to shaw.ca servers, and it just gets blocked. The block lasts hours before it's reset and it just happens again.

So my suggestion is, if you're using @shaw.ca email, switch to something else. I'm going to make a note in our registration page as well that notes this shitty behavior, and recommend not using an @shaw.ca email address.

[killramos]

Any chance Shaw can fix this for you? I mean they obviously must allow for emails from like Amazon or Apple or other big guys?

Maybe mention to them that you are a loyal internet customer yourself

I don't even use shaw email but it must be solvable...

[andyg16]

So if we switch to a gmail or hotmail email our accounts won't get locked? I remember this being an issue in the past.

[rage2]

I've tried. Zero response from Shaw techs. I've even tried as a customer complaining about not getting emails, and no dice. Blamed me.

Gmail is complete opposite. We have (had) a lot of bots create fake gmail accounts and register on here before we banned gmail. I think I've sent 10k emails to mostly bad gmail addresses yesterday in 2 hours, and it just accepted all of it, and bounced all the invalid once, which the system now auto cleans our user database when that happens. Gmail will basically accept anything and everything, and mark it as spam internally using their fancy content detection tech. The chances of not receiving a real email using Gmail is really low because they're doing shit right.

This thread is more of a "I give up" and notifying people using @shaw.ca that they can't expect reliable notifications from beyond if they're using an @shaw.ca email.

edit - Hotmail is good too, no issues with blocking from our perspective. Telus is somewhere in between, we got blocked for a bit yesterday, but only at really high volumes since we're in the middle of sending out a notification to all users right now regarding the pending upgrade. We've since slowed that down. Once that's all sent out Telus email shouldn't be a problem.

edit2 - mymrc.ca is bad too. ucalgary.ca seems to block us here and there as well, and mainly because lots of people lose their email addresses after they graduate (or move to the alumni domain) which makes us look like we're spamming.

[speedog]

What exactly do people have their email address turned on for beyond? Are there time sensitive things they need to be notified about?

[Alterac]

That's pretty odd, I know our work sends a ton of email to Shaw but doesn't get blocked, I wonder if it's related to the static content of the notifications.

Most emails from the forums the only thing that changes is maybe the username in the notification, but the majority just looks like a spam newsletter or whatnot.

I really don't have an email I check other than Shaw.

Gmail works so poorly for me the android app shows a new notification but the message doesn't appear until I manually refresh.

[rage2]

Originally posted by speedog
What exactly do people have their email address turned on for beyond? Are there time sensitive things they need to be notified about?

Thread notifications is the top one. PM notifications is the next, and registration validation emails, password resets etc. are the last bunch.

I would say aside from thread notifications, the rest are time sensitive. Not that time sensitivity is an issue, because once shaw blocks us, the email is gone forever. You're not getting a delay, you're just not getting emails period.

As a wider scope, it's not just beyond having these problems. MemEx and NCIX both had these issues when Shaw implemented their Nazi email spam detection setup and it looks like they just DGAF.

Originally posted by Alterac
That's pretty odd, I know our work sends a ton of email to Shaw but doesn't get blocked, I wonder if it's related to the static content of the notifications.

Most emails from the forums the only thing that changes is maybe the username in the notification, but the majority just looks like a spam newsletter or whatnot.

Very possible. Not something that can be easily controlled, unless I outsource a team to write personalized notifications.

[Thaco]

I would say most critical is the most basic, registration emails.....

I also use it for Pm's

I only have one thread set for notification, and i mostly ignore it anyway :P I should probably just turn it off.

[EK 2.0]

If I choose not to update to something else and leave my shaw, my acct is still fine though right??...

I don't care about notifications, and I am on enough that I feel I shouldn't miss anything else haha...

[firebane]

Regarding gmail... I found your beta email in my spam box.

[rage2]

Originally posted by firebane
Regarding gmail... I found your beta email in my spam box.

If you don't think it's spam, click not spam and it'll help Gmail learn your preferences.

Because I get so much email from beyond, my gmail has learnt that it's not spam haha.

[firebane]

Originally posted by rage2

If you don't think it's spam, click not spam and it'll help Gmail learn your preferences.

Because I get so much email from beyond, my gmail has learnt that it's not spam haha.

Well yeah.. I just have a tendency to check my spam because of this.

[revelations]

Im surprised TELUS isnt doing the same thing.

[aaronhank16]

I’m a spam bot please ban me.

[Toilet_X]

I use dilfmail

[holden]

TIL that people were getting email notifications for Beyond. I had no idea since I used shaw.ca to sign up but never check the inbox because I'm a gmail user.