Email Notify

fireodo

Hi,

I like to share a experience I had with the email notification feature.
This morning the dyndns service was updating the IP adress I got from my provider and usually it sends a email notification when the job is done ... but nothing! Instead of a email i got a entry in the syslog saying: "... Error: Failed to send data [SMTP: Invalid response code received from server (code: 550, response: 5.7.1 Refused by local policy. No SPAM please! ... "
I was thinking wtf - this setup is working since almost 4 years without problems like this!
To make it short: the mailserver didnt like the word "notification" in the email subject. I had to edit myself by hand the /etc/inc/notices.inc and replace the word "notification" with something else (I choose "system information") and no problems anymore.

I've written that for those who maybe get in the same situation.
As well as many homepages restricts access for curl, wget or fetch it seams that many mailprovider get the Spamfilter more tighter ...
PS. What I could not really understand is, how a single word can generate a entry in a spamfilter ...

All the best,
fireodo

stephenw10

Hmm, that's.... fun!

What was the mail server / service in question that flagged that?

fireodo

@stephenw10 said in Email Notify:

Hmm, that's.... fun!

What was the mail server / service in question that flagged that?

I've tried many mail server/services: GMX, WEB, YAHOO, T-Online - I guess they are all using the same type of spam detection/handling algoritm ... or a common spam database ...
What make me wondering was that changing only one word let the mail pass ...
(if it was a obscene word I would understand - but "Notification" ???)
PS. The smpt-testmail was also flagged as spam - thats how I narrowed the problem to the "Notificaton" in the subject.

Gertjan

This :

@fireodo said in Email Notify:

To make it short: the mailserver didnt like the word "notification" in the email subject

makes me think : you are not using gmail for sure ^^

And your UPS and other deliver mail notifications are treated the same way ? (Fisc, bank etc)
More then enough for me to stop using them for what so ever.

Every time I make a 'small' PHP pfSense syntax error somewhere while I'm messing with the GUI files, I receive a boatload of dashboard error notification, and as many gmail notification ....
My phone goes haywire when I mess up ....
Gmail never failed on me .... and for this I must say : pretty perfect as a real time "not expensive" notifier.
So I use gmail just for this ... I might also use Telegram if I have to (never tried).

Oh, you use gmail ?
Don't forget to make your own mail a "favorite".

Here : I'm sending a mail 'to myself' and gmail isn't gona filter my own stuff

and if they don't do : bye bye gmail.

fireodo

@Gertjan said in Email Notify:

This :

@fireodo said in Email Notify:

To make it short: the mailserver didnt like the word "notification" in the email subject

makes me think : you are not using gmail for sure ^^

No, I dont.

Here : I'm sending a mail 'to myself' and gmail isn't gona filter my own stuff

I used with my provider the same technic (mail to myself) but it seams that they filter this too ... (btw. I'm not familiary with mailservers so I can make only suppositions)

and if they don't do : bye bye gmail.

Gertjan

I like gmail because they have a mail app that will get notified - so you will be notified - "right away", so the notification is quasi instantaneous.

@fireodo said in Email Notify:

not familiary with mailservers

when you run your own, you'll be totally delivered of all the awkwardness.
Everything will always work for you, as you are the boss.

@fireodo said in Email Notify:

I used with my provider the same technic (mail to myself) but it seams that they filter this too

You pay them not enough, or to much

fireodo

@Gertjan said in Email Notify:

You pay them not enough, or to much

viragomann

@fireodo
From the date, you posted this, I'm having trouble with notifications on two different pfSense boxes as well. However, both log, that the notification mail was sent successfully.

One uses a GMX account. Notification mails about DDNS updates after PPPoE address changes are marked as spam.
The other one uses an Ionos account and my GMX address as recipient. Notification mails from this one never arrive, neither in the spam folder, even though the sender address is white-listed in my GMX account. So I guess, the mail never reach the GMX server.
But a custom daily notification, I've set up on the second box using the mail report package with the subject "Email Report: WAN IP notification" is delivered from Ionos to my GMX inbox as expected.

fireodo

@viragomann said in Email Notify:

But a custom daily notification, I've set up on the second box using the mail report package with the subject "Email Report: WAN IP notification" is delivered from Ionos to my GMX inbox as expected.

I would say "glad that my post help" but I guess thats not the right wording ...
In my case I saw that a mail sent by a Synology box that uses the same mail configuration was delivered without problems and that puts me on the track that it has to do with pfsense ...

Gertjan

@fireodo said in Email Notify:

and that puts me on the track that it has to do with pfsense ...

Check the mail - the mail headers.
Both mails, your NAS and pfSense, come from the same IPv4 : your pfSense WAN IP - if you are still using the 'depreciated' network : IPv4 - with IPv6, the addresses will be different although still within your prefix pool, probably a /56.
Both mails use the same login ID's.
Only the content divers, so filters on the gmail side are just trying to 'help' you sorting out desired mail ^^