What is whitelisting?

Whitelisting is the process of configuring a spam filter to exempt certain email messages from being filtered or rejected. In this case, it means configuring your own corporate email server in such a way that important email campaigns you send via eMail Networks  don’t end up getting rejected for delivery by your own mail system.

Why do I have to whitelist my own email messages?

Previously, email messages with your from address or domain were probably only sent from a mail server located on your internal networks. Spam filters usually only expect that email from your domain will come from this existing, internal mail server. Email messages that claim to be from you—but actually come from any other server outside your network—are more likely to be blocked as spam, spoof, or phishing email. Some filters also reject email messages that have the same domain name in both the “from” and “to” addresses in the headers if the messages did not originate inside your existing internal network.

Spammers love to dress up their email messages to look like they originated from somewhere they didn’t. Many companies protect themselves by allowing email from their own domain, but only if it comes from the company’s mail servers. If that wasn’t the case, it would be easy for someone to create an email message that appears to be from the head of your company telling everyone to take the day off with pay. They could send it from any mail server and fool the recipients. You’d likely be none the wiser and head home—and chaos would reign supreme.

How do I whitelist my email messages sent from the eMail Networks system?

• Contact our office to determine your eMail Networks sending IP address and domain. If you have a private IP address and/or a private domain—or if you’re not sure—contact your technical service manager who will be able to provide you with that information.

• If you don’t have a private IP address or domain from us, your sending IP address will vary based on system volume. You can try whitelisting the individual IP address that the system is using to send your messages, but there’s no guarantee that mail you send tomorrow will originate from the same IP address as it did today.

• Alternately, you can whitelist our public sending IP’s. Your IT department will likely understand how they’re to be used.  Please contact our support team at (866) 271-5908 to confirm which IP addresses you need to whitelist.

• Consult the manual for your spam filter—or with your IT department—on how to configure your filter’s whitelist, using all of the information gathered above. You will need to whitelist the sending IP addresses (or network blocks) as well as your private domains (if any).

Do I absolutely have to do this?

Not necessarily. Some spam filters are smarter than others and this is not always an issue. Feel free to skip this process until and unless you find that you have an issue receiving copies of your own email messages.

Doesn’t this mean that everybody else will have problems receiving my mail?

No. This only applies to how spam filters work when sending email messages “from yourself, to yourself.” This is specific to clients sending to themselves and is an issue completely unrelated to successfully delivering mail to the regular recipients on your email list.

How do I ensure that everybody else on my email list will receive the email messages I send with the eMail Networks system?

The most important best practice is do not send spam. Permission is the key to successful inbox delivery. Companies and Organizations that send mail only to recipients who have explicitly requested to receive that mail are the most successful at getting their email messages delivered.

Contact our support team to learn more about the tools and expertise we have to measure your current “deliverability” and help you investigate and fix any problems you might encounter.