You've probably found this page because you've been told that Suffield Academy is marking email messages from your domain as spam (junk), or rejecting them altogether. This page contains some general information about the causes of this problem, and steps you can take to resolve it. Please read over the items below, and feel free to ask us if you have questions.
We've divided this document into two sections: one for non-technical users who have been told that their emails are being blocked, and one for IT staff who need to correct the problem.
Why are you blocking my email?
Our email scanning system attempts to distinguish "good" messages from "bad" ones, and uses a variety of methods to do so. One of these methods involves asking the owner of an email address if the computer sending a message is allowed to do so. If the owner says "no", we block the message and return it to sender. If the owner says "maybe", we consider the message spam and quarantine it for review.
Your messages are being flagged because the people who control your email system are telling us that you are not on the "approved" list to send email messages from your address. Often this is by accident, and your IT staff can help you solve the problem. However, it is important to realize that this is an issue that your IT staff must correct; Suffield Academy has no control over the settings for your email addresses. Please feel free to send this web page to your IT staff if you need help correcting this issue.
I haven't had a problem in the past; why is this happening now?
Suffield updated its anti-spam settings in late June 2011, and the feature described on this page activated at that time. However, the root cause of the issue (incorrect settings at your organization) may have been present for months or years beforehand. It's only become an issue now because we are making use of the information your organization provides.
While Suffield Academy may be the only site you're having issues sending email to right now, the problem is not specific to us. You (or your organization's) email settings are incorrect, and this may affect your ability to email anyone on the internet, not just Suffield Academy. As more sites begin to filter messages using this information, you may experience difficulty sending messages to them as well.
How do I correct this problem?
Contact the IT staff at your organization and let them know that you are unable to send email to Suffield Academy. Send them a link to this page so they can read the technical documentation (below) and take steps to correct the issue.
Depending on how your IT staff wish to correct the problem, they may need to change settings on their servers, or on the device you use to send email (such as your laptop or phone). They will let you know what needs to be done; Suffield Academy cannot provide technical assistance.
Can Suffield Academy do something to correct the problem?
Unfortunately, no. We're trusting information sent to us by your email system. Because that information is incorrect (or your computer is misconfigured), that is causing your messages to be flagged. The only way to correct the issue is to fix the settings on your organization's servers or computers.
Individuals at Suffield Academy can release individual messages from their quarantine to deliver them if they've been marked as spam. In the short term, you may ask the person you're trying to communicate with at Suffield to "check their quarantine" for your message. However, this is only a temporary solution until you can fix the issue on your end.
If your messages are being blocked completely, individual users at Suffield Academy cannot whitelist them. Your organization will need to correct the issue in order for mail to get through.
Why is Suffield Academy blocking or quarantining messages from my organization?
In late June 2011, Suffield Academy updated its anti-spam settings to include Sender Policy Framework (SPF) checks. Messages that fail SPF are rejected, while messages that softfail are quarantined (held for delivery only after user approval).
SPF records are set up and maintained in the sending domain DNS records (e.g., those belonging to your organization). If your messages aren't coming through, it's because you've set up an SPF record for your domain, but one or more people at your organization are sending messages from an address that is not on the "approved" list in the SPF record. Your organization controls those records (not Suffield Academy), so if they are incorrect you must fix them.
This only happens with Suffield Academy, can't you fix it?
No. The issue is that your organization is publishing a list of approved senders, and we're trusting that information completely. If you don't think a sender should be blocked, it is your responsibility to update your SPF records appropriately.
How can we diagnose the problem?
On UNIX machines, you can use the "dig" command to look up your SPF record. For example: "dig -t TXT example.com." would look for the TXT record containing the SPF entry for "example.com". Substitute your domain name to see what you're publishing to the rest of the internet.
Alternately, visit this SPF testing page and enter your domain's information. That will allow you to examine the SPF record for your domain and perform other tests.
In our experience, there are three main types of problems:
How do we fix the problem?
Examine your SPF record and the blocked sender's IP address. Then figure out which of the following situations apply: