Forum password reset broken?

[silversolver 849]

I tried several times over the last couple of days to reset my forum password, and the email never came. Fortunately I eventually remembered my password, hence this post, but it seems that is broken. Could someone investigate it?

[VaZso 1,998]

4 hours ago, silversolver said:

Could someone investigate it?

I don't know who is responsible...

Anyway, you may also look at spam folder or at advertisement / promotions on Gmail.

I have just checked it and recovery e-mail has arrived for me.

[EskeRahn 5,455]

If someone does not get a mail, and it is not a simple spam-filter issue, a very common issue is if the SPF (spoof) record is not setup correctly on the senders domain.

A properly set up mail server checks for spoofing, though not all mailservers do so - that could explain why some get mails and others do not.

The whole point of the spoof control is so the sender can not send claiming to be sending from some other domain.

The recipients mail-server can ask the claimed domain if this mail sent from elsewhere is allowed to be sent on behalf of the claimed domain.

This is useful if you have mails sent from a third party server, and not from a server in your own domain, so actually quite common.

[VaZso 1,998]

14 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

If someone does not get a mail, and it is not a simple spam-filter issue, a very common issue is if the SPF (spoof) record is not setup correctly on the senders domain.

Basically Gmail is very picky about these settings and I have registered this forum using my Gmail address (although SPAM filtering is practically disabled) - so it went through.

I haven't checked if SPF record was set correctly.
Anyway, SPF is a setting of DNS record for allowed IP addresses (as sender), another option is a DKIM record which is basically a signature all e-mails should have and there is a DMARC record (for reports) and basically Gmail like these settings... although it may be possible to send an e-mail without them, it may be harder. 🙂

Additional problem could be if sender IP (or other IP in the chain) is blacklisted (spam lists) which also could be caused by another site if it is a shared hosting...

Basically setting up a mail server correctly can be complicated. 🙂

Edited May 19, 2022 by VaZso

[silversolver 849]

I have always believed my mail server was about as unfussy and simple as they come, but of course it's possible I'm incorrect. I don't use spam filtering, so all the Nigerian lotteries, timeshares, handbags and enlargements go straight to my inbox. It can be entertaining at times. :) Gmail is notoriously fussy, as are Yahoo! and Hotmail (now called Outlook.com) and that's one reason (albeit a minor one) why I don't use any of them. They tend to spam flag my business email until a user whitelists me, likely because I'm sharing the hosting with less conscientious users.

None of that explains why I never got the recovery emails though. I'm glad it still works for some, but of course, intermittent issues are the hardest to troubleshoot.

[VaZso 1,998]

44 minutes ago, silversolver said:

They tend to spam flag my business email until a user whitelists me, likely because I'm sharing the hosting with less conscientious users.

Usually setting up SPF / DKIM / DMARC combo help about this problem as Gmail can be really problematic and handling those messages as potential spam which should be whitelisted.
Setting up SPF is the easiest one(only affects DNS), DKIM needs some configuring at mail server (like exim / postfix) and DMARC is also a simple record in DNS.

It worth setting these up as usually Gmail hates other service providers and even can cause problems with correct settings...

52 minutes ago, silversolver said:

None of that explains why I never got the recovery emails though. I'm glad it still works for some, but of course, intermittent issues are the hardest to troubleshoot.

An incorrectly set sender may also check silly things anyway (like blacklists, IP ranges). 🙂

[Rob. S. 1,660]

16 hours ago, silversolver said:

I tried several times over the last couple of days to reset my forum password, and the email never came. Fortunately I eventually remembered my password, hence this post, but it seems that is broken. Could someone investigate it?

I once found an issue with the forum and contacted Fxtec support about it, which was for once responsive and helpful, if I remember correctly (it's been a while)...

[EskeRahn 5,455]

On 5/19/2022 at 10:34 AM, VaZso said:

Additional problem could be if sender IP (or other IP in the chain) is blacklisted (spam lists) which also could be caused by another site if it is a shared hosting...

PS A hint on this.
As the service used uses several severs, a simply retry of requesting a recovery is likely to be answered from another IP, that might not be blacklisted.

[silversolver 849]

On 5/23/2022 at 3:15 PM, EskeRahn said:

PS A hint on this.
As the service used uses several severs, a simply retry of requesting a recovery is likely to be answered from another IP, that might not be blacklisted.

I tried that; several tries over a couple of days netted no response. 😞

[VaZso 1,998]

On 5/23/2022 at 9:15 PM, EskeRahn said:

PS A hint on this.
As the service used uses several severs, a simply retry of requesting a recovery is likely to be answered from another IP, that might not be blacklisted.

Anyway, I don't know this server's internal infrastructure, but doesn't it use a service provider in front of the real server?
(Sometimes there is an error message when background server is not available.)
So the address you see is not the address of the real server, however, outgoing mails (from forum) are another question, so they may simply use a service provider for this purpose... 🙂
...okay, checked its last mail and it comes from something like sendgrid.net

Anyway, @silversolver told he use an own server without excessive SPAM filtering, so most likely not the IP address is the problem at receiver side...

Still sender may use a bit strange filtering for outgoing mails which may be in connection of being a 3rd-party service provider (that sendgrid thing).
This is their website.