[ SOLVED ] Re: A bit off-topic: problems with sending to a Gmail user

[Tim Chase]

On 2022-10-18 08:07, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> On 17Oct2022 09:48, Matthias Apitz <guru at unixarea.de> wrote:
> >As more and more of my mails, also to friends could not reach them
> >@google.com, I studied the DNS record for SPF a bit and came up with
> >this single line in my DNS:
> >
> >@ TXT v=spf1 ip4:178.254.4.101 include:unixare.de -all
> 
> I've just read up on this and have added an include for the ISP we often
> send through. I'll be interested to see if delivery to gmail.com improves
> for me - my own symptom is usually that they shunt my messages to spam/junk
> instead of bouncing them, so this may well not help me.

I found that I had to both set my SPF for the sending-server (in
my case, my VPS is the sender, rather than outsourcing to a smart-host
elsewhere), and I need to set up DKIM (putting my server's public
key in DNS, and then signing outbound mail) to get the best results
with Gmail.  Otherwise, things kept ending up in Spam -- even when
I was sending to my test Gmail account and the sender (me) was a
known contact in the Gmail account, and back-and-forth replies had
all the right in-reference-to headers set properly.  I haven't yet
messed with DANE, but SPF+DKIM seems to be enough to make Gmail
less grumpy.  Gmail is a bit fastidious, rejecting messages
overzealously.  But they're the 800lb gorilla in the game.

-tkc