HESK emails are marked as SPAM

Are email notifications from HESK ending up in the SPAM (junk, bulk) folder? How can you prevent this?

Email delivery is a complex subject. A lot can go wrong and make email providers mark mail from your help desk as SPAM. Here are a few steps to try which can drastically increase your email delivery reliability:

1. Make sure your server IP is not listed in any email blacklist (RLB).
   
   Use a multi-blocklist check tool like this or this to check if your server IP address is listed anywhere.
   
   If it is, make sure nobody is sending any actual SPAM from your server then verify with the blocklist that lists your IP how you can remove it.
   
   
   
2. Setup SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records for your domain name.
   
   You may need to ask your web hosting company, webmaster or domain administrator for help setting up SPF.
   
   If you have access to your DNS settings and want to tackle this alone, use an SPF tool like this to generate the SPF records for your domain name. For details, use your favorite search engine to search for "setup domain SPF records".
   
   
   
3. Enable DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) email signatures.
   
   Your mail server should be set up to add DKIM signatures to outgoing emails automatically.
   
   As before, you may need to ask your web hosting company or webmaster for help setting up DKIM or search the web for guides on how to do it yourself.
   
   
   
4. Use authenticated SMTP.
   
   By default, HESK uses the PHP mail() function to send emails. Depending on the server configuration (outside of HESK control), this may not be the most reliable way.
   
   Try setting up HESK to use a real email account and send emails through an SMTP server:
   1. create a new email account that you will use in HESK, like support@example.com
   2. go to HESK Admin panel > Settings > Email tab, and set "Send emails using:" to "SMTP server"
   3. enter login details for your email account (support@example.com) and test the connection*
   4. enter the same email address (support@example.com) as the "From" email in HESK Admin panel > Settings > General tab
   5. save changes

   * if you can't get the SMTP connection test to work:

   • check with your email provider what details you should use
   • try a different port (25, 465, 587), SSL and TLS setting combinations
   • check with your web hosting company that the SMTP port you are trying to use is not blocked in the firewall
   • check with your web hosting company that they allow connections to external SMTP servers. Some low-cost providers don't.
   • see the correct SMTP details for Google mail and Office365

Any other ideas and suggestions? Let us know!