If your legitimate email messages have been caught or blocked by an Internet service provider, you're not alone. Many small businesses and individuals have had perfectly legitimate messages returned or dumped by overzealous ISPs trying to stem the ever-increasing tide of spam. There are steps you can take to avoid your emails meeting this fate, but first you need a basic understanding on how your ISP operates in order to find the right method to authenticate your messages.
Spam not only infuriates email users, but it also clogs up servers and costs ISPs time and money - not to mention customer goodwill. Since the start-up of electronic communications, spam has been a problem. As volume has increased, so has spam - which has spawned many more problematic varieties including missives laced with spyware or malware. It used to be that being a customer of a well-established Internet service provider like AT&T was all the proof you needed to be considered an authentic customer. Spam-blocking tactics were directed toward outsiders - unknown or dubious ISPs and non-customers. The tide turned in 2008 when certain large ISPs started blocking email from any account with an Internet provider that had been identified as a source of spam. Ironically, this measure blocked many of the large ISPs' own legitimate customers. It was at this juncture that AT&T elected to get out of the email business. AT&T customers are directed to Yahoo! Mail to register email addresses in order to use Yahoo! Mail for their messaging service.
It's smart for businesses to be pro-active and ensure that email messages are not being caught up, delayed or dumped as part of aggressive restrictions imposed by some of the more powerful Internet gatekeepers. Here are some measures you might consider implementing: