[Carlos Chapa]

Steven,

I apologize if this question has been answered before, but I didn’t find an explanation yet.

I don’t think the Contact form extension is working in my lawyers directory yet. I got this temporary entry from a client, http://alllawyers.org/attorney/robert-mcgill/ , which (for now) has my own email as a destination for testing purposes. When I go to that entry page from another browser (unlogged) and try to send a test email (as a visitor), after the submission, all seem to be working fine in the Front end page (I get the message: “Your message has been sent. Thank You!”), but then I never get the email. This is dangerous because a prospective client can send an email, and the attorney will never get it.

I have also published an article linked to that entry too, and when I try to post articles comments (as if I was just another visitor), I do receive notifications about the messages. That part is working, but not the Email Contact form extension.

I’ll appreciate your help,

Carlos

[Carlos Chapa]

I should probably also mention that I just received two emails, but I had sent like a total of 10 messages in the last few hours. Another two in the junk folder. I think that the software believes that some of these emails are just spamming, even though they were not. I’d personally rather use the Captcha approach, but I don’t think there is support for it, from what read.

Thanks again,

Carlos

[Steven Zahm]

@ Carlos

RE: I just received two emails, but I had sent like a total of 10 messages in the last few hours.

So, it sounds like the emails are being sent. You can always review the logs found on the Connections : Tools admin page under the Logs tab. Or use a third party email log plugin such as:

• WP Mail Logging
• Email Log
• Log Emails

Also, if your web host provides access to email log that the server sends, you could also review those logs as they would be more definitive when compared to any logs that can be captured at the WordPress level. Because WordPress could record a success but the web host not actually send it.

When testing, if you are using the same email address for send and receive, those will generally get blocked as spam or blocked all together by the popular online email service providers.

The best way to test is to make sure the entry email address is one email address under your control and when you fill out the contact form use a separate different email address under your control. This will help prevent triggering the service provider spam filters.

RE: I’d personally rather use the Captcha approach, but I don’t think there is support for it, from what read.

The purpose of captcha is to prevent email from being sent (in this context) and has nothing to do with the act of sending an email. Contact has built in methods to prevent spamming as captcha has been proven to drastically reduce user engagement. Unless you get an error message after clicking send, the email was passed off successfully to WordPress to complete the sending of the email. This still requires the web host to successfully send the email and the email service provider to successfully receive it.

RE: This is dangerous because a prospective client can send an email, and the attorney will never get it.

If these transactional email are of great importance then you should really use a dedicated email service provider like SendGrid with their plugin and setup SPF/DKIM. These further help prevent email providers from filtering your transactional email as spam. I personally use SendGrid for this site to ensure same confirmation and other transactional email are sent and received. It is far, far better than relying on the web host which is basically a cross your fingers level of service.

Hope this helps!

[Carlos Chapa]

Steven,

First of all, thanks for your answer. I really appreciate it. Your explanations were very easy to understand for a non-technical person like me.

I checked the section “Connections : Tools : Login” in the WP admin site, and I found out that out of the 13 tests I’ve sent, all of them were successful (according to WP) except one. But, like you said, this might be at the WordPress level only, not in the server level. I am using GoDaddy for web hosting with this domain (Deluxe Linux Hosting with cPanel package).

I contacted GoDaddy’s chat tech support. I was like one hour and a half there (the tech support has a back-end team tech support too – sort of when you wanna see a doctor, you end up with a nurse, if lucky, or many times with an assistant nurse). She sent an email form test which worked, but it took a while for my Yahoo account to get it. I asked her about how to get access to the server email log, and she said that with my current sharing hosting plan I wouldn’t have access to it, that I would have to open a Virtual Private Server for access to that server email log.

From my email tests, it occurred to me that maybe if I have tested the Contact form with a fake yahoo email, to my form that is linked to a real Yahoo email account, maybe the server would send it successfully, BUT that maybe Yahoo Mail would have a junk email filter mechanism that would detect that fake “from” email. I will continue with more tests with real yahoo accounts, and with two different emails (from and to), as you advised me earlier.

My other option is to upgrade to a virtual server host package or, most likely to use a dedicated email service provider like SendGrid, which you mentioned, with that plugin and setup SPF/DKIM (whatever that means). I hope it’s not too technical though… :)

I’ll try to figure out how to get rid of the “website” field of the Contact form (I think that encourages spam) and change it instead for a “phone” field, with would be a lot more useful for my purposes.

Thanks again for your help!!!!!! :)

Carlos

[Steven Zahm]

@ Carlos

RE: My other option is to upgrade to a virtual server host package or, most likely to use a dedicated email service provider like SendGrid

I would suggest going straight to the SendGrid solution. The basic setup is rather quick and easy. The SPF/DKIM is optional but does help a lot in preventing email from ending up from being blocked or filtered as spam. Going the virtual server is moe of the hammer approach. And, even then, having a dedicated email provider is still a better option.

RE: I’ll try to figure out how to get rid of the “website” field of the Contact form (I think that encourages spam) and change it instead for a “phone” field, with would be a lot more useful for my purposes.

Different topic??? The contact addon does not have a website field.

Hope this helps!

[Carlos Chapa]

Steven,

I learned a lot more about my options and how the email systems operate, thanks to your comments, and I am definitely going with the SendGrid solution. I just had trouble with the DNS changes, but GoDaddy tech support checked it out for me, and they said to wait 24 hours, and it appears it’s going to take a while.

I suspect something is wrong with their DNS servers because I checked the website https://www.whatsmydns.net/ and it seem so far the CNAME settings are not propagating at all anywhere in the world.

I did open an account with SendGrid and I think they recommend the option with the API key. I suspect I will have to contact GD about again. I studied their manuals and I think the SPF/DKIM options are the way to go. I’ll worry about that later though, once I got the emails working.

You are right about the Entry Contact Forms, that they don’t have website fields, but I think I will figure out how to add a Phone field; I’ll try to search these forums for an answer. I am going to leave a tutorial link I found before, if you don’t mind, maybe some of your users will find it useful to learn hot to set up the SendGrid for WordPress. The only flaw about this tutorial might have is that it doesn’t mention that the DNS changes will take a while to propagate. Again, GoDaddy said it takes 24 hours, but I think I read somewhere in the SendGrid website that some servers might take up to 48 hours. And yet, I read in some other public forums that they shouldn’t take more than one hour….

Thanks again,

CMC

SendGrid Tutorial: https://wpengine.com/support/configuring-sendgrid-for-wordpress/

[Steven Zahm]

@ Carlos

Yep, email can be a rabbit hole ;)

Hopefully, after all the work, it resolves the issue you were experiencing. If by remote chance it does not, at least the SendGrid logs will help figure out why.

In regards to DNS… I can send you down another hole. Instead of using GD for DNS, you can use Cloudflare instead. I find that when I need to make changes, the propagate within minutes. And their tools are far better than what the typical web host provides.

[Carlos Chapa]

Steven,

I registered for Cloudflare too, and I was finally able to change my DNS settings! Now I am almost all set with SendGrid, including the SPF/DKIM options through the Sender Authentication tool. I still need to do the DMARC thing though. But, to this point, I am still unable to send or deliver any post-sendgrid emails yet! I think I made serious mistakes testing with nonexistent emails before, and when a few of them went to my junk folder (before I tried SendGrid), I erased them instead of moving to the inbox (to tell the ESPs that they were not spam).

I believe that my problem is now not so much technical (thanks for your help), but of domain reputation and “deliverity” (or something like that) issues, with the email service providers, especially Yahoo and Gmail. I am now taking some “academy courses” (as they call it in the SG site) to improve my domain’s reputation. It will take more like an art type of skills than technical prowess. I am moving slowly, but still moving….

Thanks again for your help :)

CMC

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