SendMail SMTP issue - SPAM filters blocking emails!

[Cassetti]

Help!

We have a database used by about 20 employees throughout the country. Half of them work in our HQ using a client copy of FMP, the others connect via Citrix Presentation software (XenApp). Originally, our db was built in FMP7 which allowed SendMail script step to open the client's email program and populate the text generated by my script. This worked great when all of our engineers were located in our HQ building.

Now since everyone has updated to FMP10, I built a new email client system which uses the new SendMail via the built-in SMTP system. This works perfectly, except for one issue. The emails have incorrect messageID headers which trigger spam filters to block the emails from our system sent to customers. We have had two customers who are unable to receive these emails thanks to this issue.

Specifically, here is an example of the MessageID header for emails sent via SMTP to our customers: FileMaker.4e9c3c79.c.bb8@. because there is nothing after the @ symbol, spam filters treat the email as spam.

It seems Filemaker is aware of the issue, but i have not seen a solution or a resolution/bugfix for this issue. Does anyone know anything else, my search takes me back to the bug reports, but nothing further:

http://forums.filemaker.com/posts/7ee880eceb

http://forums.filemaker.com/posts/5e4749e6e2

I am aware of Dacons Mail.It plugin, but am not quite satisfied with this solution - too expensive for a 25 user license and I don't entirely like Dacons ever since their latest version of Scriptfire screwed up my script-box. Are there any other cheaper email plugins that are stable. I only need the plugin to send, not anything advanced like receiving email or attaching files.

Thanks guys!

- Mike

[Ron Cates]

Just to add my 2 cents. I was very frustrated to encounter this same problem. I had to abandon the use of SMTP from FileMaker because so many recipients either never recieved the email or it was directed to a spam folder. I never did find any kind of solution. In fact it seems that it really makes the SMTP pretty useless :(

[BrentHedden]

Our company has been using the SMTPit plugin from CNS for years now with great results. Our marketing department has been using it heavily when sending out event announcements and the such. Probably the best item that I like about this plugin is that you can setup separate HTML file(s) for the header, body and footer. Great flexibility and customization.

http://www.cnsplug-ins.com/Plug-ins/SMTPit_Pro

25 user license will cost you about $560, so it's about the same cost as the Dacons option.

One thing that I'll mention is this company (CNS) is awesome. Just as one example - I reported that one function call wasn't returning an error correctly, and three days later they had an updated version of the plugin available that fixed the problem. I've never had that level of customer service before with a vendor.

[dsghs]

I run our email distribution through gmail's smtp servers.

If you want to use sendmail or postfix and have dynamic ipv4 (ie: either through your office's wan or people traveling with laptops sending from dynamic IPs) then your email will be marked as spam by most email servers. You will need to relay your emails through a smarthost. For example, Gmail can be used as a smarthost using port 587 (TLS) and authenticating via your gmail username and password. Your ISP may also provide the ability to use their smtp servers as smarthosts.