A quick note that our servers are rejecting mail from calendarnotification(AT)email.microsoft.com as they currently fail Microsoft's own SPF policy for email.microsoft.com.

These mails could be bogus or could be genuine. The SPF error is what makes our decision to reject an easy one.

Currently the SPF record reads:

"v=spf1 mx:email.microsoft.com ip4:207.46.222.193/26
include:_spf-ssg-a.microsoft.com -all"

and mails are being sent from: 65.54.190.226 (bay0-omc4-s24.bay0.hotmail.com).

UPDATE 17th June: Our server just rejected a spam sent via a Yahoo! server from <bigbiglottocompany@gmail.com>.

You do wonder sometimes. Why on earth are Yahoo! sending SPAM on behalf of these users of other webmail services: hotmail.fr, hotmail.com, gmail.com, rediffmail.com, live.com.

These are sender domains strained from our recent logs and are associated with connections from yahoo.com servers.

After much delay by the admins at Hotmail, tvScience are now members of their Junk Mail Reporting Partner Program (JMRPP).

The original application was placed on 2012-04-02, by the time we were accepted even the satisfaction survey had expired! An irony there I feel.

We are now members of the Yahoo! FBL, the AOL FBL and the Hotmail JMRPP - a full house!

Sometime recently Hotmail's servers have decided to block the server belonging to the Cotswold Canals Trust. The reason and precise date of blocking is impossible to determine, the server sends very little traffic into Hotmail, under 500 mails per month at present.

This server sends the members' newsletter every few weeks (there were 18 editions in 2011), so Hotmail subscribers will not be receiving these until the block is lifted.

Affected domains are: hotmail.*, msn.com, live.*.

Traffic from the webshop is temporarily being routed via another machine so these will reach their destination. The boilerplate reply from Hotmail:

Your IP was blocked by Windows Live Hotmail because the majority of all the email that you send has been judged to be spam by our internal filtering system.

The Spaminess or otherwise can be assessed by visiting the Newsletter Archive.

UPDATE: 25th May - We are now using an alternate server, so subscribers will again receive their newsletters. Subscribers should check their Junk folder, for any non-spam mails.

UPDATE: 3rd November - We are now back using the Cotswold Canals Trust server, as the block has been lifted (some time ago possibly) by our friends at Hotmail.