MX Toolbox, a great resource for E-mail problems!

Ever receive a "bounce" message, send an E-mail that did not arrive at its destination without warning, or just not receive an E-mail you were expecting? We all have, and MX Toolbox is an excellent resource that does not take too much tech knowledge to use. While it won't help you fix the problem, it helps get you pointed in the right direction, as the problem may not be on your end at all!

MX Toolbox, located at http://www.mxtoolbox.com, can be used in several ways.

If users are not receiving your E-mail, you can run some simple diagnostics to see what is going on. Upon landing at the homepage, type in the part of your E-mail behind the @ symbol. For example, if your company E-mail address is [email protected], you would type in mycompany.com next to the lookup button. Click "lookup" and the results will show up. This will be your mail server's name, followed by its numerical IP Address. Here's the good stuff, click on Blacklist Check and see if your mail server shows up any lists, if it does, there's a good chance this is the reason users are not receiving your E-mails. There are usually instructions on how to get removed, but usually the first step is to resolve why you are on a blacklist. This could range from problems with your mail server, to a virus infected machine on your network. At this point, you may wish to contact the experts at Infostream for help with the tech side of things.

Another way to use MX Toolbox is if you are not receiving E-mails from a particular user. Follow the same instructions above except this time, type in the domain name (the part after the @ symbol) of the user's E-mail address and see if they are on a blacklist. If they find they are on a blacklist, they will have to contact their network administrator to resolve the problem, as others will also not be receiving their E-mails.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to give us a shout!


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