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Email tester alternative like: [email protected]
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Email tester alternative like: [email protected]

jmginerjmginer Member, Patron Provider
edited April 2017 in General

Hello,

anybody know any email testers like [email protected]

?

Thanks!!

Comments

  • jmginerjmginer Member, Patron Provider

    @busbr @boernd Thanks!

  • rumi4rumi4 Member

    You can try this

    https://mxtoolbox.com

  • My go to are

    https://www.mail-tester.com

    http://dkimvalidator.com

    This is one is PITA but useful sometimes emailsecuritygrader.com

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
    edited April 2017

    @rumi4 said:
    You can try this

    https://mxtoolbox.com

    Horrible site. It's popular because it engages in confirmation bias and people like that. People suspect their provider of being incompetent and mxtoolbox gives them the fire power to "prove" it without having to take the time to learn what each thing means.

    Combine that with what I'm going to directly accuse them of until they speak up about it, I propose they receive kickbacks from UCEPROTECT for funneling in customers who then assist them with blackmailing their providers in a "pay to play" scheme. Someone should try to trace one back to the other, I bet there's a solid connection somewhere other than the fact that mxtoolbox checks their RBL.

    Use mail-tester.com because it's the only one without obvious unspoken motive to find problems where they don't exist.

    Thanked by 2jmginer coreflux
  • NomadNomad Member

    A bit different but this one is worth mentioning as well:

    http://emailsecuritygrader.com

  • angstromangstrom Moderator

    @jarland said:

    @rumi4 said:
    You can try this

    https://mxtoolbox.com

    Horrible site. It's popular because it engages in confirmation bias and people like that. People suspect their provider of being incompetent and mxtoolbox gives them the fire power to "prove" it without having to take the time to learn what each thing means.

    Combine that with what I'm going to directly accuse them of until they speak up about it, I propose they receive kickbacks from UCEPROTECT for funneling in customers who then assist them with blackmailing their providers in a "pay to play" scheme. Someone should try to trace one back to the other, I bet there's a solid connection somewhere other than the fact that mxtoolbox checks their RBL.

    Gosh, this sounds a bit sinister (if you're right).

    I have to admit that I find mxtoolbox.com rather useful as an end user who hasn't signed up (and doesn't intend to). They provide some useful tools/diagnostics/tests, I just take these tools for what they are with the recognition that they may not be 100% reliable. I admit that I don't know what the ulterior motive of mxtoolbox.com is, but this doesn't worry me as long as I don't have to sign up to use their tools.

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
    edited April 2017

    @angstrom said:

    @jarland said:

    @rumi4 said:
    You can try this

    https://mxtoolbox.com

    Horrible site. It's popular because it engages in confirmation bias and people like that. People suspect their provider of being incompetent and mxtoolbox gives them the fire power to "prove" it without having to take the time to learn what each thing means.

    Combine that with what I'm going to directly accuse them of until they speak up about it, I propose they receive kickbacks from UCEPROTECT for funneling in customers who then assist them with blackmailing their providers in a "pay to play" scheme. Someone should try to trace one back to the other, I bet there's a solid connection somewhere other than the fact that mxtoolbox checks their RBL.

    Gosh, this sounds a bit sinister (if you're right).

    I have to admit that I find mxtoolbox.com rather useful as an end user who hasn't signed up (and doesn't intend to). They provide some useful tools/diagnostics/tests, I just take these tools for what they are with the recognition that they may not be 100% reliable. I admit that I don't know what the ulterior motive of mxtoolbox.com is, but this doesn't worry me as long as I don't have to sign up to use their tools.

    There was even a brief period where they listed an RBL that always returned anything as blacklisted no matter what you put in, until they were busted. All DNS requests to the RBL returned the same code. No one anywhere had ever heard of this mysterious RBL before. Point is, their goal is to tell you something is wrong with your mail servers. You can speculate as to why or not, but that is the one thing I propose cannot be denied, and it makes them anything but useful.

    Someone who sets out to do whatever they have to do to give you the answer they want you to have, instead of the honest answer, is someone you always want to avoid. Someone like that would gladly fudge the numbers on a diagnostic test or add unhelpful diagnostics just to draw the picture they wanted to draw.

    So if you use their tools, make sure you understand what they do, what their relevance is, and preferably how to verify them for yourself.

  • angstromangstrom Moderator

    @jarland said:

    @angstrom said:

    @jarland said:

    @rumi4 said:
    You can try this

    https://mxtoolbox.com

    Horrible site. It's popular because it engages in confirmation bias and people like that. People suspect their provider of being incompetent and mxtoolbox gives them the fire power to "prove" it without having to take the time to learn what each thing means.

    Combine that with what I'm going to directly accuse them of until they speak up about it, I propose they receive kickbacks from UCEPROTECT for funneling in customers who then assist them with blackmailing their providers in a "pay to play" scheme. Someone should try to trace one back to the other, I bet there's a solid connection somewhere other than the fact that mxtoolbox checks their RBL.

    Gosh, this sounds a bit sinister (if you're right).

    I have to admit that I find mxtoolbox.com rather useful as an end user who hasn't signed up (and doesn't intend to). They provide some useful tools/diagnostics/tests, I just take these tools for what they are with the recognition that they may not be 100% reliable. I admit that I don't know what the ulterior motive of mxtoolbox.com is, but this doesn't worry me as long as I don't have to sign up to use their tools.

    There was even a brief period where they listed an RBL that always returned anything as blacklisted no matter what you put in, until they were busted. All DNS requests to the RBL returned the same code. No one anywhere had ever heard of this mysterious RBL before. Point is, their goal is to tell you something is wrong with your mail servers. You can speculate as to why or not, but that is the one thing I propose cannot be denied, and it makes them anything but useful.

    Someone who sets out to do whatever they have to do to give you the answer they want you to have, instead of the honest answer, is someone you always want to avoid. Someone like that would gladly fudge the numbers on a diagnostic test or add unhelpful diagnostics just to draw the picture they wanted to draw.

    So if you use their tools, make sure you understand what they do, what their relevance is, and preferably how to verify them for yourself.

    I have no reason to doubt what you're saying, but I wonder whether mxtoolbox hasn't cleaned up their act in this respect in the meantime. (They seem to have been around since 2004.)

    For example, they get rave reviews here: https://community.spiceworks.com/products/15396-mxtoolbox/

    Also, a blog posting on sendgrid mentions them for blacklist checking: https://sendgrid.com/blog/blacklisted-check-7-popular-blacklists-keep-reputation-intact/

    Again, though, I just take mxtoolbox as offering useful tests for free (so far), but I always try to verify the results (if critical) independently of mxtoolbox as well. (So no blind faith.)

  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran

    angstrom said: but I wonder whether mxtoolbox hasn't cleaned up their act in this respect in the meantime

    Not until they answer this:

  • angstromangstrom Moderator

    @jarland said:

    angstrom said: but I wonder whether mxtoolbox hasn't cleaned up their act in this respect in the meantime

    Not until they answer this:

    Just to point out -- for what it's worth -- that mxtoolbox's blacklist tool checks against around 100 blacklists (of which only three belong to UCEPROTECT). I've just checked three of my IPs with their tool, and they aren't on any blacklist. Whether there's a collusion between UCEPROTECT and mxtoolbox (as you suggest) is hard to say ...

    Here's an old link that suggests something suspicious, but ultimately it's inconclusive (on my reading): http://community.mxtoolbox.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=13126

    If anything, UCEPROTECT looks suspicious: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/97407-black-list-fraud , http://apptix.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1578/~/uceprotect-information

    Thanked by 1jar
  • angstromangstrom Moderator

    And here's an older blog posting at mailchannels about UCEPROTECT: http://blog.mailchannels.com/2011/05/why-is-uceprotect-so-influential

    Thanked by 1jar
  • jarjar Patron Provider, Top Host, Veteran
    edited April 2017

    @angstrom said:
    And here's an older blog posting at mailchannels about UCEPROTECT: http://blog.mailchannels.com/2011/05/why-is-uceprotect-so-influential

    Yeah UCEPROTECT is shady. They don't list all IPs as that would be too obvious. Instead they list IP ranges for companies that have a lot of customers, companies that may see value in giving into the demand of their customers to delist their ranges, simply because their customers don't know any better. But having to explain that to your customers constantly takes time, and that costs money, so it's effectively blackmail at the hands of your uninformed customers.

    UCEPROTECT will list full IP ranges of large providers and offer no evidence of the spam they claim, and require payment for delisting. So you have to ask yourself: If they care about stopping spam, why are they introducing a pay wall for spammers? It's okay to spam, as long as you pay the supposed gate keeper?

    I propose that there is only one reason UCEPROTECT is ever considered or taken seriously to any degree, and that is due to the popularity of mxtoolbox. You'll easily find them the most recommended solution for determining that your email provider is trash, because email is such a complex thing at it's core that most people don't know how to check these things, and their own incompetence leads them to the belief that it's all someone else's fault, and who better to blame than their hosting provider? So mxtoolbox comes along and has all of these nice ways to induce confirmation bias, and UCEPROTECT gets pushed as something valid or important, to at least the degree that it's existence on mxtoolbox costs providers money either through support or through giving in to the blackmail.

    You're right, it's definitely suspicious. Obviously something I take high interest in, because I really don't like it when customers approach me having already been convinced that I'm to blame for something when it has no relation to their problem. It makes it very difficult and time consuming to walk the conversation back to the original point where they should have opened the ticket, which is simply to tell me: What is the problem you are experiencing?

    The "time consuming" part has a monetary value, no matter how you spin it. It's easy for me to say that the costs incurred due to this directly correlate to the practices of mxtoolbox. From that point it becomes very easy to be a bit bitter about how they operate, and to be suspicious of their motives.

    Thanked by 1angstrom
  • angstromangstrom Moderator
    edited April 2017

    jarland said: I propose that there is only one reason UCEPROTECT is ever considered or taken seriously to any degree, and that is due to the popularity of mxtoolbox. You'll easily find them the most recommended solution for determining that your email provider is trash, because email is such a complex thing at it's core that most people don't know how to check these things, and their own incompetence leads them to the belief that it's all someone else's fault, and who better to blame than their hosting provider? So mxtoolbox comes along and has all of these nice ways to induce confirmation bias, and UCEPROTECT gets pushed as something valid or important, to at least the degree that it's existence on mxtoolbox costs providers money either through support or through giving in to the blackmail.

    Okay, we agree that UCEPROTECT is shady. However, we may disagree about mxtoolbox's role in UCEPROTECT's shadiness.

    I did a quick search and found three other blacklist checkers that include UCEPROTECT on their lists:

    http://whatismyipaddress.com/blacklist-check

    https://www.whatismyip.com/blacklist-check/

    http://www.blacklistalert.org/

    If you're right that mxtoolbox is in bed with UCEPROTECT, then it may not only be mxtoolbox. Alternatively, it may be that none of them are (this is the idealistic view).

    However, I'll quickly point out (and this goes against the idealistic view) that http://www.blacklistalert.org/ seems suspect in this respect because if you check an IP and scroll to the "Whitelists" section at the bottom of the results, there's a link "Read about this way to exclude an IP from UCEPROTECT Level2/3" that leads to http://www.whitelisted.org/ where you can pay for a "subscription" to keep your IP off of UCEPROTECT Level2/3 (assuming that your IP is not blacklisted at Level1). Wow.

    I guess that I'm still inclined to give mxtoolbox the benefit of the doubt until there's a clear(er) indication to the contrary.

    Thanked by 1jar
  • I just usually funnel my crap to @Nekki and @WSS mailboxes. When I get the replies with swearing and griping I know I am good ;)

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