ISKTBN: i should know this by now.

Today on "Things my client and I learned", we find out the internet (via redirects), when it wants to, will 'eff up your sanity. I've been on a bender with so many of my stories focusing on DNS, but it's the backbone of the internet so it can't help but get in the way. And although the issue here isn't a DNS issue (that I can identify,) I bring it up because the story starts with a change made to the DNS. First, if you don't know anything about DNS other than it means "Domain Name System," know that DNS is damn hard and easy to mess up. Making changes to the DNS can be flat out terrifying. So after you make changes, if you find out something isn’t working (related to changes or not,) you immediately ask for help (or in my case a casual, "I noticed when I got to my site, it's not my site.") But you're not always able to explain what happened or why, all you can say is that things aren't working as they should. I will sa...

  Today on "Things others learned", a client finds out nameservers, when they want to, will 'eff up their deliverability. This story is the counter to " Damn Beautiful Nameservers ." Instead of me oozing praise all over them, I'm going to go all "Negative Nancy" on them. But it's really not their fault. They can't help if it if they are given the wrong information or left unattended. But what the hell, I'm gonna curse them out anyway otherwise my whole schtick for ISKTBN is ruined. So today, nameservers aren't my friend, or, I should say, my client's. And so my story begins... Far, far way, in a work-from-home office that isn't an office, but holds a desk, computer, and internet connection... A prospect (further to be called 'client' because it's easier) reached out to me after they kept experiencing a high volume of bounces to emails they KNEW were active (one was their sister's email.) They also were receiv...

It's Damn AWESOME Deliverability Week (don't forget to follow #deliverabilityweek on LinkedIn)! I'm diving into the DNS yet again because it's been the thorn in the side of small senders who venture my way so it's naturally top of mind. Join me on this ride to discover why the DNS is so damn hard! Today on "Things the Industry Learned" a LONG time ago (but we, alas, only mere mortals, painfully learn daily), the DNS (Domain Name System) is a beast. It's the root of all issues  (Almost all? Ok, fine. Not all, but a lot.)  and, when it wants to, will 'eff up your deliverability. In my long tenured position as a deliverability blogger of a whopping 3 to 4 months, 50% of my posts have something related to the DNS as the culprit behind the issue at hand! FIFTY PERCENT! Ok, fine, 4 issue-focused articles aren't much to be exasperated about. BUT I have been in this beautiful field of deliverability since (checks her resume...

May 10, 2024 Update  and SPOILER ALERT  ( jump ahead if you want to read through the post first) I incorrectly attributed my success to DNS cache. But it wasn't DNS cache that saved my butt. It was nameservers (and I got lucky with timing.)  The information I was searching for was available not because of cache, but because GoDaddy's nameservers hadn't yet received the updated instructions to remove the DNS records. Looking at some of GoDaddy's documents for removing domain entries, they do list out recovery times if something was done in error, but that is likely some other process. I also asked someone at GoDaddy how the UI and DNS were connected, and they stated that although UI changes are typically updated on the nameservers quickly (within an hour), it can take longer.  THIS is why I was able to look up values well beyond the often generic TTL of 1 hour and the  records I needed were therefore  published long enough for me to go back and look them up...

Today on "Things I learned", I get reacquainted with CNAMEs and how they, when they want to, will 'eff up your DNS records. A client engaged me for a "quick" domain warming for a rebranding. After review, this wasn't really a warming. The volume was too low. For me, the most important thing was making sure they were technically set up to be successful: authentication, working DNS, working mailboxes, etc. etc. etc. Yes, they had to be mindful of alerting their customers of their new domain in their email program, properly routing their current site to the new site and educating customers there as well. But most of their customers were already aware of the rebranding through direct 1:1 communications. The task was simple, get the domain setup, make sure it sits for an appropriate amount of time (minimum 30 days) without email activity, set up the website, get the right DNS records added, test, and make sure it all works. I started with their corporate mail and...

Today on "Things I learned", I find out spaces, when they want to, will 'eff up your DNS records. How do I know this. I had a potential client come in and ask why their email platform kept reporting to them that their DMARC wasn't set up.  Oooo, I know how to start this one (or so I thought)... Ask for a test message Proceed to check headers (as I'm using a Workspace, it's a super fast check-a-roo in the Authentication-Results: header) Double-check result against a couple online tools Everything looked peachy on the surface. DNS tools were showing it as correct and passing. Gmail was reporting that it was passing. But it still wasn't being sensed. Well, maybe it's a UI bug... Send a test to aboutmy.email . If that comes back as passing, it's gotta be the UI. Oh dang, aboutmy.email is saying it fails DMARC too. NOTE: I should have scrolled down at this point to see the details of the report, but I didn't have the results, my potential client on ...