To impede spam (unsolicited bulk mail), all Internet providers, including Toronto Free-Net, impose restrictions on the flow of email.  Some checks are defensive, which a provider imposes on inbound email to protect itself; others are self-policing, which a provider imposes on email sent by its own users, to prevent them from abusing the Internet community at large.

If TFN rejects your legitimate email to addresses @torfree.net, please check the error code which TFN gave to your SMTP server.  Check whether the error's cause was one of the following.  For further assistance in resolving the problem, contact the TFN office.

• Forward DNS

  When your outbound email server initiates the SMTP conversation to TFN's MX, by what name does it identify itself in the HELO/EHLO verb?  There must be a DNS "A" resource record for that name, and that record must specify the IP address actually used by your SMTP server when it connects to us.

• Reverse DNS

  There must be a reverse DNS entry for your outbound SMTP server's IP address.  The domain name specified by that PTR resource record must match an "A" record which, in turn, must resolve back to the IP address from which your SMTP server connects to us.

  18/Jul/2011 update: removed the reverse DNS requirement.

• Blacklists

  Your SMTP server's IP address and the name by which it identifies itself must not be blacklisted.  TFN's SMTP servers check the following blacklists:

  • spamhaus.org
  • njabl.org
  • sorbs.net

  If you have been blacklisted, please address the cause, then follow the blacklist's instructions to request that your name be cleared.