CDO email troubleshooting

[ellenr]

DB for organization of 150 members (whose name and email address were entered on their member screen). I set up an email form that allowed the user (just 4 or 5 officers use it) to put a check in a Send Email box for the members to whom she wished to send an email. The vba code makes use of CDO code found elsewhere on this site. On the email form the user enters sender name, reply-to email address, subject, address of any attachments, and the body of the email. Originally, it was set up to send using a gmail account set up in the organization's name. Because bounces went there instead of to the sender, I changed it so that each user added her own email account credentials and her emails are sent using that. It has worked flawlessly for several years. I also added an email address at the webhost account (I will call it xxx@xxx.com in this post) for the organization and added its credentials to the credentials list and called it Alternate Account. I tested it successfully two months ago by using it to send a test email to myself. I now need it to work for a member whose legacy Bellsouth credentials aren't discoverable for some reason--she lives in a distant city and isn't what you would term computer literate. Anyway this alternate account wouldn't work for her. I started troubleshooting only to discover that it no longer works for me, either. The bounce message is:

host smtp.mailchannels.net [52.36.39.32]
SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data:
550 5.7.1 [BFD] Sender prohibited by SPF

I found the following:

If you are receiving this error, it means that the best practices are not adhered to. Ensure that the sender email address, header from and reply-to email addresses are not set to a free mail address such as Gmail or Hotmail or Yahoo etc. Providers such as Gmail or Yahoo have strict DMARC rules regarding using their domain names to relay mails.

After experimenting, I see I that as long as the reply-to address isn't a "free" email address, the emails sent using the alternate address work, meaning that if one's email address happens to be a gmail (or hotmail, etc.) address, she cannot use the alternate account. That greatly diminishes the value of the routine. Is there any way to set up a way to send email through cdo code other than through one's own credentials?

 

[isladogs]

Hi Ellen
I know you've looked at my email tester/troubleshooter before and assume it didn't help with this issue.

Whilst it is possible to display a false email address as the send address (used for those no reply emails) using CDO, you still need valid email settings to send the mail.
Some of my clients have in the past used Gmail successfully with CDO. Whether it's still possible, I couldn't tell you.

 

[ellenr]

A valid sending email setting isn't the problem--the reply-to address is. I can send using the gmail account or the webhost account and all is happy, so long as the reply-to address isn't gmail, hotmail, etc.

 

[isladogs]

A valid sending email setting isn't the problem--the reply-to address is. I can send using the gmail account or the webhost account and all is happy, so long as the reply-to address isn't gmail, hotmail, etc.

Perhaps we're at cross purposes here but that's part of my point.
Send the email from the Gmail account or whatever but substitute another valid and usable email address to be used as the displayed send address. Replies will then be sent to that address instead.

 

[ellenr]

Thanks--I get that, but these elderly ladies who do well to have one email address aren't likely to.