Recommendations for sending e-mails to freenet.de

freenet.de is committed to providing its users with a trusted and secure service. Therefore, the careful evaluation of incoming e-mails as well as actions against unwanted messages have our highest priority.


 

The following information applies to the operators of the delivering services

Respect the recipient's desire not to receive unsolicited e-mails

As soon as a freenet.de user can prove that the delivery of unwanted e-mails has not been stopped despite a corresponding notice, we reserve the right to suspend the corresponding services permanently.

Observe the applicable legal requirements

You can be held responsible as a sender of mass e-mails if you have not obtained consent from the recipient.

Follow the recommendations of the M3AAWG working group

The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG), in collaboration with major and important internet service providers, regularly develops a guide to sending e-mail. Use this as the basis of your work.

RFC compliance

E-mails and communication with our servers must comply with the standards defined in the current RFC.

No reception from dialup areas

The e-mail may not be delivered directly to our mail exchange servers from dialup networks. E-mails from users with a dynamic IP address must be submitted via Submission.

Reverse DNS entry

A reverse DNS (FQDN) entry of the delivering server must be present.

RBL lists

We check different, established RBL lists. Make sure your server is not on such a list. This fact can be checked under DNSBL.info.


 

The following principles apply to bulk e-mail senders

Clean up the address lists

The sender must immediately remove e-mail addresses from his mailing lists when hard bounces occur after sending them to these addresses. If delivery attempts are made to numerous unknown (or now deactivated) freenet.de e-mail addresses, the sender is temporarily blocked. In such cases we also reserve the right to permanent suspension.

Imprint mandatory

Send e-mails only to recipients who agreed to receive mass e-mails, such as email newsletters. We recommend the use of a double opt-in method. The client or the contract partner of the consignor must be clearly identifiable to the recipient. It is recommended that requested mass e-mails include a valid non-electronic sender contact information, including phone number and real address.

Opt-out

The receipt of mass e-mail (newsletter, advertising, etc.) must be quickly and easily revocable for the recipient. A corresponding reference should be included in each e-mail, but a revocation can also be done by providing a valid reply address.


 

Glossary

  1. The Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group is an international association consisting of internet service providers, anti-spam and anti-virus technology manufacturers as well as other interested parties. The association offers its members a forum for the exchange on the topics of security in the telecommunication technology. https://www.m3aawg.org/
  2. RFC designates documents that describe the technical or organizational guidelines for the internet.
  3. A Reverse DNS (or fully qualified domain name or PTR-RR) entry is the unique name of an internet host. The FQDN can be used to determine the IP address of the host. The reverse DNS record should be used as a HELO when sending emails.
  4. The HELO command is part of the SMTP protocol used for the transmission of e-mails. This command initiates the exchange of e-mail between two servers by transmitting the senders full domain name. Likewise, a server using the EHLO command additionally signals that the extended SMTP protocol version (ESMTP) should be used.
  5. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a technique designed to make it difficult for spoof sender addresses. To achieve this, it is determined from which IP addresses the sending of e-mails with a certain sender domain may take place (respectively from which IP addresses a dispatch may not take place). For this purpose, a resource record of the type TXT (or if available SPF) is stored in the DNS zone, listing all authorized IP addresses to use this domain as sender address. To check your SPF entry, we recommend the so-called SPF Wizzard on the pages of Openspf.org
  6. In case of a redirect, a recipient system that checks the receipt of e-mails for a valid SPF entry can no longer verify the sender's authenticity. Forwarding servers should rewrite the sender addresses in the Envelope via SRS so that checking for SPF entries does not give false results. More information about SRS can be found on the Openspf.org pages.
  7. In an RBL list, IP addresses are collected. With the help of such a list, it can be decided in advance of a connection whether certain senders are allowed to deliver e-mails to the recipient system and with what spam probability such e-mails are marked. There are several types of such lists. Some list IP addresses that the owner does not want e-mails to be sent or received. Other lists have IP addresses that are responsible for sending e-mail spam.
  8. Opt-in refers to a process whereby an end user explicitly agrees to contact for promotional purposes. In addition, the double-opt-in procedure also ensures that the specified e-mail address belongs to the end user. For this purpose, a verification link is usually sent to the e-mail address, which must be called once before it is included in a distribution list. This prevents third-party email addresses from being placed on distribution lists.