Need Help Sorting Out DNS, Email Delivery, and IONOS Hosting
Asked by
MellowPine47
I'm still learning how DNS and email hosting work. I have several websites hosted with IONOS and use their email packages because they're inexpensive, but I've been running into constant problems. One site's DNS records had to be wiped after an iCloud-related issue, and I then had to recreate TXT records for Formspree.
I have a few questions:
1. Is Thunderbird a good email client? My messages seem to appear in Gmail or Outlook before they show up in Thunderbird.
2. Is IONOS reliable for hosting and email, or would Google, Microsoft, or another provider be worth the migration cost? Some emails sent from my domains are landing in customers' spam folders.
3. Is an email signature of around 70 KB unnecessarily large?
4. Why would one of my domain email accounts require manual configuration when an autodiscover or autoconfig record is already present?
I'd appreciate advice on what to check before moving providers.
Answers
I’ve also seen inexpensive mail services fail during account creation or require several attempts before they work. If you do migrate, choose a provider with dependable support and clear DNS instructions rather than moving solely because another company sounds more reputable.
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A 70 KB signature is definitely on the heavy side. It probably isn’t the main reason for spam placement, but large images and complicated HTML can render badly or get stripped by some mail clients. A short text signature with a small, properly hosted logo is safer and more professional.
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The manual setup prompt usually means the autoconfig or autodiscover record is missing, has the wrong hostname, or hasn’t propagated correctly for that particular domain. It could also be an old cached configuration in the mail client. Remove and re-add the account, then compare the required IMAP and SMTP server names, ports, encryption, and username format with the provider’s documentation.
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Thunderbird is perfectly fine, but it usually uses IMAP, meaning it syncs messages that have already reached the mail server. Gmail and Outlook may show push notifications faster, so the difference can look like a delivery delay. Thunderbird itself won’t determine whether messages go to spam.
Before moving away from IONOS, verify the domain’s MX, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. Since you use Formspree, make sure its sending service is included correctly in SPF and that the required TXT records are still present. Send a test message to Gmail and use “Show original” to check whether SPF, DKIM, and DMARC pass.
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The spam problem is often caused by missing or incorrect authentication records rather than the email application. Shared hosting IP addresses can sometimes have a poor reputation, but I’d fix SPF, DKIM, and DMARC first. If those pass and messages still consistently go to spam, then comparing another provider may make sense. Migration can be worthwhile, but it won’t automatically solve a domain-authentication problem.
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MellowPine47: That’s the problem I’m having with IONOS—sometimes I create the same mailbox several times, and even manual configuration still doesn’t get it working. I’ll check the authentication records before deciding whether to migrate.