We are making changes to the ecbiz330 server to ensure stability and reliability for our customers. At this time, we are actively completing an unplanned but necessary failover on ecbiz330, moving all accounts to a new ecbiz330 server.

How to Find Your Server Information

If you are unsure about which server your account is on, you can check your server details by following this guide: Viewing Your Account Technical Information in AMP.

What You Need to Know

• We have restored all data from the most recent backup taken before the incident on Monday, February 10.
• The new server is fully operational and will replace the current one.
• The old server will remain online for a limited time under a new IP address. If you need specific data not included in the backup, our Technical Support Team can help restore it.

What You Need to Do

In most cases, no action is required on your part. However, if you experience any issues or notice missing data, please get in touch with our support team. We are here to help!

Need Assistance?

If you have any questions or need data from the old server, contact our support team via chat or ticket.

We appreciate your patience as we complete this transition and work to provide a more stable hosting experience.

WordPress 6.5 introduced core support for the AVIF image format, which is now supported by all major browsers and in most cases is a much better compression format than JPEG, PNG, and even the modern WebP standard. You can start using AVIF images to improve your website’s Core Web Values scores and improve your user’s experience with faster, smaller, and high-quality images.

What is the AVIF Image Format?

Based on Google’s VP9 codec, the AV1 codec is a royalty-free standard developed by the Alliance for Open Media. The format can provide over 50% file size savings compared to JPEG and over 30% savings compared to WebP. It supports transparency, animation, and either lossy or lossless compression at significant file size savings over older formats.

What Types of Images are Best for AVIF?

AVIF is best at compressing photorealistic images. The format supports 8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit, and 16-bit color depths. AVIF includes HDR support for high dynamic range photos, like professional photos and video.

What Types of Images aren’t Best for AVIF?

Illustrations with limited color pallets, vector graphics and simple animations will not have as much benefit with the AVIF format.

How Can I Create AVIF Images?

Many popular image editing programs now support AVIF. The popular free, open-source image editing suite GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) can export images in AVIF format out-of-the-box.

Adobe Photoshop users will need to install a third-party plugin to support AVIF Exports.

There are also free and open-source conversion apps like Squoosh that you can use to convert your existing images to the new format. There are also numerous WordPress Plugins that you can use to convert your images directly from within your Dashboard.

How Can I Tell if My Website is Ready to Use AVIF?

While AVIF support is now in WordPress Core, you’ll also need a server that has a newer version of the ImageMagick Library that supports AVIF. Our high-performance WordPress managed VPS plans include support for AVIF out-of-the-box.

Here’s how to tell if your current server supports AVIF images.

1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard and Navigate to Tools -> Site Health.
2. Click on the Info tab.
3. Expand the Media Handling section.
4. Look for AVIF among the list of ImageMagick supported file formats
   

Conclusion

The AVIF image format can give your site a significant boost in Core Web Vitals scores, overall speed, and save disk space and bandwidth. For a treat, check out this collection of AVIF-encoded animations that are all less than 500 kB in size!

Your Ultrastack VPS has a powerful tool for analyzing your visitor information in a useful graphical tool called GoAccess. You can use it to view IP addresses of your visitors, analyze cache performance and more.

How to View the GoAccess Tool

1. Navigate to your production environment, and click the Tools icon at the top-right
   
2. Here, you’ll have options to view your Files, Database, or Access Logs
   

GoAccess Logs Features

A lot of information is available from GoAccess. Here, we’ll cover each of the tools in detail.

Settings and Preferences

Click on the cog icon at the top-left to adjust your display preferences and export the log files as a JSON file.

Overall Analyzed Requests

At the top of the screen, you’ll see a summary of all the requests in the log, including total requests, failed requests, unique visitors, files, and total data transferred for the time period.

Unique Visitors per Day

View the total number of unique visitors to your website based on IP address, Date, and User agent.

Visitor Hostnames and IP’s

View the IP addresses of your visitors and the number of requests they’ve made. You can use this information to determine if specific IP addresses are trying to abuse your website.

Cache Status of the Object Served

You can use this graph to get detailed information about the performance of your NGINX proxy cache, how many requests are Cache HIT and how many are Cache MISS.

Referring Sites

Learn where your traffic is coming from with the referring sites tool. Identify inbound links and search traffic.

And More Tools

• HTTP Status Codes. Learn if your site has errors, like 404’s, 500’s and redirects like 301’s and 302’s.
• Operating Systems. Learn how many of your users are visiting via Mobile OS’s or Windows, Mac, or Crawlers.
• Time Distribution. Learn what time of day your traffic is peaking, so you can plan for downtime or maintenance.
• Not Found URL’s (404’s). Learn which URL’s are being visited that don’t exist, so that you can add appropriate redirects.
• And many more!

Conclusion

GoAccess is a powerful tool for digging deep into your traffic statistics so that you can make intelligent decisions about your site, your marketing efforts, and plan for maintenance.

If an outgoing email is bounced back and marked as spam by MailChannels for legitimate email, follow these steps to report it as a false positive.

Make sure to review the error first to confirm that the email was not blocked for valid reasons. See our MailChannels Sending Errors: Common Issues and How to Fix Them article prior to reporting a false positive.

1. Open the Bounced Email

• Log into your email client and open the message that was returned as spam.
• A bounced email from MailChannels will include an error message like this:

<example@example.com>: host smtp.mailchannels.net[52.43.13.119]  
said: 550 5.7.1 [CS] Message blocked. If this is a false positive,  
please report this to your hosting service provider. See https://console.mailchannels.net/insights/bounce  
(in reply to end of DATA command)  

2. Click the MailChannels Link

• In the bounced email, look for a link to the MailChannels Insights Bounce page (e.g., https://console.mailchannels.net/insights/bounce).
• Click the link to open the MailChannels Insights Bounce page.

3. Mark the Email as “Not Spam”

• A status box will appear in MailChannels.
• Click the Not Spam button to report the message as a false positive.
  

4. Confirm Your Report

• A pop-up box will appear asking you to confirm your report.
  
• Click Confirm to finalize the report. You will see a success message.

Note: Reporting an email as a false positive does not automatically resend it. You will need to manually resend the bounced email.

Emails Still Bouncing After Reporting as Not Spam?

If your legitimate email continues to bounce after reporting it as a false-positive, contact us with the full email body and headers so we can manually review the issue.

MailChannels is an email relay service designed to prevent spam and improve email deliverability. However, when sending emails through MailChannels, users may occasionally receive error messages that prevent successful delivery. These errors often indicate spam-like activity, authentication issues, or problems with the recipient’s address.

If you receive an error when trying to send an email, you can use the MailChannels Insights Dashboard to review your outgoing mail logs. This dashboard provides detailed information about the emails you send, including error messages and delivery issues. Checking these logs can help you quickly diagnose and resolve sending errors.

In this guide, we’ll explain the most common MailChannels sending errors, their causes, and how to fix them.

550 5.7.1 [CS] – Message Blocked (Spam Detected)

Error Message:

550 5.7.1 [CS] Message blocked Spam

Cause:

• The email was flagged as spam by MailChannels.
• The content includes spam-like keywords (e.g., pharmaceutical terms or misleading subject lines).

How to Fix It:

• If you believe this is a false positive, see our Reporting False Positives in MailChannels article.
• Avoid common spam triggers, such as misleading subject lines or excessive links and images.
• Ensure your emails follow best practices for legitimate email sending.

550 5.7.1 [ESA] – Sender Blocked (Abuse Detected)

Error Message:

550 5.7.1 [ESA] Sender blocked error

Cause:

• High volume of spam, bulk emails, or excessive complaints from recipients.
• Sending emails to many invalid recipients.

How to Fix It:

• Change your email account password to prevent unauthorized access.
• Run a full anti-virus scan on your computer to detect malware.
• Ensure your email list contains only valid, opted-in recipients.
• Follow the instructions in the bounced email to request unblocking.

550 5.7.1 [RBL] – Sender Blocked (Blacklisted IP or Domain)

Error Message:

550 5.7.1 [RBL] Sender blocked

Cause:

• Spam-tracking services like Spamhaus blacklist the sending IP or domain.
• A high volume of emails flagged as spam has resulted in an automatic blacklist.

How to Fix It:

• Check your IP/domain status using tools like MXToolbox or Spamhaus.
• If your domain is blacklisted, follow the delisting instructions on the blacklist’s website.
• Contact us for further assistance.

550 5.7.1 [IRR] – Too Many Invalid Addresses

Error Message:

550 5.7.1 [IRR] error – large number of invalid addresses

Cause:

• Your account has been sending emails to a large number of invalid or non-existent addresses.
• Spammers often send mass emails to invalid recipients, which can damage your sender reputation.

How to Fix It:

• Clean your mailing list using tools like Verify Email Address or Mail Tester.
• Use double opt-in for email signups to ensure valid addresses.
• Remove invalid email addresses from your list immediately.

550 5.7.1 [HIC] – Abuse Detected (Compromised Account)

Error Message:

550 5.7.1 [HIC] error – Abuse

Cause:

• The account has been compromised and is sending spam.

How to Fix It:

• Change your email account and cPanel password immediately.
• Update your computer’s security software and run a full malware scan.
• Ensure your operating system is up to date with security patches.

550 5.7.1 [FBL] – Complaint-Based Block

Error Message:

550 5.7.1 [FBL] error – Feedback Loop Complaint

Cause:

• Recipients have reported your email as spam.
• High complaint rates trigger automatic blocking by MailChannels.

How to Fix It:

• Only send emails to recipients who have opted in.
• Keep email content relevant and avoid sending unexpected messages.
• Provide a clear unsubscribe link at the top and bottom of emails.
• Once complaint rates decrease, MailChannels will automatically remove the block.

550 5.7.1 [SS] – Spam-Like Subject Line

Error Message:

550 5.7.1 [SS] error

Cause:

• The subject line contains keywords commonly associated with spam (e.g., “Re: Hello,” “Congratulations,” “Free,” or “Urgent”).

How to Fix It:

• Avoid using generic or suspicious subject lines.
• Ensure your subject line is clear, relevant, and professional.
• If you believe this is a false positive, see our Reporting False Positives in MailChannels article.

5.7.1 [CSR] – Account Blocked Due to Spam

Error Message:

5.7.1 [CSR] account blocked

Cause:

• A high volume of spam has been sent from the account, leading to an automatic block.

How to Fix It:

• Follow the securing your account steps below.
• The system will automatically unblock the account once the spam stops.

Final Thoughts

MailChannels errors help prevent spam and ensure reliable email delivery. However, if your emails are getting blocked incorrectly, reviewing the MailChannels Insights Dashboard and checking the error codes can help you quickly diagnose and resolve the issue.

If you continue to experience problems, contact us for assistance. Following email best practices and maintaining a clean sender reputation can minimize MailChannels sending errors and ensure smooth email communication.

MailChannels Insights is a powerful reporting and analytics tool designed to help email users monitor and optimize email performance. It provides detailed information on email delivery, helping you understand how your outgoing emails are being processed, whether they’re reaching recipients, and if there are any deliverability issues. This tool is handy for managing email systems in hosting environments or businesses that rely on email for critical communication.

In this article, we’ll explain what MailChannels Insights is, how it works, and how you can use it to monitor and improve your email performance.

What is MailChannels Insights?

MailChannels Insights is a part of the MailChannels platform that gives you visibility into your email traffic. It collects data on all outgoing emails and provides you with:

• Delivery Analytics: See whether your emails were delivered, rejected, or deferred.
• Sender Reports: Identify specific accounts or users that are sending spam or facing deliverability issues.
• Spam Filtering Metrics: Monitor how the system filters spam or identifies suspicious email activity.

Essentially, MailChannels Insights is designed to provide transparency in your email delivery pipeline, helping you troubleshoot issues and improve email deliverability for legitimate communications.

Key Features of MailChannels Insights

• Email Delivery Logs
  • MailChannels Insights offers detailed logs of email activity. You can search for specific messages, check their status (delivered, rejected, or deferred), and view timestamps for when emails were sent or processed.
• Spam Detection and Alerts
  • Insights highlights suspicious or spammy email traffic originating from your account. This is particularly useful for identifying compromised accounts or unusual email-sending behavior.
• Granular Reporting
  • Insights allows you to filter data by sender, recipient, or delivery status, so you can troubleshoot specific issues quickly and efficiently.
• User-Friendly Dashboard
  • The dashboard is intuitive and easy to navigate, even for those who aren’t email experts. You can customize reports and quickly get a high-level overview of email performance.

How to Access and Use MailChannels Insights

1. When you receive a bounce message when an outbound email is not delivered due to MailChannels, it will contain a link to view more information about the email in question. Click this link.
2. From the “Your Message Was Not Delivered” page, click on Get MailChannels Insights.
3. You will receive an email from MailChannels with the subject line MailChannels Insights: View Your Email Deliverability.
   
4. Click on Activate MailChannels Insights, which will direct you to the Insights Dashboard. Here, you’ll find an overview of your email traffic over the specified timeframe.
   
5. Review the delivery logs. Use the search tool to look up specific emails by sender, recipient, or subject. The logs will show:
   • Delivery status (e.g., delivered, deferred, blocked)
   • Timestamp of the email
   • The reason for any delivery failure (e.g., spam detection or recipient rejection
     
6. Monitor Spam and Abuse Reports. Check for flagged senders or compromised accounts. If you find unusual activity, you may need to secure the affected account or adjust email settings to prevent further issues.

Benefits of MailChannels Insights

• Better Email Deliverability: By identifying delivery issues and spam traffic, you can ensure that legitimate emails reach recipients’ inboxes.
• Improved Security: Insights helps detect compromised accounts or malicious email-sending activity early, minimizing potential harm to your server’s reputation.
• Time Savings: The centralized dashboard and detailed logs make it easier to troubleshoot email problems without guesswork.
• Proactive Monitoring: With regular reporting and alerts, you can address potential problems before they escalate.

When Should You Use MailChannels Insights?

MailChannels Insights is a valuable tool for those who need to:

• Troubleshoot email deliverability issues (e.g., emails not reaching recipients).
• Monitor outgoing email traffic for spam or abuse.
• Protect the reputation of their domain or IP address.
• Maintain compliance with email best practices and avoid blacklisting.

Conclusion

MailChannels Insights is an essential tool for anyone managing email traffic. It provides the data and analytics you need to maintain a healthy email system, reduce spam, and improve deliverability. By regularly monitoring your email logs and IP reputation, you can stay ahead of potential issues and ensure that your communication channels remain reliable.

For additional help, visit our MailChannels Support Center.

If you’re managing your DNS elsewhere (your nameservers are not pointed to InMotion Hosting nameservers) and need to update your SPF and TXT records for MailChannels on our Shared, WordPress and Reseller Servers, this guide will walk you through the process step-by-step for some popular domain registrars.

What Are SPF and TXT Records?

• SPF Record: Helps prevent email spoofing by specifying which mail servers are allowed to send emails on your domain’s behalf.
• TXT Record: A flexible DNS record used for various purposes, like email validation and verification.

For MailChannels, you’ll need to update your SPF record and add a new TXT record to ensure smooth email delivery.

General Information Before You Begin

SPF Record Update

1. Locate your current SPF record in your DNS settings. It will start with something like:
   v=spf1
2. Add the following to your existing SPF record:
   include:relay.mailchannels.net
3. Do not remove any existing entries unless specifically instructed. For example, if your SPF record currently looks like this:
   “v=spf1 +a +mx +ip4:192.168.1.1 include:smtp.servconfig.com ~all”
   Update it to:
   "v=spf1 +a +mx +ip4:192.168.1.1 include:smtp.servconfig.com include:relay.mailchannels.net ~all"
4. Save the updated record.

TXT Record Addition

In addition to updating your SPF record, you’ll need to add the following TXT record:

Record Name: _mailchannels.domain.com

Record Value: v=mc1 auth=inmotionhosting

** Replace domain.com with your actual domain name.

How to Update DNS Records at Popular Registrars

General Steps for Updating SPF Records

GoDaddy

1. Log into your GoDaddy Domain Portfolio.
2. Go to DNS.
3. Locate your current TXT record containing the SPF entry.
4. Edit the record:
   Add include:relay.mailchannels.net to the existing record, keeping the rest intact.
5. Save your changes.

For more information, see GoDaddy’s Guide to Updating DNS Records.

Squarespace Domains

1. Log into Squarespace.
2. Select your domain and go to DNS Settings.
3. Locate your current TXT record containing the SPF entry.
4. Edit the record:
   Add include:relay.mailchannels.net to the existing SPF entry.
5. Save the updated record.

For more information, see Squarespace’s Guide to Updating DNS Records.

Namecheap

1. Log in to your Namecheap account.
2. Go to Domain List > Manage > Advanced DNS.
3. Find your existing TXT record with the SPF entry.
4. Edit the record:
   Add include:relay.mailchannels.net to the existing SPF record.
5. Save your changes.

For more information, see Namecheap’s Guide to Updating DNS Records.

Bluehost

1. Log in to your Bluehost account.
2. Navigate to Domains > Advanced Tools > Advanced DNS Records.
3. Locate the TXT record with the SPF entry.
4. Edit the record:
   Add include:relay.mailchannels.net to the SPF record.
5. Save the updated record.

For more information, see Bluehost’s Guide to Updating DNS Records.

HostGator

1. Log in to your HostGator account.
2. Go to your domain’s Advanced Tools section.
3. Click Manage beside Advanced DNS Records.
4. Find your existing TXT record with the SPF entry.
5. Edit the record:
   Add include:relay.mailchannels.net to the SPF record.
6. Save your changes.

For more information, see HostGator’s Guide to Updating DNS Records.

Cloudflare

1. Log in to your Cloudflare account.
2. Go to DNS > Records.
3. Locate your TXT record with the SPF entry.
4. Edit the record:
   Add include:relay.mailchannels.net to the SPF record.
5. Save the changes.

For more information, see Cloudflare’s Guide to Managing DNS Records.

Dynadot

1. Log in to your Dynadot account.
2. Navigate to My Domains > Manage Domains
3. Check the box next to your domain.
4. Click the Action button and choose DNS Settings from the list.
5. Locate the TXT record containing the SPF entry.
6. Edit the record:
   Add include:relay.mailchannels.net to the SPF record.
7. Save the updated record.

For more information, see Dynadot’s Guide to Updating DNS Records.

Name.com

1. Log in to your Name.com account.
2. Navigate to MY DOMAINS.
3. Click on the desired domain.
4. Click Manage DNS Records.
5. Find your current TXT record with the SPF entry.
6. Edit the record:
   Add include:relay.mailchannels.net to the existing SPF record.
7. Save your changes.

For more information, see Name.com’s Guide to Updating DNS Records.

IONOS

1. Log in to your IONOS account.
2. Navigate to Domains & SSL.
3. Find your domain, click the gear symbol under Actions and select DNS.
4. Edit the record:
   Add include:relay.mailchannels.net to the SPF record.
5. Save the updated record.

For more information, see IONOS’s Guide to Updating TXT Records.

AWS Route 53

1. Log in to the AWS Management Console.
2. Navigate to Route 53 > Hosted Zones.
3. Locate the TXT record with the SPF entry.
4. Edit the record:
   Add include:relay.mailchannels.net to the existing SPF record.
5. Save the changes.

For more information, see Editing Records on Amazon Route 53.

Adding the TXT Record for MailChannels

In addition to updating your SPF record, you’ll need to add the following TXT record:

• Record Name: _mailchannels.domain.com
• Record Value: v=mc1 auth=inmotionhosting

** Replace domain.com with your actual domain name.

Follow the same process above to access the DNS settings for your domain and add this new TXT record.

Conclusion

Following these steps ensures your DNS is properly configured for MailChannels on our Shared, WordPress and Reseller servers, improving email deliverability and security. If you encounter issues or have questions, our support team is here to help!

PHP 8.4 was released November 21, 2024. As of this writing, you can use PHP 8.4 on cPanel VPS environments and Dedicated servers by enabling the package in EasyApache. PHP 8.4 will be added to shared servers after a brief period of testing by InMotion’s Engineering team.

As of January 17, 2025, PHP 8.4 is now available on all shared hosting plans. At this time, IonCube Loader is not yet available for 8.4.

What’s new in PHP 8.4?

HTML 5 Compatibility 

One of the largest improvements is to the \DOMDocument library, which in previous versions was almost compatible with HTML 4. While HTML 5 has been around for over 16 years, PHP still relied on a shoehorn method of using LIBXML and quiet errors to parse most tags outside of the most basic HTML tags.

In PHP 8.4, the new \Dom\HTMLDocument object allows parsing of all HTML5-compliant tags, and because it’s using the new \Dom\ namespace, remains fully backward-compatible with the old \DOMDocument objects. This means developers can continue to use older code that works, but take advantage of the new features as they develop new products.

Property Hooks

Property Hooks will be a boon to developers, allowing them to skip a lot of the basic “boilerplate” code that was previously needed when creating new classes and objects.

Take for example the following class from the PHP Foundation announcement, which contains a few private members:

//PHP < 8.4
class Locale
{
    private string $languageCode;
    private string $countryCode;

    public function __construct(string $languageCode, string $countryCode)
    {
        $this->setLanguageCode($languageCode);
        $this->setCountryCode($countryCode);
    }

    public function getLanguageCode(): string
    {
        return $this->languageCode;
    }

    public function setLanguageCode(string $languageCode): void
    {
        $this->languageCode = $languageCode;
    }

    public function getCountryCode(): string
    {
        return $this->countryCode;
    }

    public function setCountryCode(string $countryCode): void
    {
        $this->countryCode = strtoupper($countryCode);
    }

    public function setCombinedCode(string $combinedCode): void
    {
        [$languageCode, $countryCode] = explode('_', $combinedCode, 2);

        $this->setLanguageCode($languageCode);
        $this->setCountryCode($countryCode);
    }

    public function getCombinedCode(): string
    {
        return \sprintf("%s_%s", $this->languageCode, $this->countryCode);
    }
}

$brazilianPortuguese = new Locale('pt', 'br');
var_dump($brazilianPortuguese->getCountryCode()); // BR
var_dump($brazilianPortuguese->getCombinedCode()); // pt_BR

In this example, the developer has had to write explicit getter and setter functions for each of the member variables. In PHP 8.4, however, it is much easier:

//PHP 8.4
class Locale
{
    public string $languageCode;

    public string $countryCode
    {
        set (string $countryCode) {
            $this->countryCode = strtoupper($countryCode);
        }
    }

    public string $combinedCode
    {
        get => \sprintf("%s_%s", $this->languageCode, $this->countryCode);
        set (string $value) {
            [$this->languageCode, $this->countryCode] = explode('_', $value, 2);
        }
    }

    public function __construct(string $languageCode, string $countryCode)
    {
        $this->languageCode = $languageCode;
        $this->countryCode = $countryCode;
    }
}

$brazilianPortuguese = new Locale('pt', 'br');
var_dump($brazilianPortuguese->countryCode); // BR
var_dump($brazilianPortuguese->combinedCode); // pt_BR

Invoke New Class Methods without Parentheses

In previous versions of PHP, if you wanted to invoke a method of a new class on the same line, the class declaration had to be wrapped in parentheses, like so:

$member = (new ExampleClass($argument))->getMember();

Now, this is more convenient with the new syntax:

$member = new ExampleClass($argument)->getMember();

Implement Your Own Deprecations With the #[\Deprecated] Attribute

You can now use PHP’s built-in deprecation mechanism to alert developers using your code of new ways to accomplish deprecated methods. This will create automatic debug output, similar to deprecations in PHP core.

class MyClass
{
	#[\Deprecated(
		message: "Doing it wrong, use MyClass::newMethod() instead",
		since: "8.4",
	)]
public function oldMethod(): string
{
		return $oldWay;
	}

	public function newMethod(): string
	{
		return $newWay;
	}
}

New Array Functions and More

New functions, including array_find(), array_find_key(), array_any(), and array_all() have been introduced to avoid having to write your own searching functions. There are many other new features, be sure to check out the PHP Official Release announcement here.

PHP 8.4 Availability on your InMotion Hosting Server

PHP 8.4 is already available on VPS and Shared accounts using cPanel. VPS users with root access can use EasyApache for cPanel to install the new version.

Control Web Panel (CWP) does not yet support PHP 8.4.

Roughly 45% of email traffic is considered spam. Meanwhile, businesses fight hard to get their legitimate emails through filters. MailChannels is a top-notch email security service that helps with this problem by implementing effective outbound filtering.

Web hosts like InMotion Hosting use it to help customers with secure email delivery. This article dives into the benefits and why we choose it to provide reliable email service for our customers.

What is MailChannels?

MailChannels is a key SMTP relay and email security service. This turnkey service makes email delivery better for web hosts and their customers by managing outbound email.

How Does MailChannels Work?

MailChannels Outbound Filtering automatically scans and delivers all outgoing emails sent from InMotion Hosting servers. Using advanced algorithms, it analyzes email patterns and content to detect and block potential spam, phishing, and other malicious messages. When the system flags an email message as harmful, it will filter it out before it leaves our network. 

By identifying and filtering spam, MailChannels helps prevent blacklisting. Thus, increasing your deliverability and improving overall email security. This protects your email reputation and ensures that legitimate emails reach their recipients.

Here’s why we trust MailChannels:

• It helps us stop spammers and identifies hacked accounts within our network.
  
• It improves delivery rates for our customers.
  
• It ensures your email communications remain secure and trustworthy.

Why MailChannels is Important for Your Email Delivery

When your business depends on email to communicate with customers, having reliable email delivery is essential. MailChannels works behind the scenes to improve your email’s performance by:

• Detecting unusual email patterns that could indicate spammers or hacking attempts.
  
• Protecting your sender reputation by preventing outbound spam.
  
• Avoiding IP blacklisting, which keeps your email traffic flowing smoothly.
  

You can rest assured that your emails are safeguarded and optimized for delivery.

Key Features and Benefits of MailChannels for You

How MailChannels Helps Your Business

1. Protects Your Brand.
   MailChannels helps InMotion Hosting reduce the risk of email blacklisting, which can impact your domain’s credibility. The outbound filtering tool identifies potentially problematic messages before they’re sent. This means fewer issues with IP reputation and better standing with major email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail.
2. Improves Email Delivery.
   With MailChannels’ SMTP relay service, your business emails are more likely to land in the right inboxes. Thus, helping you maintain critical customer connections.
3. Keeps You Secure.
   Outbound filtering proactively finds and blocks spam, phishing, and other malicious emails. MailChannels keeps your email environment safe from malicious activity by monitoring hacked accounts and flagging issues in real time.
4. 24/7 Monitoring and Real-Time Insights.
   MailChannels constantly monitors email traffic so we can take action and resolve any delivery issues fast. Real-time insights and activity logging let our support teams easily investigate delivery problems or unusual activity. This ensures transparency and quick support when you need it.
5. Minimized Impact of Compromised Accounts.
   If a user account gets compromised and begins sending spam, MailChannels immediately intervenes, blocking the outgoing email. This prevents hacked email accounts from affecting other users on our platform.

Whether you’re sending marketing emails, transactional updates, or customer support responses, MailChannels handles every message with care.

Why InMotion Hosting Uses MailChannels

At InMotion Hosting, we’re always looking for ways to give our customers the best possible experience. MailChannels enables us to:

• Identify spammers and hacked accounts early.
• Resolve email deliverability issues faster.
• Ensure our customers’ emails are delivered securely and reliably.

Comparing MailChannels vs SpamExperts

Here’s how MailChannels stands out from the alternatives:

How to Start Using MailChannels

If you’re an InMotion Hosting customer in our Amsterdam data center, you already enjoy MailChannels’ filtering technology. Shared Hosting plans already run this service in the background. No extra setup is required on your end. Simply continue using your email as usual. If you ever experience any issues with email delivery or need help, our support team is here to assist.

InMotion Hosting is rolling out MailChannels in phases, and will be available to all customers in early 2025.

Conclusion

With MailChannels, we help you maintain your IP reputation, boost delivery rates, and secure your email environment—all while giving you peace of mind that your business communications are protected.

Have questions? Reach out to our support team anytime—we’re here to help!

FAQ

Is MailChannels a legitimate service?

Yes, it is trusted by many businesses. Hosting providers like InMotion Hosting use it to improve our customers’ delivery rates.

Why is maintaining IP reputation important for email delivery?

A reputable IP address helps emails get delivered. Conversely, a bad one might get blocked, which can seriously impact your credibility and ability to communicate via email.

Is MailChannels free with my hosting plan?

Yes, this service is free with any Shared Hosting plan with no setup or activation required. 

What happens if my email is flagged as spam? 

If an email you send is flagged as spam, it’s filtered out and doesn’t leave our network. Contact our support team if you believe your email was incorrectly flagged.

Does MailChannels affect my incoming emails? 

No. Since it focuses on outbound spam filtering, this service does not affect your incoming emails.

Can I see my email-sending activity?

Our support team can access detailed logs of your email activity and can help investigate any issues you may encounter.

If your hosting plan includes MailChannels, you can access the MailChannels Dashboard directly from your cPanel account. This guide will walk you through the steps to view and manage your email activity and monitor inbound email issues.

What is the MailChannels Dashboard?

The MailChannels Dashboard provides tools and insights for managing your incoming email activity. With the dashboard, you can:

• Reduce the amount of spam in your inbox
• Block harmful messages that may contain phishing or malware
• Ensure only legitimate emails reach your inbox

Steps to Access MailChannels Inbound Filtering from cPanel

1. Log into cPanel.
2. Once logged in, scroll down to the Email section of your cPanel dashboard.
3. Click on the MailChannels icon.
   
   
4. Click on the Login button next to the desired domain.
   
   
5. You’ll be redirected to a page where you can manage your inbound filtering settings. Here, you can view mail logs, block senders, whitelist trusted senders, adjust spam filter actions, and review quarantined emails if they are available.
   
   

This plugin allows users who choose to opt into MailChannels Inbound Mail filtering and to manage their inbound filtering settings.

Initial Configuration

Upon entering the plugin, you will be greeted with a “Getting Started” section that guides you in configuring your domain for inbound filtering.

1. Configure Downstream Records

The first step is to configure your downstream records. This should already be configured for you, but if not, you will need to set a record that is pointing to the IP address of the server. There are several options:

• The secure hostname of the server:
  • secureXX.inmotionhosting.com
  • secureXX.servconfig.com
• Their domain or subdomain that points to an IP address on the server:
  • mail.mydomain.com
  • mydomain.com

Important: If this is not configured correctly, the user will not be able to receive email, and all inbound emails will fail. Emails that fail to deliver will appear in the logs section below as failed.

After setting the target to one of the above options, leave the port as 25 and weight as 10. You must then hit the “check” to the right and click the green update button.

The “check” button to the left of the update button will allow you to test to ensure the downstream records are correct.

Per RFC guidelines, a “postmaster@” email address must exist for the domain you are configuring inbound on.

2. Configure MX Records

The next step is to configure the MX records. For this to work correctly, there only needs to be two MX records for the domain:

• mx1.mailchannels.net (priority 10)
• mx2.mailchannels.net (priority 10)

Troubleshooting Tips

Can’t find the MailChannels icon?
If you don’t see the MailChannels option in cPanel, your hosting plan may not include inbound filtering. Contact us to confirm the details of your plan.

Having trouble with spam settings?
If you’re still receiving spam emails, double-check your filter settings. If issues persist, contact our support team for assistance.