Microsoft JMR Junk Mail Reporting – How to set up your mailserver: Part 2

In part 1 I described my requirements and what I felt I needed to best enable my new server to send emails successfully and have them delivered!

Here I’ll discuss my findings with trying to sign up for the Microsoft JMR Junk Mail Reporting system. To sign up to their programme, you can go here to ask to become part of the MSN/Hotmail Junkmail Feedback Loop.

This was the first email I received:

Dear [YOUR_URL], 

Thank you for writing to the JMR Partner Management Team. My name is Roland and I have read that you want to join the Junk Mail Reporting (JMR) Partner Program. I know how important it is for you to have your request granted.

Windows Live Hotmail has a Junk E-Mail Reporting (JMR) Partner Program to help organizations maintain mailing best practices by unsubscribing unwanted recipients and ensuring clean mailing lists.

We are pleased to inform you that laughsend.net has passed the initial qualifications for enrollment into the JMR Partner Program. However, we need a confirmation from [YOUR-ISP] that you have exclusive sending rights to the IP address XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX. This will not delay your enrollment process.  As soon as we receive their confirmation e-mail, we will immediately add the IP to your feedback loop.

An e-mail directly sent to JMRP@css.one.microsoft.com from [YOUR-ISP] is sufficient. Please advise them to use SRXXXXXXXXXXXID as the e-mail subject for easy tracking.

Please note that the intent of this program is to provide you with a list of users that wish to be removed from your mail distributions.  Participation in the program does not guarantee that your IP will not be blocked in the future and that individual blocking or un-blocking issues will still need to be handled through the Hotmail Support Team.

We look forward to your participation in this program. Have a nice day!

Thank you,

Roland R.
The JMR Partner Management Team

You’ll notice the interesting bit about “we will immediately add the IP to your feedback loop.”. Maybe I need not say that this wasn’t entirely true.

As you can see, the main thing I needed to do was get my server’s ISP to provide proof to MSN that the IP address I was sending email from was solely to be used by myself. This wasn’t quite as easy as it should have been because for some reason my ISP kept sending emails to Microsoft replying to my initial support ticket – hence asking Microsoft to log in to my support account to read their response. Dur! BUT – I have to admit they were pretty good and did eventually get the email sent.

I don’t blame Microsoft for the fact that it took 8 (eight!) days to get it all sorted. Any time I needed a response from them I had to wait an average of 24 hours. I get that they’re a busy company and that this is a relatively minor part of their operation, but for something so simple that you just want to get ticked off your list, it’s quite frustrating!!

Anyway, once Microsoft had confirmation I then needed to sign a digital agreement, email posted below:

Hello,

Windows Live Hotmail has a Junk E-Mail Reporting Program (JMRP) to help organizations maintain mailing best practices by unsubscribing unwanted recipients and ensuring clean mailing lists.  ISPs use this program to identify and take action against the "bad actors" on their infrastructure.

We are pleased to inform you that your company has passed the initial qualifications for enrollment into the JMR Program.  Our next step would be to establish a Junk E-Mail Reporting Agreement with your organization.  The attached agreement needs to be signed by you.  

Please note that the intent of this program is to provide you with a list of users that wish to be removed from your mail distributions.  Participation in the program does not guarantee that your IP will not be blocked in the future and that individual blocking / un-blocking issues will still need to be handled through the Windows Live Hotmail Sender Support Team.

If you have any questions, please feel free to respond to us at the address that sent this email.  We look forward to your participation in this program. 

Thank You,

The Junk Mail Reporting Program Management Team

To begin the process of reviewing and signing your documents, please click the "Review" link below. Signing will not be complete until you have reviewed the agreement and you have confirmed your signature.

Review

This message was sent on behalf of WL Hotmail JMRP Admin by the DocuSign Online Signing Service. If you would like to contact the sender, you can send email to jmrp1@microsoft.com.

This was ace – it sent me to a website which kinda “spoofed” a signature and made me digitally sign the agreement. Very cool. One sticking point was an input box I had to fill in which was labelled “title”. There was no real guidance for what on earth this meant – initially I was tempted to put in “Mr” but eventually it dawned that it probably meant “Job Title” – so I went for Owner/Manager.

Anyway, once I’d done that (took seconds!) I got my confirmation email and hopefully (fingers crossed!) I’m now completely signed up and will start receiving my feedback. I’ll report back here with another post once I’ve got my first feedback loop.

But I’m happy! My mailserver is pretty much all set up now and I can relax a little bit. Hurray!