Email subscription issues

Hey @olaojo15,

All my email subscribers have zero percent open and click rates

Where did you find this information?

Also how do I change the email sender to my email subscribers from “WordPress.com <[email protected] to my business email as the sender instead?

I’m afraid currently we don’t have an option to change this part.

Also could you please post your site URL here so that we can have a look?

If you want it to remain private, you can also contact us via this contact form. If you choose to reach out directly, please include a link to this thread.

Hello @bizanimesh

I got the stats from links using the format below

wordpress.com/subscribers/external/www.horebinternational.com/xxxxxxxxxx

I viewed some recent and past subscribers’ details for their engagement stats and got zero for all of them even those that I know have received and opened numerous posts.

website: https://www.horebinternational.com

Thanks

Hey @olaojo15 – the Jetpack connection for your site is not good, which is the reason why it is not showing the data there.

While your site is publicly accessible, and the XML-RPC file is also working: https://www.example.com/xmlrpc.php, but for some reason, Jetpack is not able to make XML-RPC requests on your site. This file is used by Jetpack and other plugins and apps to connect to your site. If you want to know details about XML-RPC and how it helps Jetpack, you can check our detailed guide here:

• https://jetpack.com/support/jetpack-and-xml-rpc

We have a tool that we use to see how the XML-RPC requests are handled by your server.

• https://ratelimit.rudyfaile.com

When I entered your site there, I found your hosting provider is intermittently not responding correctly. If you also enter the site address there, you will see there is “503 Service Unavailable” which means that your hosting provider server is temporarily unable to handle the request.

If you will see, there is also a “200 OK” response, and this is the ideal response we need for all requests.

Could you please contact your hosting provider and check if they are blocking access to this file for Jetpack? Also, please find the IP ranges for the connection between your site and Jetpack/WordPress.com here, and ask them to whitelist them for HTTP connections on your site:

• https://jetpack.com/support/how-to-add-jetpack-ips-allowlist

Let me know how it goes!

Hey?@bizanimesh,

Reached out to my hosting provider (Fasthosts). Here is their response:

This is an update regarding issues with Jetpack. Our engineers said xmlrpc is frequently rate-limited to prevent abuse and it was confirmed that they can’t white-list.

The xmlrpc file is a commonly used vector for attacks on WordPress sites so our servers are regularly hit by floods of requests for xmlrpc.php which we will rate limit to prevent the server crashing.

But that would be pretty infrequent. It’s unlikely to be the thing causing the issue as we have a lot of sites with the same setup and they don’t report issues like this.

We are not familiar with the tools in the post however, 503 is a generic “site can’t be reached”. But unless you are seeing this behaviour on the site itself I think it’s unlikely to be an issue. It could just be a problem with the 3rd party utility being used for tests.

I would appreciate any suggestions or workarounds from you.

Many thanks

Hey @olaojo15 – thanks for reaching out to your hosting provider and sharing their response. It’s unfortunate that they are unable to whitelist XML-RPC due to rate-limiting concerns.

Without whitelisting the IPs, Jetpack won’t be able to connect to your site. I request you ask your hosting provider to whitelist the IPs, as Jetpack will only use it to communicate with the site (not to abuse the feature) so that the Jetpack features can work properly.

Also, I want to let you know that, Jetpack, the WordPress mobile apps, and some other plugins and services use this file to communicate with your site. So, blocking XML-RPC is not a great solution for fighting security risks.

If you want to know details about XML-RPC and how it helps Jetpack, you can check our detailed guide here:

• https://jetpack.com/support/jetpack-and-xml-rpc

But if you still have a concern about security due to XML-RPC, on your side of things, you can use the Jetpack Security feature to protect your site. Finally, Jetpack itself also includes a feature that will help against Brute Force attacks.

Hey?@bizanimesh,

Thanks for your response. I have forwarded your response to my host provider and hope it changes their mind.

I have been using the Wordfence security plugin for several years and that has helped protect my site from all sorts of attacks.

Hey @olaojo15 – It’s great to hear that you’ve forwarded our response to your hosting provider, and I hope they reconsider their stance on whitelisting XML-RPC. It can really help ensure that Jetpack and other important plugins and services work smoothly with your site.

Looking forward to hearing from you on what action they take. Keep us updated! ??

Hey @bizanimesh,

Please see response from hosting provider below:

I’ve had this referred back and I’m afraid there is no option to whitelist. Please note that this change is not possible in our shared server as xmlrpc file is commonly used for attacks on WordPress sites. Therefore, our servers are regularly hit by floods of requests for xmlrpc.php which we will rate limit to prevent the server crashing

Hey @olaojo15 – A publicly accessible XML-RPC file is one of the primary requirements to run Jetpack smoothly on a site. If your hosting provider can’t whitelist our IPs then it would be difficult to run Jetpack.

We also have some popular partner hosts that have built-in security features to protect the site, but they do allow whitelisting our IPs, and they don’t limit connection for XML-RPC because, as I mentioned above, Jetpack, the WordPress mobile apps, and some other plugins and services use this file to communicate with your site. So, blocking/limiting XML-RPC is not a great solution for fighting security risks.

Alternatively, if you want, you may also try the WordPress.com hosting solution, which has built-in Jetpack features.