What’s the difference between a reputation issue and a technical issue?

Technical issues: Configuration or infrastructure problems.

Broken SPF, DKIM, or DMARC

DNS errors or misconfigurations

Server connectivity problems

TLS certificate issues

Usually affects all mail equally and immediately.

Reputation issues: Trust problems from sending behavior.

High complaint rates

Poor engagement signals

Blocklist presence

Spam trap hits

Usually builds gradually (unless triggered by an event).

Distinguishing: Technical issues show in authentication results and headers. Reputation issues show in postmaster tools and bounce patterns.

Sometimes both overlap. Fix technical issues first since they are faster to resolve.

Is the ship mechanically broken, or is it banned from ports? Different problems, different solutions.