hi, it seems that MS Hotmail servers have started blocking my email messages. based on my knowledge of SMTP, the Winhost mail server (not my ISP mail server) would be sending my email out to the MS servers. the "failed" response i'm receiving from Hotmail and Live indicates the mail server IP is blocked, which makes me wonder if that would be Winhosts mail server. this just started occurring today; i have not been sending high volume email nor doing anything suspicious. email has always sent to these addresses before w/o a hitch. any advice appreciated... thanks here are the response emails: FROM .LIVE: FROM .HOTMAIL:
Certain mail servers are currently on the Microsoft blacklists. We are working on having them delisted. We have different tiers of servers that we use in specific ways to prevent most user's mail from ever being affected by blacklists. Typically the servers that are more prone to blacklisting are those that relay mail from the web servers, and those that relay mail that our systems flags as "bulk" or possible spam. Messages that are not flagged or sent through the web servers are relayed through a separate group of servers that are less likely to be blacklisted. These are necessary anti-spam measures, and we realize they can be inconvenient, but if we took no such measures every one of our mail servers would be subject to blacklisting, and we don't want that (and you certainly don't want that). So unfortunately, this is what we're left with. It's the best solution we currently have to the otherwise insurmountable problem of spam.
thanks for the response, Michael. when you state you are working to delist your blacklisted servers, what does that entail? can i expect any resolution on this any time soon? i was sending these particular emails straight from the SmarterMail application.
Our "Bad" IP number is currently on a blacklist that HotMail uses. What we did to resolve the problem is find the source of caused the issue in the first place and requested to get delisted from the blacklist. After we put in the request to get delisted it can take 24 - 48 hours. In some cases it's a lot quicker. We don't have control on how fast we can be removed because we don't have control over the blacklisting organizations.
thanks for the information and prompt responses. unfortunately i have to report that, as of today (oct. 6), email is still being blocked. i thought this would have propagated after 3 days. but it obviously hasn't.
We do not have control over how long it takes for our IP addresses to be de-listed by Hotmail, they control that process and unfortunately it took a lot longer than expected to be de-listed. We did shut down the account's responsible for getting the outbound IP address blacklisted and then re-configured our gateways to use IP addresses not on the black list, I believe that the situation was finally laid to rest on Monday October 7th. If you are still experiencing issues sending mail to Hotmail addresses now, please open a ticket with the Support Department.
thanks to all. email has been outgoing well, all during the past week. looks like all the lists have been cleared. thanks again.
October 21st this happened testing the mail. Only Hotmail is rejecting mail so far. I just started using mail today and found this. Reason: Remote host said: 550 5.1.1 < @live.com>: Recipient address rejected: undeliverable address: host mx2.hotmail.com[65.55.37.72] said: 550 SC-002 (COL0-MC1-F18) Unfortunately, messages from 64.79.170.97 weren't sent. Please contact your Internet service provider since part of their network is on our block list. You can also refer your provider to http://mail.live.com/mail/troubleshooting.aspx#errors. (in reply to MAIL FROM command) -- The header and top 20 lines of the message follows -- Received: from m01.internetmailserver.net (M01 [192.168.120.101]) by smg02.internetmailserver.net with SMTP; Mon, 21 Oct 2013 08:39:22 -0700 Received: from W13 (w12.Winhost.com [96.31.35.131]) by m01.internetmailserver.net with SMTP; Mon, 21 Oct 2013 08:38:31 -0700
We monitor the major blacklists and take the necessary steps to be removed from them. When you relay millions of messages every day, as we do, landing on these blacklists is unavoidable, even though we take a number of anti-spam measures. Unfortunately when they add a server all we can do is request removal and wait for them to take action.