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**Kayla** · March 3rd, 2005, 1:45 AM

AOL Forwarding Decision

Jan 2005 : The Beginning of the Discussions
AOL Blacklisting Woes, need your opinion please.

2004 - 2005 : Previous Events Leading to Discussion
AOL stillblocking Surpass servers.
Blacklisted
Undeliverable email problem -- is there a fix??
Emails to AOL are bouncing
Surpass servers still blocked from AOL e-mail clients
AOL rejecting my e-mails to clients

---------------------------------------------------------------------

If you ever get a bounced email when you email an AOL customer, or have any question about emailing AOL, please email this address:

aolsurpasshosting.com

We will reply in most cases within only a few hours.
Please include your domain name and/or server IP address.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The announcement below was made before the decision:

AOL Rejecting Your Email?

The following error was received by one of our customers after they sent an email to an AOL user.

SMTP error from remote mailer after initial connection:
host mailin-01.mx.aol.com [205.188.155.89]: 554- (RTR:SC) http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554rtrsc.html
554- AOL does not accept e-mail transactions from IP addresses which
554- generate complaints or transmit unsolicited bulk e-mail.

This is the interesting part:
AOL does not accept e-mail transactions from IP addresses which
generate complaints.

"Generate complaints" is certainly a broad term, and it explains our situation.

The ongoing issue with AOL blocking our IPs comes to no rest. We understand why they do it, but it's extremely harsh.

I want to remind anyone who forwards their email with us to their AOL account, that if you continue to report spam to AOL that you are blocking your own server from AOL. You may never realize that since you forward your email to AOL and never actually send out mail from our server. But other customers do realize this, since they are sending basic emails from their account with us to an AOL customer. This is where the problem is.

If you forward your domain's email to AOL, spam may be mixed in with your real email. That spam is not from our server that your domain is on, but another server elsewhere. Our server is a middle man in delivery to your AOL account where you are centralizing multiple email accounts.

When you report a message as spam, AOL's reporting system sees our server in the headers because our server (Point B) got your mail from Point A (originating spam server) to Point C (your AOL inbox).

When you report that message as spam, you are adding our IP (that your website is on) to a list that will eventually add up and cause that IP to be blocked from AOL.

When you try to email an AOL user from your domain, the email will bounce.

Other customers on the server (that don't have AOL accounts, or just don't forward their email there) who email AOL users will see their email bounces as well.

Not only does the forwarding affect yourself in the long run, it affects everyone else.

We hope that everyone can realize what is happening, spread the word, and understand why some IPs are blocked time and time again from AOL and why AOL has no advice to us to help the issue.

One of the higher AOL admins stated,

"As I understand it, our current policy is:
An MTA that connects to us is responsible for what they send us,
regardless if it was forwarded through them or originated with them."

The only real answer is: Implement incoming filters on our servers to block most spam sources from our server completely so spam never arrives. 100% of our customers cannot agree to mandatory spam filtering (mainly for server performance, partly for AOL), so we cannot implement that.

There is another answer, which is if AOL could have actual people check each piece of email reported as spam and to track the origins. This is too complex to orchestrate.

March 3rd, 2005, 1:45 AM	#1 (permalink)
Kayla Searcher Surpass Staff Joined in May 2003 Lives in Orlando 24,702 posts Gave thanks: 943 Thanked 806 times	AOL Rejecting Your Email? Please read. AOL Forwarding Decision Jan 2005 : The Beginning of the Discussions AOL Blacklisting Woes, need your opinion please. 2004 - 2005 : Previous Events Leading to Discussion AOL stillblocking Surpass servers. Blacklisted Undeliverable email problem -- is there a fix?? Emails to AOL are bouncing Surpass servers still blocked from AOL e-mail clients AOL rejecting my e-mails to clients --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you ever get a bounced email when you email an AOL customer, or have any question about emailing AOL, please email this address: aolsurpasshosting.com We will reply in most cases within only a few hours. Please include your domain name and/or server IP address. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The announcement below was made before the decision: AOL Rejecting Your Email? The following error was received by one of our customers after they sent an email to an AOL user. SMTP error from remote mailer after initial connection: host mailin-01.mx.aol.com [205.188.155.89]: 554- (RTR:SC) http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554rtrsc.html 554- AOL does not accept e-mail transactions from IP addresses which 554- generate complaints or transmit unsolicited bulk e-mail. This is the interesting part: AOL does not accept e-mail transactions from IP addresses which generate complaints. "Generate complaints" is certainly a broad term, and it explains our situation. The ongoing issue with AOL blocking our IPs comes to no rest. We understand why they do it, but it's extremely harsh. I want to remind anyone who forwards their email with us to their AOL account, that if you continue to report spam to AOL that you are blocking your own server from AOL. You may never realize that since you forward your email to AOL and never actually send out mail from our server. But other customers do realize this, since they are sending basic emails from their account with us to an AOL customer. This is where the problem is. If you forward your domain's email to AOL, spam may be mixed in with your real email. That spam is not from our server that your domain is on, but another server elsewhere. Our server is a middle man in delivery to your AOL account where you are centralizing multiple email accounts. When you report a message as spam, AOL's reporting system sees our server in the headers because our server (Point B) got your mail from Point A (originating spam server) to Point C (your AOL inbox). When you report that message as spam, you are adding our IP (that your website is on) to a list that will eventually add up and cause that IP to be blocked from AOL. When you try to email an AOL user from your domain, the email will bounce. Other customers on the server (that don't have AOL accounts, or just don't forward their email there) who email AOL users will see their email bounces as well. Not only does the forwarding affect yourself in the long run, it affects everyone else. We hope that everyone can realize what is happening, spread the word, and understand why some IPs are blocked time and time again from AOL and why AOL has no advice to us to help the issue. One of the higher AOL admins stated, "As I understand it, our current policy is: An MTA that connects to us is responsible for what they send us, regardless if it was forwarded through them or originated with them." The only real answer is: Implement incoming filters on our servers to block most spam sources from our server completely so spam never arrives. 100% of our customers cannot agree to mandatory spam filtering (mainly for server performance, partly for AOL), so we cannot implement that. There is another answer, which is if AOL could have actual people check each piece of email reported as spam and to track the origins. This is too complex to orchestrate.