mails from AOL getting bounced at random

[mohan]

Hello,




Some of the mails to accounts on our server are getting bounced at random. Here is one of the bounced message.


##############


The reason your mail is being returned to you is listed in the section
labeled: "----- Transcript of Session Follows -----".

The line beginning with "<<<" describes the specific reason your e-mail could
not be delivered. The next line contains a second error message which is a
general translation for other e-mail servers.

Please direct further questions regarding this message to the e-mail
administrator or Postmaster at that destination.

--AOL Postmaster



----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<test@domainname.com>

----- Transcript of session follows -----
<test@domainname.com>... Deferred: Connection timed out with domainname.com.
Message could not be delivered for 3 hours
Message will be deleted from queue

--VAA01980.1120611770/imr-d04.mx.aol.com
Reporting-MTA: dns; imr-d04.mx.aol.com
Arrival-Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 17:59:10 -0400 (EDT)

Final-Recipient: RFC822; test@domainname.com
Action: failed
Status: 4.4.7
Remote-MTA: DNS; strategybydesign.com
Last-Attempt-Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 21:02:50 -0400 (EDT)

################

Please help...........

[sawbuck]

Assuming strategybydesign.com is the domain in question then you are missing a reverse dns entry. Ask your provider to enable.

http://dnsreport.com/tools/dnsreport...gybydesign.com

[mohan]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.. .. I think the mails are routed through the main shared ip and it has reverse DNS setup. Also some mails make it to the server, while a few are bounced.

[nisse]

A lot of people have this problem with random bounces from AOL. No sign of AOL fixing it, though.

[aegis]

I'm not sure if this is the reason but whilst looking into why some AOL mail fails and not others I looked at AOL's SPF record.

http://www.kitterman.com/getspf.py?domain=aol.com

The mails that fail and get the 'Deferred:' treatment seem to be from AOL mail servers that are not in their SPF record. eg. imo-d23.mail.aol.com [172.18.157.197]

If you've got SPF checking switched on on your server then I would guess that the fail is because exim is checking AOL's SPF and it fails so it sends back a temporary fail message.

Kind of ironic that AOL were the first to insist on SPF and they don't keep their SPF record up to date.