Email and Spammers

[Mysteerie]

I have a server and I think it's sending out spam, not sure though...

The reason I'm not sure, is that today's statastics is that I only sent out 165 messages, and the highest per hour was 19.

Though at this very moment, I'm blocked from sending mail to aol, netscape, which generats this message:

    1 goodfella638@aol.com  R=lookuphost
	    T=remote_smtp: SMTP error from remote mailer after
	    initial connection: host mailin-02.mx.aol.com [64.12.137.121]:
	    554- (RTR:SC) http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554rtrsc.html\n554-
	    AOL does not accept e-mail transactions from IP addresses
	    which\n554- generate complaints or transmit unsolicited
	    bulk e-mail.\n554 Connecting IP: 65.75.151.200

    1 fedded@netscape.net  R=lookuphost
	    T=remote_smtp: SMTP error from remote mailer after
	    initial connection: host mailin-01.mx.netscape.net
	    [205.188.158.25]: 554- (RTR:SC) http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554rtrsc.html\n554-
	    AOL does not accept e-mail transactions from IP addresses
	    which\n554- generate complaints or transmit unsolicited
	    bulk e-mail.\n554 Connecting IP: 65.75.151.200

Also other gmail.com, and other domains, but instead of that error for the rest I get:

    2 ahatfj@gmail.com  R=fail_remote_domains:
	    unrouteable mail domain "gmail.com"

What is funny though is that I can send email to my own personal gmail account, but for some reason thier's are not getting through?

Can someoen tell me why this is happening and if there is way to tell if I'm sending out spam, or fix it? Also is there a program to stop this from happening, and to tell which servers my server is blocked from sending? Thank you

[ccccanada]

Is 65.75.151.200 the main IP of your server or is this the IP assigned to you by your ISP.

If it is your main server IP you should speak to your datacenter and ask them to investigate for you why you are blocked.

If it is not your main server IP then you should talk to your ISP and tell them to assign you a clean IP address.

[Mysteerie]

It's a server ip, and my datacenter is stupid. They would just tell me it's my fault, and tell me to fix it.

Anyways I don't think it would be the datacenter's fault, since it is it's own ip. So it would have to be something on the server itself.

[icanectc]

The datacent will in no way provide information as to why you have been blocked by the larger email companies such as AOL and yahoo.. This most likely has happened because its an IP you haven't had for very long and AOL blocked it's original use because of spam. Or if you have had this IP for awhile its possible AOL blocked the entire block of IPS that you happened to be on.

What can you do if your blocked? Go here: http://postmaster.info.aol.com/. You will need to fill out the online documentation for AOL to lift restrictions on your IP, upon review. Or you will need to contact your NOC and have them issue new block of IPS to you.

Unfortunately, I have heard AOL has been blocking Harvard Univ emails, Comcast emails, any DSL run servers, ZDNet newsletters, they block RoadRunner emails, MSN emails and yahoo emails.
I can not believe AOL is still the most used ISP. Insane.

Recentl Bellsouth in my area has cut off access to port 25. They require all of their customers to use their mail.bellsouth.net for SMTP connections. I had to open port 26 and run mail on that port until eventually the block that one too. I find that even online there is no privacy, yes I believe spam should be prevented but I don't see a need to completely block port 25 simply because you want to sift through all your customer's emails for spam. I think programs like SpamAssasin and BrightMail are very useful in preventing spam.

However on the flip side I can in a sense agree that I would rather have my mail queue be used with legit emails from my customers rather than 1,000 spam mails leaving my server. So I can only hope some genius comes up with a better way.

[gflamerich]

Hi
I had same problem about a year ago.
Nobody at the datacenters when you buy a server tells you tha you have to ask them to create a Reverse DNS record.
Here is a very good site where to find many info regarding DNS, IP, etc.
http://www.dnsstuff.com
And here you have the report from your IP, http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/ptr.ch?ip=65.75.151.200.

A day or two after create the record, you can contact AOL and ask them to remove your IP from their block list. This will take about 5 to 7 days.
Instrauctions regardind this are at AOL postmaster info.

[Mysteerie]

OKay I contacted them, what does created a Reverse DNS for the ip do?

[gflamerich]

It's long to explain, but here is the info at the link I sent earlier.
http://www.dnsstuff.com/info/revdns.htm

And for a short one, Reverse DNS are like a "trusted" answer of which domain is pointing on wich IP, because you can fake any IP or Server name when sending mails, the reverse DNS can tell you the domain pointing to the IP address. So this only can be done by the ISP which manages the IPs.