topic Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again in Email

Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

Mad_Moggies — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 17:43:58 GMT

This weekend our emails to friends in Australia are once again being rejected, with this message, which indicates that the Plusnet email server has been blacklisted. When this has happened before, it resolves after a day or so but is annoying and inconvenient.

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed permanently:

* xxxxxx@bigpond.net.au

Reason: A message that you sent to the following recipient could not be delivered due to a permanent error. ** The remote server ?? responded with: ** xxxxxx@bigpond.net.au ??:?? This message was created automatically by mail delivery software on the server .

Reporting-MTA: dns; avasout-peh-004 [212.159.14.20]
Received-From-MTA: dns; smtpclient.apple [212.159.XX.XXX] (this being our IP address)
Arrival-Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2022 17:16:11 +0000

Final-recipient: rfc822; xxxxxx@bigpond.net.au
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 5.7.1 Connection refused. 212.159.14.20 is blacklisted in ReturnPath RPRBL List. See https://senderscore.org/blocklistlookup/

Last-attempt-Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2022 17:16:12 +0000

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

Gandalf — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 10:32:00 GMT

Hi @Mad_Moggies

I'm really sorry to see the recipient's provider rejecting your e-mails again.

Based on the response I got from our NetOps team last year (Here), did the recipients raise this with their provider?

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

Mad_Moggies — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 11:55:45 GMT

As we've not been able to get in touch with them, they don't know that our emails haven't been getting through (apart from not hearing from us)!
I emailed them from a different address yesterday but I think they may have set their email to block any 'unknown' addresses.
Just tried sending again this morning and the email hasn't been bounced back immediately, so hopefully the Plusnet emailserver has been removed from the dodgy blacklist.

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

Gandalf — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 14:23:27 GMT

Thanks for getting back to me @Mad_Moggies

Last year you've advised us that your friends had started receiving your e-mails & had been replying to them.

I don't believe our e-mail server is blacklisted, because if that were the case, then it'd affect a vast majority of our customers and we'd be inundated with calls. Were you able to ask your friends to check with their provider in an e-mail they received?

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

Mad_Moggies — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 16:54:59 GMT

Thanks for your reply. Gandalf.

We've had a reply from Australia now, saying that they received several emails all at once around mid-day our time. I'm assuming the system just kept trying till they went through. I'll now ask if they've contacted Big Pond to find out what the delay was and why the emails were being bounced.

You say you don't think it's Plusnet mail server being blacklisted, but that's what it says in all the emails where they were bounced back:

"Final-recipient: rfc822; xxxxxx@bigpond.net.au
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 5.7.1 Connection refused. 212.159.14.20 is blacklisted in ReturnPath RPRBL List. See https://senderscore.org/blocklistlookup/
Last-attempt-Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2022 16:46:04 +0000"

Is there any other reason it might say that if it wasn't true?

Thanks again

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

SimonFastEddy — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 22:19:37 GMT

Hello Mad Moggies

Reply from SimonFastEddy:

14th February 2022

I can verify that I too can't get my emails to Australia because Bigpond is refusing them. This has been going for about a week now. The potential recipients in Australia suggest that they can't see any issues and haven't altered their message rules; they believe the problem is with us.

Mail bounced at bigpond

Note: I've modified the recipient's email address with "xxxxxx" to ensure privacy

The Server sends the following advice:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed permanently:

* xxxxxx@bigpond.com

Reason: A message that you sent to the following recipient could not be delivered due to a permanent error. ** The remote server ?? responded with: ** xxxxxx@bigpond.com ??:?? This message was created automatically by mail delivery software on the server .

Reporting-MTA: dns; avasout-peh-004 [212.159.14.20]

Received-From-MTA: dns; [192.168.1.66] [84.93.96.230]

Arrival-Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 12:28:25 +0000

Final-recipient: rfc822; xxxxxx@bigpond.com

Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 5.7.1 Connection refused. 212.159.14.20 is blacklisted in ReturnPath RPRBL List. See https://senderscore.org/blocklistlookup/

Last-attempt-Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 12:28:29 +0000

Mad Moggies! When a crowd complains it is something systematic at fault; we are doing that. I tried a public library computer as well as my home one and they were both refused.

Lets see what happens as the days pass!

Kind regards from SimonFastEddy

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

Mad_Moggies — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 00:36:22 GMT

That looks the same as we got over the weekend.

Our friends too said there didn't seem to be anything wrong, but the emails we sent were't receivd tilll much later than they were sent.

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

Gandalf — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 09:51:46 GMT

I'm afraid we've no control over a third party's blacklist and how they see e-mails that go through our mail servers.

I would recommend asking the recipients to supply their provider a full copy of the headers to investigate further.

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

SimonFastEddy — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 13:11:15 GMT

To Gandalf

From SimonFastEddy

15th February 2022

Thank you for assisting Mad Moggies and myself. These bouncy emails occurred around a month ago and were followed by huge Plusnet outages. I have two email addresses in Australia (Adelaide) that I can send to. Yesterday's email that I sent to Oz hasn't bounced back as Nobody@invalid.invalid just yet, so it could be that the issue has cleared. The UK has a better "istheservicedown" and "downdetector" utility compared to the Australian equivalent, making it easier to probe a dysfunctional service.

Question: is it possible to discriminate between a Nobody@invalid.invalid bounced email caused by a blocking message rule on the sender's computer and one originating from the server bigpond or their service provider "senderscore.org"?

I feel that we need to press Microsoft for an analytical tool and troubleshooter. This is clearly a weakness that can be exploited by ransom attackers or users with character weaknesses.

Good luck

SimonFastEddy

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

bobpullen — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 13:17:25 GMT

I suspect the issue has cleared.

Carrying out a lookup against the offending IP address on Senderscore's site suggests there's nothing wrong with it:-

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

SimonFastEddy — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 14:01:55 GMT

To Bobpullen,

From SimonFastEddy

Thank you for your reply, Bob. So far all is OK here. I am guessing that we are good to go.

Mad Moggies and myself are the other side of the planet from Australia, so if it is an overload of spam circulating Australasian email rivers; shooting the excess mail into the river systems, we won't know for sure for 12 hours when it comes in on the flood tide.

Having worked on sorting and delivery at Royal Mail, I can say: refused mail should have a dead letter red sticker attached and a tick-box ticked giving reasons.

Might be back!

SimonFastEddy

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

Mad_Moggies — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 20:15:28 GMT

Thanks
That's what I've done. Then it's down to them if they want to investigate further.

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

Mad_Moggies — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 20:18:08 GMT

Ah, SimonFastEddy, our occasionally bouncing emails are also sent to Adelaide.

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

SimonFastEddy — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 04:40:52 GMT

Hello from SimonFastEddy,

Hi! Mad_Moggies. Thank you for the update - Roger your emails also sent to Adelaide.

OK - my contact in Adelaide has responded and my email is back to where it should be - going just fine.

It looks like the problem has indeed been resolved.

I will keep an eye on the post; I expect the problem will be back again; it could be a local fault.

Bye

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

Townman — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 14:03:32 GMT

Bigpond seem to have a litany of inbound mail delivery / rejection issues - just one of many from a Google search Bigpond blocking emails - Electronics & Technology - Community (choice.community)

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

SimonFastEddy — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 15:44:19 GMT

To: Townman

From: SimonFastEddy

Dated: 17 February 2022 15:34 PM

Bigpond is a bit of a bother then! Thank you for the link - it was useful, with many helpful recommendations.

I have sent the link to Oz

I've done a bit of reading around and the following link explains a lot:

https://www.enginemailer.com/blog/email-error-550-what-is-it-and-how-to-fix-it

This is something the industry needs to sort out, rather than produce Windows 11. I had enough trying to learn LINUX and only to discover that it doesn't interface with Windows 10. This is why we have computers - to sort difficult problems that perplex Help-desks.

Gratefully from SimonFastEddy

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

Mad_Moggies — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 18:27:42 GMT

Thanks for that link.

This is what it says about the error code in the bounces I had:
"6. Email Error 550 5.7.1 Access Denied
This error message means the email was rejected either because of security policies or incorrect configuration on the recipient side."

Though it said the Plusnet address was blacklisted (not my IP address but presumably one the message went through on its way) it looks as though it could just be something wrong at Bigpond!

We've had this happen a few times in the past. As you say, Bigpond IS a bit of a bother!
I usually flag it up here in case there are others having the same problem, as it's not nice to think you're being suspected of sending spam, especially when you're just replying to an email from the intended recipient, as I was.

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

PeeGee — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 18:48:21 GMT

"I had enough trying to learn LINUX and only to discover that it doesn't interface with Windows 10"?

You obviously didn't downgrade the connection to use SMB - which Windows 10 uses/understands.

Re: Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

SimonFastEddy — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 20:46:34 GMT

Hi PeeGee

From SimonFastEddy

My Windows 10 Pro is networked to three computers and I have to have SMB1 running to have a network at all. I don't know anyone who has got LINUX to network with Windows 10.

It demonstrates what is wrong with Microsoft's approach. It is easy for ordinary consumers (such as myself) to run out of expertise and what looks like a simple emailing problem soon becomes an impossibly complex issue, beyond a consumer or help-desk to resolve quickly and cheaply.

Technical ignorance is wide-spread: I wouldn't trust a scientist wearing a face-mask! I am off topic but bear with me a moment:

SARS-CoV-2 is an 85 nano-meter particle and a face-mask would have a mesh about 100th of a millimeter (100 to 1000 times larger). Scaled up: would you be able to kick a 2 ft diameter gymnasium ball through a net with a 200 ft mesh - Yes! But the world disagrees.

How easy it would be for a virologist such as myself to become a spammer, condemned by a server and weak script.

Bigpond needs to dream a while: a friend of mine in the Royal Navy gets 1,000 emails a day. One BigPharma firm routinely has 5,000 prospecting job applicants traversing their personnel department at any one time. One missed email is one too many.

I can summarise these issues: if we invented an AI program and set it running to discover a perfect mailing solution - it would re-invent the fountain pen.

We need an analytical tool not Windows 11 dressing.

SimonFastEddy