aol Bouncing

[#1]

I am using suirrelmail here in the US and keep havng nessages returned to me from AOL.  The same message gets through with gmail.  Any ideas?
here is a recent header:
This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.
A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:
  Trans300@aol.com
    SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection:
    host mailin-04.mx.aol.com [205.188.159.216]: 554- (RTR:BB)
http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554rtrbb.html
    554  Connecting IP: 212.159.0.97
------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. ------
Return-path: <xxx@xxxxx.plus.com>
Received: from [212.159.6.53] (helo=webmail.plus.net)
        by pih-cgirelay03.plus.net with esmtp (Exim 4.63)
        (envelope-from <xxx@xxxxx.plus.com>)
        id 1JqU04-0003f9-Vz
        for Trans300@aol.com; Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:06:37 +0100
Received: from 97.76.44.159
        (SquirrelMail authenticated user xxxxx)
        by webmail.plus.net with HTTP;
        Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:04:23 +0100 (BST)
Message-ID: <3543.97.76.44.159.1209391463.squirrel@webmail.plus.net>
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:04:23 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Hi!
From: xxx@xxxxx.plus.com
To: Trans300@aol.com
User-Agent: SquirrelMail
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Importance: Normal

Moderators note by James_H : Disguised email address - apologies if this was undesired, but erred on side of caution as suggested by @spraxyt below

[#2]

Just a small point @Artmo - did you mean to leave your full email address in the post?
Wouldn't detract much from the headers if you altered it to xxx@xxxxx.plus.com and helps avoid an influx of spam.
If you want somebody to remove them for you, shout up and one of us will do it (you should be able to modify your own post though if you want to)

[#3]

The  RTR:BB message indicates aol.com have PlusNet's relay servers in their 'dodgy' list (or at least 212.159.0.97 which is pih-cgirelay03.plus.net) and block mail sent through them.
To fix this PlusNet need to contact AOL and ask them to remove the block.
@James_H
artmo mentioned he was in the US probably using an Internet cafe, so possibly not online to respond. I have had contact with him from time to time and I think he'd welcome having his email address disguised if you are prepared to do this ahead of his express permission.

[#4]

Quote from: spraxyt

@James_H artmo mentioned he was in the US probably using an Internet cafe, so possibly not online to respond. I have had contact with him from time to time and I think he'd welcome having his email address disguised if you are prepared to do this ahead of his express permission.

Good plan - 'tis done.

[#5]

Unfortunately this does happen from time to time, AOL are notoriously difficult to get the block removed too, I'll give our networks team a nudge and see if they can do anything about it.
As we do have a number of relay servers, sometimes simply trying to send the email again works as it won't go through the blacklisted server.

[#6]

Thanks to everyone who has replied. 
Yes, I am using an internet cafe (great coffee and lovely muffins) so thank you for removing my email address etc. from my original post.
Recently Plusnet was blocked by Comcast and also Verozon and now AOL.  Is there a reason for this?
Thanks again to all.

[#7]

Quote

Recently Plusnet was blocked by Comcast and also Verozon and now AOL.  Is there a reason for this?

Simply because we allow people to send email through our relay servers and the volumes that pass across these each day means that they do get blacklisted from time to time. It's unfortunate but it does happen.

[#8]

Hello, in followup to Chris' post, I can confirm that we have contacted AOL regarding this issue today.  We have expressed that pih-cgirelay03.net is one of our SMTP mail servers, not that of an individual user.  Their Engineers will look into this for us and hopefully we will have this sorted for you in the next couple of days.

[#9]

Sadly two members of my family are misguided enough to use AOL as their ISP, and they have occasionally had similar problems when mailing me. I have advised anyone who uses AOL to use my alternative Gmail addy.
I don't think you'll ever solve this problem as long as AOL continues with it's totally irrational blocking...

[#10]

Quote from: neilm

We have expressed that pih-cgirelay03.net is one of our SMTP mail servers, not that of an individual user.

What? You mean that there are ISP's who block an IP just because it sends them email without questioning the 'quality'....?!!
Is this an instance where publishing SPF records would help get the mail through? AOL were one of the big ISP's who started using SPF. Certainly forged Hotmail and AOL addresses seem to have dissappeared. Perhaps PN are big enough for email addresses using the domain plus.com to be 'on the radar' and to stick out without SPF?

[#11]

Quote from: MrToast

What? You mean that there are ISP's who block an IP just because it sends them email without questioning the 'quality'....?!! Is this an instance where publishing SPF records would help get the mail through? AOL were one of the big ISP's who started using SPF. Certainly forged Hotmail and AOL addresses seem to have dissappeared. Perhaps PN are big enough for email addresses using the domain plus.com to be 'on the radar' and to stick out without SPF?

Just to clarify at this time it seems this issue is only affecting one of our Webmail relay servers so the problem shouldn't be happening if you're sending via a mail client using relay.plus.net.
Using SPF may or may not have stopped the server from getting blacklisted in the first place. You have to consider the implications of doing this though. If we published SPF records then you'd have problems sending to some addresses if you were to use a non-Plusnet relay server (which you might want to do if you're 'out and about').
We actually have SPF validation on our Madasafish mail servers. One really common problem we encounter is where Tiscali customers send email to a domain that forwards messages to a customer's MAAF account. Our servers see that the email is from a Tiscali address (who publish SPF records) but is being delivered via a (non-Tiscali) mail host. This fails the SPF checks and the mail gets bounced.
At the moment SPF would seem to create more problems than it solves.