SMTP error 452

[#1]

"Publicised fairly well" is different from actually emailing paying customers to tell them what is planned.

[#2]

Did the migration prep work being carried out on Friday also change how mail clients connect to the outgoing SMTP server?

My Mac mail was set up to "Automatically manage connection setttings" and I had to update that to include my plus username/password. Then it seemed to work But it may just have been luck that the timing of sending emails didn't fall foul of the 452 error

(Given I can't remember how I configured it many years ago it is possible I accidentally deleted those fields when trying to diagnose the problem on Friday/Saturday. But if it was a result of the migration then it's definitely not transparent...)

[#3]

@balvack2 

For those users who have not had detailed communication on migration, they ought not have seen any differences.  It would be fair to say that some of the preparation works has encountered unexpected outcomes.

The most recent plank of migration preparation happened last Monday, not Friday.  I saw intermittent 452 errors earlier than Friday last week, but the issue was not reproduceable.  I suspect that as the weekend approached, folks were busier on email and the issue became more pronounced.  I do wonder to what extent that now the issue is more widely known about, users are hammering the service to see iffy is fixed ... and thereby causing mayhem for users in general.

I would be a fair observation that the new service is more stringent than that which it replaces, so anyone (user, device  or email client application) not doing things to proper current standards might be encountering issues.  Older Apple devices not supporting current standards on several fronts is sadly commonplace.

In that vein I would recommend NOT using deprecated SMTP standards: the correct port for SMTP message submission is port 587 with STARTTLS.

[#4]

Today, for the first time, I got a notification that I had sent too many emails to the same recipient. It was two emails in 6 minutes. It would not let me send another.

I know stopping spam is important, but two emails in 6 minutes is not excessive, and is certainly a new limit that somebody has incautiously applied.

I am checking problems on a maths website for kids. When I find an error or an improvement I click on the link and send in a correction or improvement. I have been doing this for years now. Suddenly some bright spark is causing trouble by adding a ridiculously tight rule. Not happy.

[#5]

Nothing to do specifically with what you are doing - did you not get a 452 error code?

See https://community.plus.net/t5/Email/SMTP-error-452-too-many-recipients-in-the-last-hour/td-p/2017606...

[#6]

Thank you for all the examples provided. With these, we've raised the issue, and a resolution has been put in place within the last 30 minutes or so. 

If any 452 or 550 errors continue to occur after 4pm today, please post on this thread so we can advise further. 

[#7]

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@stuck wrote:

@Townman Did you also ask how long it will be before you get an equivocal answer to that question? 😀

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@stuck 

See above.

[#8]

"In that vein I would recommend NOT using deprecated SMTP standards: the correct port for SMTP message submission is port 587 with STARTTLS."

This means bog all to me....

If you are expecting users to do something then you need to give a lot more information. We are not all computer savy... and my use of coomputers dates back to 1965...

[#9]

Look in the 'Outgoing server settings' of your mail software of choice.

[#10]

@offscotland wrote:

This means bog all to me....

@offscotland - might that possibly be because it was not addressed to you ...

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@balvack2 wrote:

READ Sep 16 12:47:26.056 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_2] -- host:relay.plus.net -- port:465 -- socket:0x600003ffc360 -- thread:0x6000009101c0
452 <name@address-redacted> recipient rejected - too many recipient in last hour

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Back reading the topic, @balvack2 indicated that they are using port 465 for SMTP message submission; port 456 is deprecated and thus not compliant with currect standards, which was the subject of the post addressed to @balvack2.

The post sought to advise that current standards should be adopted to avoid the risk of encountering difficulties in interworking with services applying strict compliance to current standards, as has been seen with out-of-date MAC platforms.  As someone with donkey's years of computer experience, I am certain that the essentiality of maintaining and complying with current standards will be very familiar to you.

No one is expecting anyone to do anything they are not likely to know / understand.  Most compliant systems will not use 465 anyway and those that do will most likely have been configured manually so those impacted will know already what needs to be done.

[#11]

@plusnettony @Townman 

"If any 452 or 550 errors continue to occur after 4pm today, please post on this thread so we can advise further."

Which 550 error(s) are you referring to? Have you fixed the issue of sending to Microsoft-owned domains too?

[#12]

This was a general intermittent issue that some customers experienced when sending email. 

[#13]

Worse here now - I can no longer authenticate to send email. 

Settings:

relay.force9.net:587  STARTTLS, auth with normal password (using my force9 username and main account pw).

"Sending of the message failed.
Unable to authenticate to Outgoing server (SMTP) . Please check the password and verify the 'Authentication method' in 'Account Settings | Outgoing server (SMTP)'."

If I try to manually connect to relay.force9.net with openssl:

 openssl s_client -connect relay.force9.net:587 -starttls smtp

The server responds with a certificate with CN=relay.plus.net - which doesn't match the expected relay.force9.net - not sure if this is a problem?

[#14]

@d-dixon 

Certificate issue is related to server being specified as smtp.force9.net rather than relay.force9.net

[#15]

@Townman thanks - but no, I'm still using relay.force9.net