Re: [OT] Hotmail calls mail from my server spam; how do I contact them?
On Fri, 13 May 2005 21:10:54 -0600
"Monique Y. Mudama" <spam@bounceswoosh.org> wrote:
> On 2005-05-14, Jacob S penned:
> > On Fri, 13 May 2005 19:58:07 -0600 "Monique Y. Mudama"
> > <spam@bounceswoosh.org> wrote:
> >
> Thanks! I sort of had a small clue about DNS stuff long ago, but
> after I decided to let a friend's network company handle this stuff
> for me, my brain turned to mush on the matter. That makes sense. The
> email from my ISP seemed to indicate that the problem was that the A
> record's PTR didn't match the MX record, or vice versa, which didn't
> sound like it should be a problem to me.
You're correct - different A and MX records should not be a problem.
> > According to openrbl.org, the only dnsbl you're on is blackholes.us
> > - they maintain lists of IP blocks belonging to ISPs and Yipes
> > (which is the ISP that 66.17.169.80 appears to belong to). Chances
> > are pretty slim of making it off that blacklist, but I wouldn't have
> > thought that Hotmail would be checking it, either.
>
> Doh! That's new. I'll mention it to my ISP, which is actually
> mesanetworks.net, which for all I know may be leasing a block from
> Yipes. AFAIK, hotmail is the only mail service that considers my
> mail spam. Well, I have a faint memory of yahoo maybe having some
> issues, but I'm not sure.
>
> Er, just to be clear, what do you mean by "belonging to ISPs and
> Yipes"? Is Yipes not an ISP?
Sorry, I need to get my brain in gear better. I meant to type "belonging
to ISPs and Yipes is in it."
> And now I'm really confused ... http://blackholes.us/ says:
>
> "Blackholes.us does not list spammers, spam supporters or vulnerable
> hosts at the present time. These lists are meant to contain all known
> networks assigned or allocated to the respective provider or
> organizations within the respective country. Lists are created for
> research purposes, primarily, and are made public for any use others
> see fit."
>
> Soo ... these are just lists of IP addresses for certain ISPs and/or
> locations, and if a company decides that ISP isn't worth dealing with,
> they can block based on that? Interesting. I'm not sure how to find
> out if it truly is a Yipes address or if maybe the info is outdated
> ... but I've had this IP address for over a year, so I'm guessing the
> info is right *sigh*.
I originally thought it was a listing of IPs that those ISPs assign to
"ordinary customers", so that mail servers can use them as a list of IPs
to block and avoid getting virus/spam from infected Windoze machines.
However, I now notice even the MXs for yipes.com are listed by
blackholes.us. I think we can safely deduce that this is *not* your
Hotmail problem.
> > My only other thought would be having the hotmail users add your
> > e-mail address to their address book, if they haven't already. AOL
> > users are told to do this for e-mail they do not want marked as
> > spam; maybe Hotmail is intelligent enough to watch for this too?
>
> This works, but only if I know to warn the person in the first place,
> and assuming that I always use the same username. I'd rather just not
> have my mail considered spam in the first place, as it isn't!
True. This is one of my biggest complaints with over-zealous "spam
protection".
So, it looks like we've come back to SPF records. Hopefully they'll do
the trick for you.
> Thank you for all the ideas and info!
Any time.
Jacob
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