I've read some related issues about this on the forums, but I haven't found any helpful solutions.
I am a FiOS customer, but I already have email service set up with other providers, and have no interest in changing my e-mail address(s). In general this works fine.
Recently however I have found that some receipients, who use spamhaus, are blocking my messages - apparantly because Verizon said that the only way their clients are allowed to send e-mail is through their servers. The bounce looked something like this (personally identifying information, etc. edited):
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. The following addresses failed: <<edited>> SMTP error from remote server after transfer of mail text: host barracuda.acrocorp.com[edited]: 554 Service unavailable; Client host [mout.perfora.net] blocked by zen.spamhaus.org; http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=71.164.000.000 (edited)
--- The header of the original message is following. --- Received: from xxxxxx (pool-71-164-xxx-xxx.sttlwa.fios.verizon.net [edited]) by mrelay.perfora.net (node=mrus1) with ESMTP (Nemesis) id 0MCKl7-1NM9wO0jcv-0097h4; Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:40:26 -0500 Return-Path: xxxxxxx
From: xxxx Sender: xxxxxx To: xxxxxx Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:40:24 -0800 Message-ID: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAJ9z9bwRctQRnWQA4Jh+J3DCgAAAEAAAANjFkzKkqiFOp/ifAFmbJh0BAAAAAA==@brathouse.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0C0C_01CA6D0B.AE1E9C70" X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 12.0 Content-Language: en-us Thread-Index: AcppU1OkA2KRPgLKRqWWeNYMDLOrpwD+U21Q X-Provags-ID: V01U2FsdGVkX1/SPBJQinHX94j0qtDaHOJUZB38JI5NNAAl4Ic ktk2YLeUKebUC6fKBM+YvSW1b2YSERJwkbKiD+2F1Nc5UyRs6v WMF/kvX2k5L3lbGwKP4miYzEaDQ9gYz
When reading the information at Spamhaus, I said OK, sounds like I need to use a verizon.net server. So I set my outgoing server to outgoing.verizon.net, with appropriate credentials (I do have a verizon.net e-mail address, I just don't use it). This seemed to work, but today when sending to the same recipient, I got the following bounce:
This report relates to a message you sent with the following header fields: Message-id: <!&!AAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAAAAAJ9z9bwRctQRnWQA4Jh+J3DCgAAAEAAAABuM/LEPLN1Jl8uSBrWv2HwBAAAAAA==@spro.net> Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:14:49 -0800 From: xxxxx
To: xxxxxx Subject: xxxxx Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients: Recipient address: xxxxxx@acrocorp.com Reason: SMTP transmission failure has occurred Diagnostic code: smtp;554 Service unavailable; Client host [vms173017pub.verizon.net] blocked by zen.spamhaus.org; http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=71.164.0.0 Remote system: dns;barracuda.acrocorp.com (TCP|206.46.173.17|42774|12.111.233.9|25) (barracuda.acrocorp.com ESMTP [26a1cc209bbca0bd7cbebfeeb226aade])
Now first of all, I find it unacceptable that I need to use Verizon's outgoing mail servers rather than the provider of my choice. This means that if I have someone over who wants to connect their laptop to our network to send e-mail, they have to reconfigure their e-mail, and I have to give them my credentials, or else create an account for them on verizon.net. That's just bizzare!
But now it seems that Verizon is also not even keeping its own data straight with spamhaus!
Can anyone shed any light on this? Is there anything I can do to resolve these problems?
Thank you all!
You don't need to change your INCOMING email address however you do need to change your outgoing email server address to be the Verizon server. If you don't do this your email may be refused and treated as spam because it will appear that you are using "relaying" to send mail from fake accounts.
You now appear to have hit the other problem that sometimes occurs. It seems that at some point in the past the dhcp address you recived from verizon was blacklisted for something and spamhaus is now rejecting the email. The simple answer to this is to reboot your verizon router to get a new address. You could then report the blacklisted address to Verizon who might fight the adress issue with spamhaus or you could di it yourself. Think I had this occur 3 times in the 5 years I had Verizon dsl on a pppoe connection which delivers dhcp address changes many more times than FiOS does.
I may not have been clear: Spamhaus isn't treating my IP as a blacklisted IP - it is reporting it as a violation of the Policy Block List, stating that I must use Verizon's servers - even though, as you can see in the second example, I WAS using a Verizon server. Spamhaus explicitly states that there is no option to contest this (check it for yourself - the masked address in my OP gets the same message).
Furthermore, however, I would like to protest this policy: it is unacceptable, and in my oppinion a violation of Network Neutrality, to require me to change my email configuration in order to send e-mail via my FiOS connection.
If I was a simple user, with a single desktop PC at home, this wouldn't be a problem. But I'm not. Consider the following:
I would also like to mention that I haven't been able to figure out a way to submit this complaint directly to Verizon - the Contact Us page doesn't seem to work with IE, and with FireFox it just sent me around in circles.
I just thought of something: should the receiving server, which is rejecting the e-mail, be checking the IP of the originating client, or only the IP of the originating mail server? Because if so, then it is simply my recipient who has a problem, not Verizon.
Can anyone confirm or refute this?
@Nesher wrote:I just thought of something: should the receiving server, which is rejecting the e-mail, be checking the IP of the originating client, or only the IP of the originating mail server? Because if so, then it is simply my recipient who has a problem, not Verizon.
Can anyone confirm or refute this?
I'm sorry, I guess I didn't make myself clear before. What you are saying is what I was trying to tell you was the problem. Spmahaus is rejecting your email at the recipient end because the receiving server is using spamhaus to enforce a no relaying policy which may indicate spamming. Relaying is defined as email that is originating at an ip address that is not part of the network associated with the smtp server from which the mail is ostensibly originating.. As such some of your mail will reach your recipients and some won't. It's nothing that VZ requested or can do anything about.
Personally I get around the issue by using web mail, which I hate, at remote sites or requesting the smtp account details for the remote site and setting up a 2nd VZ mail box using those smtp credentials.
As a side note I was also interested in your earlier comment
"I would also like to mention that I haven't been able to figure out a way to submit this complaint directly to Verizon - the Contact Us page doesn't seem to work with IE,"
If you find why this doesn't work I would like the answer as I ran accross the same issue when attempting to use IE to get signed up for Verizon Call Assistant (VCA) - to circumvent it I used Google Chrome. The issue is machine dependent as IE will work from other machines. I have the same problem with IE from this machine on Ebay where I cannot page thru search results or leave feedback. I think it is being caused by some addon or possibly some kind of Java error.
I am having the exact same issue. One of my email recipients (small manufacturing company I consult for) is blocking my emails because my IP address is listed on the SpamHaus PBL.
SpamHause indicates that all IP addresses are on this list and that it is not a problem. Here is an excerpt taken from the SpamHaus FAQ section:
Help! My IP address is on the PBL! What should I do?
Nothing, in most cases. Read through this FAQ for further explanations.
The first thing to know is: THE PBL IS NOT A BLACKLIST. You are not listed for spamming or for anything you have done. The PBL is simply a list of all of the world's dynamic IP space It is perfectly normal for dynamic IP addresses to be listed on the PBL. In fact all dynamic IP addresses in the world should be on the PBL.
The email recipient does not block my verizon.net email but does block my email address in my Consulting website email provided by Network Solutions. I'd appreciate any comment on this subject. Thanks.
Are using using NSI webmail when the responses get blocked?
The receiving server (barracuda) is configured incorrectly. They are using spamhaus data to scan the full message headers, and this is inappropriate. The only Spamhaus data which can be used to scan full email headers is the SBL (which includes the CSS data). The XBL and PBL should only be used to check the last external IP of the email headers, in otherwords the actual sending server.
Contact the administrator of the server and tell them they have their DNSBL (or RBL) misconfigured, and this is likely causing them a lot of trouble with false positives.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
