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Other tests concured, that email from sites such as SlashDot, WebmasterWorld, and most vbulletin based forums, were not making it through the filters either.
<added>clarified the email statement there</added>
[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 9:04 pm (utc) on Feb. 13, 2004]
- you need reverse DNS with AOL. If they can't resolve it they'll dump it.
- if you're on a blacklist they'll dump you.
- they will block IP ranges. A client of mine got blocked - they were using their ISP's SMTP server (Earthlink). They were in the same IP block that received complaints... I couldn't get AOL to lift the ban, neither could Earthlink. Earthlink ended up giving my client a different and static IP.
- AOL is very picky about the headers. If you're sending via a CGI script look closely at the headers you sending.
- Apparantly they will block senders that send multiple emails withing a certain timeframe to AOL addresses.
- AOL seems to filter the messages based on content. I say this based on a couple headers they add to incoming messages:
X-AOL-IP: 00.00.00.00
X-AOL-SCOLL-SCORE: 0:XXX:XX
X-AOL-SCOLL-URL_COUNT: 0
Found some great info here [members.aol.com]
I don't know much about email filtering.
No - not at all. It is filtered based on duplicate content.
Check your reverse IP address. They're picky about that.
So you think that this is the main reason AOL blocked the mails?
Yes, absolutely. AOL will not allow any mail without a reverse DNS.
Our company was sending order confirmations to customers from a server without a reverse lookup and all of them were flagged as spam - without fail. Once we corrected the issue customers began receiving their confirmations again.
The other reason, which he hasn't been able to verify, is that AOL was blocking all mails, not based on the site/domain/ip, but because of the mail headers that listmessager creates. He believes it was possible that AOL "might" be blocking the newsletter software, but this is a big "might" which I doubt is true anyway.
Over the past year we've started directing subscribers to our online archive of newsletters. Instead of sending an entire newsletter we send them a very simple short reminder email with a list of topics and a link. This seems to slip by the email filters and AOL, much more easily than the entire newsletter.
Over the past 2 weeks we've started promoting our RSS newsletter feed as an alternative the email newsletter. Subsribers download an RSS reader and run it from their desktop. As soon as we publish, the subsciber is alerted to our RSS feed and can read it at their leisure.
They will send you a two page form to fill in stating certain things (such as which address you're sending from, which mailserver(s), that you're not sending spam and that you have a clean list with no dead (bouncing) AOL email addresses in it) and confirming that you have RDNS set up and various other techy things.
You'll have to fax the form back to them, wait for their US techies to update their backend, and then you're on their whitelist (if everything checks out). This took around 2 weeks. It does help if you have a contact at AOL (or some kind of relationship with them, such as an account, or a spot in shopping) but you don't have to, it just takes a while longer for anything to happen.
You can read the posted version of AOL's white list at this site:
In scanning this discussion, a couple of comments:
* Unfortunately, filtering has become problematic with a number of the major internet access providers.
(The recent issue between msn and sitesell is another symptom of the problem.)
* The suggestion of sending out a simple notice, while posting the e-zine and providing an RSS feed makes a lot of sense.
* Given the problems, using a third party service (that is up on these sorts of issues)to deliver e-mail to your list has merit.
* There is going to be growing pressure to sign up with some sort of bonded sender program to ensure delivery to the big American internet access providers like msn, hotmail, aol, earthlink and the like.
Kind regards,
John Glube
Toronto, Canada
And since most (not all, but most) AOLers skew towards the less-compu-savvy, providing a non-clickable URL to AOLers -- assuming the mail even gets through -- is pretty damn useless. Sure, they could cut and paste, but not all know how, and those that know how may not feel like going through the effort.
So this means that we list-masters and our non-AOL members must be supremely annoyed by having "AOL'ers click here" links strewn throughout our newsletters.
It's a lose-lose proposition. And I never did understand why AOL so stubbornly refused to get into the 21st century with their mail reader.
Other tests concured, that email from sites such as SlashDot, WebmasterWorld, and most vbulletin based forums, were not making it through the filters either.
Are you sure that what they are blocking is not just the newsletter messages that do not show the recipient address in a visible header (To: or Cc:)?
I had that problem in the past because my site used to send newsletters and alert messages specifying all recipients in Bcc: . Then a Hotmail user warned me that the site newsletter were being dropped in the Junk Mail folder.
From then on I had to switch to a delivery method that would send separate messages to each recipient and the addresses were specified in the To: header for each recipient. The messages were personalized but the difference was only in the To:, Date: and Message-ID: headers.
From those newsletters you mentioned, the ones that I receive do not do what I did. The To: header is even missing. That could well be the reason for the newsletters to be dropped because many spammers still use non-personalized mail deliveries.
Tricky though, when it wasn't a newsletter but a solicited response. I don't want a forum on my site but I'm thinking it might be easier than trying to send emails if the spam blocking situation gets worse.
On the AOL topic, I had problems about a year ago when one of the "nodes" in the middle of the pacific started blocking emails into AOL. Ok if I sent it via USA based webmail systems but otherwise a no-go. I fought for months to be recognised and in the end it was only when someone bigger than me complained that anything happened.
It is very frustrating having your customers mad at you all the time for not sending notifications.
I may be able to help find those missing emails. I'm pretty sure that anybody who has AOL 9.0 is having this problem. I downloaded 9.0 a while ago and I did notice that I was receiving less and less emails - I thought that was weird, but figured it was nothing. About 3 weeks ago I was playing around with my email settings and I found something ... My missing emails!
When you open up your Mail Box right there you see your regular emails THAN under those emails is a link called "Spam Folder" click on that and you will be able to see the rest of your mail. Yesterday I signed up for a service and their email confirmation was sent to my spam folder so it is very important that you alway check that folder everyday.
I hope this helps!
Vicky
1. AOL broadband is in fact BT broadband. As the modem I got from AOL is a BT modem and one can only have AOL broadband if one is on a BT line (as far as I know).
2. There is no spam folder and I am one of the Beta testers for AOL9 here in the UK but gave it up due to my own business but also because it messed up my PC so much that I could not afford to lose my data and work.
3. The blinking "Report Spam" button is nearly right below to the Delete button when the email has been read one can click on delete and the Report Spam button is below. I know I have hit the delete button and then accidentally touched the Report Spam button.
4. If I class an email as spam there is no way for me to change or undo the damage. I closed an email from my mom, then deleted some spam using the "Report Spam" button and I was too quick and reported my mom as spam. I sent an email to the regular "old" spam report email address telling them not to class her as spam.
5. I use AOL mainly for friends and mailing lists. Most of the stuff comes through. However I signed up for a few free trackers and the confirmation emails never came through. I am sure it makes no difference if a newsletter is HTML or Text. I get both. So whatever filter they are using its more sophisticated than just lumping all the HTML's together and blocking them all.
6. Since I started using the "Report Spam" button I am spmmed even more. I think its because the people reading the spam emils visit the site and each email is tracked so they think its me looking at it and they then send out more.
7. AOL has to be stricter to their own AOL users. Its much too easy to set up an account and to search for the email addresses. I dont go into any AOL chatroom or any other forums on AOL, and my first email to my brand new AOL email address was a spam email within two minutes. So someone out there is somehow harvesting the email addresses from AOL.
Once my special deal with AOL runs out (got broadband on a special as I have been with them since they opened shop in the UK) and they will not let me keep it at that price I will be looking at alternatives, one reason being that I have to use a seperate ISP to send out my business emails from Outlook.
Dani
One trick to sending out your newsletter to AOL recipients is to keep html out. so instead of putting a link to example.com in the email newsletter, just put the text. Or even better write it out. Text will flow pretty much 99% of the time from my experience.
I don't think that I've ever seen any HTML email come out of WebmasterWorld. In my experience, it's all plain text. So how does the above jibe with the problems Brett is reporting?
And what would the error message be?
Thanks,
A.L.
would it be bounced back to us with a "non-delivery" error message?
Typically, it would be blackholed to /dev/null - no bounce, too much overhead.
I'm in the UK and with BT Business broadband, and yes my mail to AOL (newsletters + general mail) was blocked recently.
I've solved the problem by purchasing a domain and webspace in the states and i now route all my mail out through this server - it works for me now :)
>would it be bounced back to us with a "non-delivery" >error message?
Typically, it would be blackholed to /dev/null - no bounce, too much overhead.
As someone else said, here in the UK we are inundated with AOL discs in post, mags etc. Just waiting for the day when they are given out with the Big Issue.
Very irritating, because as a company you can plan a snail mail campaign and you don't find half way through it that the post office out of the blue decide not to deliver half of it, without returning it and also won't tell you the rules for next time.
And are discs biodegradable - I really hope so.
</rant>
We never send out spam, run a totally legit business.
Whan an AOL customer contacts us regarding information,
we respond with a detailed email message. It get
very frustrating when the response to the customer
request is blocked.
When we try to contact the postmaster with regard to
the problem, this mail bounces also, which is contrary to RFC standards on mail.
Im about ready to put a disclaimer on my website, stating due to AOL inability to distinguish spam from legimate traffic, we cannot guarantee that you will get a response.
I fortunately had debug and summary logging turned on for our mail server. When one of our mails went to an aol account, their server responded with an error along with a phone number to call. I had to stay on hold for almost an hour just to get through a tech support guy.
Once he verfied that we were passing a rDNS, he put in a trouble ticket that would remove us from the blacklist.
The kicker with that is they will tell you it might take up to x amount of hours, and that it isn't guaranteed.
IMHO, it is well worth the wait.
Mac
Anyway, no SMTP server for BT Broadband users therefore means they have to fend for themselves if they wish to continue to send e-mails whilst using their broadband service. Most, like me I guess, have their own SMTP server.
Most customers are unlikley to be able to make use of their regular ISP's SMTP server - which has a static IP address - because these ISPs usually restrict to dial up access to their own number in order to access the SMTP server.
BT Broadband provides dynamic IP addresses to all its users, and not static addresses. And BT Broadband IP address ranges are classed as dynamic. Therefore, a customers personal SMTP server is also within the dynamic IP range.
I hope this is making sense, and doesn't sound stupid. You know how logical thoughts just drift...
And as far as I know AOL block _ALL_ traffic from dynamic IP ranges.
So to send e-mails into AOL, you *have* to use a SMTP server on a static IP address (ie your typical ISP server) - so you can't send to AOL if you use BT Broadband. And this SMTP server/address can't have been blacklisted for any other reason.
I don't guarantee the above to be true in full or in part, its just how I understood things to be from when I went through this whole debate a year or more back now.
