Sending to AOL, HotMail, Yahoo and other free services

[mike2]

Did you try the test above from DW?

I just tried his test and I get nothing at all, no email, nothing.

Also, can you please check this out as I am getting the same kind of error I describe above when clicking on a "confirm link", which is serious.

Here's the thread I started in the general forum:
http://listmailpro.com/forum/index.php?topic=1005.0

[DW]

Mike,

It's really hard to say what's going on without access to your server...  I wonder if you are still experiencing the error you reported before with HTML special characters.  If you would be willing to give me access I could test this further.

Regards

[mike2]

Ok I went ahead and submitted my server info for you to check out.  Please let me know what you find asap, thanks.  Go ahead and check out this problem as well, thanks.

[alan]

I get lots of these from AOL:

    **********************************************
    **      THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY      **
    **  YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE  **
    **********************************************

The original message was received at Sun, 11 Dec 2005 03:55:35 -0500
from localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]

   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to mailin-04.mx.aol.com.:
>>> DATA
<<< 421-:  (DYN:T1)  http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/421dynt1.html
<<< 421 SERVICE NOT AVAILABLE
... while talking to mailin-02.mx.aol.com.:
>>> DATA
<<< 421-:  (DYN:T1)  http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/421dynt1.html
<<< 421 SERVICE NOT AVAILABLE
... while talking to mailin-01.mx.aol.com.:
>>> DATA
<<< 421-:  (DYN:T1)  http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/421dynt1.html
<<< 421 SERVICE NOT AVAILABLE
... while talking to mailin-03.mx.aol.com.:
>>> DATA
<<< 421-:  (DYN:T1)  http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/421dynt1.html
<<< 421 SERVICE NOT AVAILABLE
<"snipped"@aol.com>... Deferred: 421-:  (DYN:T1)  http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/421dynt1.html
Warning: message still undelivered after 4 hours
Will keep trying until message is 5 days old

The people at AOL have confirmed this to be because of improper headings:

X-ClientAddr: 127.0.0.1
Return-Path: <apache@secure.blueplatehost.com>

It's the user apache in the address above that gets the confirmation email blocked. Return-Path for mailings are set to bounce@xxx.com so there's no roblem there.

How can I correct this for confirm & welcome emails?

[DW]

You may have success with the extra 5th paramater to PHP mail() which can correctly set the Return-Path on problematic servers.

In config.php set the line:

$phpmailf = 1;

I will be implementing an option / detection for this soon.

Regards
DW

[mike2]

Dean,

Any luck finding out anything on my server?

This is kind of critical, I mail everyday and people are going to start getting mad if they can't unsubscribe.   Please let me know something asap!

[alan]

Thanks Dean, that did the trick.

I had already been aware of that 5th parameter and use it in my other PHP scripts. I was going to recommend this but did not know how you were implementing a correct return path on the Mailings but not on the Confirm and Welcome emails.

It's good to know you were ahead of the game with that config parameter.

FYI, I also had to modify /etc/mail/trusted-users and add 'apache' as a trusted user to prevent Sendmail from adding the 'X-Warning' header to the emails.

[DW]

Alan,

I'm happy to hear that worked for you!

Mike,

I think I'm going to need more access to troubleshoot the issue.

Regards, DW

[mike2]

Yes I saw the ticket and just updated it with some additional stuff, check it out and let me know, thanks.

At first glance I wonder if its my version of mysql, as its 3.23.58

I'm thinking some of the upgrade commands didn't work (not supported), but it's just a guess.

[DW]

The upgrade was tested with this MySQL version and a number of people have upgraded to or installed the database set up in the update.  The MySQL error you are experiencing is definitely not normal...

Let's keep talk in this thread to the AOL notify script.  To test this I will require access to modify the notify script forwarded to by your email alias.

Regards

[DW]

Some unexpected line breaks seem to have appeared in my posting of the AOL code above.  I think I have fixed it now...

[DW]

Working on a client server today I'm again looking into being blocked by HotMail.  It looks like they've updated their postmaster page.  The most relevant information for getting unblocked seems to be at this url in the "Sender services, tools, and issue submission" section.

Hope this helps someone.

[DW]

AOL seems to encode certain characters when it returns the complaint-generating message. I finally fixed the script.  It now replaces =3D with = and escapes ampersands to accomodate shell commands calling the new-style remove links with more than just the "u" var value.

Let me know if you have any troubles with it.

Regards

[BGSWebDesign]

Hi all,

I just heard about this and it looks important, the Sender Policy Framework will help email get through to major ISP's such AOL, Yahoo, etc, here's info, you'll need to use the wizard there to setup a SPF (click on What to do, Publish a Record - Wizard):
http://www.openspf.org/

Do it now, you'll be happy you did  :wink:

Here's 2 useful articles on it:
http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3388371
and
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3389391
(also includes info on increasing AOL delivery rates).

[BGSWebDesign]

Hello,

I finally got my server setup and setup the Feedback loop, now a question.

I just submitted for white list status at AOL, they are now suggesting an 'ARF' format to be used for receiving their complaints.  I'm not certain, but it mentions something about the email address (at AOL) that is complaining NOT appearing in the reports, so I wonder..

DW - do you know if your aolnotify.pl script will work with this ARF format?

You can read more about ARF format here:
http://postmaster.info.aol.com/fbl/arfinfo.html

Here's exactly what the reply webpage showed after I submitted the whitelist request:

Once approved you will start receiving feed back reports to the e-mail address you submitted. Also note these emails will originate from Scomp@aol.net. The AOL member's email address will not be included in the reports.

Does anyone know if this works with the AOL notify script for LMP?