Getting email to an AOL-blocked domain

September 28, 2004 11:45 AM

i gave my mother an email on my domain, and, being a woman of a certain age, most of her friends use AOL. unfortunately, AOL is blocking all emails from my domain. i think my doman name was hijacked for spam in the past. how do i get AOL to stop blocking my domain?
posted by callicles to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

What's the error message you get on your bounceback emails? AOL's spam filter seems to be automated based on the number of complaints received, but there are times when a domain that's being filtered will be allowed back in after a few days.
posted by MegoSteve at 11:51 AM on September 28, 2004

I've been through this with a few clients, and the short answer is, you can't do anything about it. YMMV, and at some point in the future it may just start working again. Just give her a gmail invite and forget the whole thing.
posted by ulotrichous at 11:59 AM on September 28, 2004

One very useful thing is to setup spf on your domain. AOL honors spf records, and that'll prevent spammers from joe-jobbing you.

Beyond that, the bounce messages should have a message explaining what's wrong, and I believe a URL to an AOL website that has some procedures to help you determine why your mail is getting dumped.
posted by mosch at 12:03 PM on September 28, 2004

postmaster.aol.com - for all your "my mail won't get through to AOL" needs.
posted by zsazsa at 12:13 PM on September 28, 2004

Yep. Note that it might also be your webhost, and your webhost usually has a department and a couple of people whose specific job is to resolve these complaints.
posted by SpecialK at 12:14 PM on September 28, 2004

Don't forget to look in the Spam folder....
posted by ParisParamus at 12:21 PM on September 28, 2004

Lack of reverse DNS records is, as I understand it, often a cause of this (I ran into a similar problem). You should talk to your hosting company about whether reverse DNS is set up for your domain name.
posted by malphigian at 12:26 PM on September 28, 2004

Response by poster: thanks all...
posted by callicles at 12:43 PM on September 28, 2004

Does hotmali junk it too? If it does than it's likely a reverse-DNS problem.
posted by Space Coyote at 12:43 PM on September 28, 2004

Slightly related topic: is there any way to get AOL to accept mail from a machine with a dynamic IP? I'm running postfix on my Powerbook, and AOL (along with a few other big ISPs) won't accept my mail.
posted by Eamon at 1:01 PM on September 28, 2004

is there any way to get AOL to accept mail from a machine with a dynamic IP?

Sure. Forward it through your ISP's mail server. PostFix should be able to be configured so that all outgoing mail goes to your ISP, or you can just configure your mail program to do that directly. You can still use your own domain in the From line with most ISPs.
posted by kindall at 1:26 PM on September 28, 2004

Thanks kindall, but this laptop is often on different networks. It looks like I'll either have to chose an SMTP server based on what network I'm on, or have to accept some ISPs rejecting my mail.
posted by Eamon at 1:47 PM on September 28, 2004

Personally, I'd get the message out to all her AOL friends that AOL is blocking the mail and that if they'd like to get your mail, they'll need to phone AOL and ask a customer service representative about it.

Even one call from an angry mother will be enough to get the CSR to fix it mighty fast.
posted by shepd at 2:09 PM on September 28, 2004

Eamon, to fix that problem I set up Postfix with SMTP auth on my own virtual server so I can use it to relay mail from anywhere I am. I also have it listen on ports other than 25, because a lot of dialup ISPs block it. If you don't want to DIY, a lot of more-enlightened providers will provide SMTP for you. (By the way, setting up Postfix with SMTP auth can be infuriating!)
posted by zsazsa at 5:58 PM on September 28, 2004