My fight against Microsoft Outlook hotmail etc email blocking

[exxos]

If you are being delisted from the banned list, and it works for a while, then I am wondering if MS are blocking a range of IP addresses from your ISP and it includes yours. Given your low volumes of email, it seems unlikely to be your messages are the problem.

It is possible they are doing that. I read it in one of the other forums that seemed to be what was happening.

Have you considered a service like AUTHSMTP? They are a relay service, you send to them using authorized credentials and you don't get blocked because they have a good reputation. $25 (About £20) for up to 50,000 emails a month.

I have not no. While my store does fund a lot of things the money to maintain such a service would have to come from somewhere. Which should ultimately mean users would have to make regular donations or we turn the forum into subscription only. I don't see either as a good thing. But it also goes back to the problem of dealing with another company which I don't want to do either.

One other oddity is you not getting emails from me on Exchange to your email server. That shouldn't matter for inbound, unless of course MS blocks you entirely if you are banned, so you can't receive either. However I never got a bounce message to say it wasn't received.

I am though.. I got both of your test emails yesterday. So incoming is not affected. Only outgoing. Whether I send from my PC for mails are sent from the server directly, Outlook will block them.

I was trying to ascertain if there was something in the headers which is missing on my server which outlook may be looking for. But it is difficult to tell because there is so much stuff in some of them to start with.

[rubber_jonnie]

It is possible they are doing that. I read it in one of the other forums that seemed to be what was happening.

It would be nice to find out. Next time you get blacklisted have a look and see if there is a reason in one of the blacklists. I think this is the most likely scenario.

I have not no. While my store does fund a lot of things the money to maintain such a service would have to come from somewhere. Which should ultimately mean users would have to make regular donations or we turn the forum into subscription only. I don't see either as a good thing. But it also goes back to the problem of dealing with another company which I don't want to do either.

I do understand, what I would say is that AUTHSMTP were excellent and I never had any issues in the long time I used them. I suggested them having used them, but there may be a free service out there.

I am though.. I got both of your test emails yesterday. So incoming is not affected. Only outgoing. Whether I send from my PC for mails are sent from the server directly, Outlook will block them.

Ahh, OK, you said you got the Hotmail one but didn't get back to me re the Exchange one. Then receiving is working as expected then. When you replied to the Hotmail message, the heads show your IP as a permitted sender and it arrived.

I was trying to ascertain if there was something in the headers which is missing on my server which outlook may be looking for. But it is difficult to tell because there is so much stuff in some of them to start with.

Indeed

[xyzzy76]

https://www.checktls.com/TestReceiver

This shows an error message regarding the TLS certificate.

Code: Select all

Certificate #1 of 1 (sent by MX):
Cert VALIDATION ERROR(S): unable to get local issuer certificate
This may help: What Is An Intermediate Certificate
So email is encrypted but the recipient domain is not verified

[exxos]

Odd. No idea why its trying to use a invalid address to start with. @derkom does your server do the same ?

Capture.PNG

[exxos]

I tried my ISP and got the same anyway.

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[derkom]

Odd. No idea why its trying to use a invalid address to start with. @derkom does your server do the same ?

You've probably got the MTA-STS checkbox checked in the "more options" section before running the test. That is not likely to be related to any problems you've got.

However, I'm curious why you're getting the results you're getting at all. They don't match the results I get for you (or for your provider):

Screenshot 2023-01-17 at 23.06.24.png

Screenshot 2023-01-17 at 23.06.49.png

Are we both using https://www.checktls.com/TestReceiver?

[exxos]

However, I'm curious why you're getting the results you're getting at all. They don't match the results I get for you (or for your provider):

oh.. I ticked a load of boxes to test more.. So if I just click run test without changing anything, I get what you posted above.

[derkom]

oh.. I ticked a load of boxes to test more..

Well don't do that! :stickwhack: :chairsmack:

Your server seems fine.

[exxos]

Well don't do that! :stickwhack: :chairsmack:

Your server seems fine.

:D

[exxos]

Right, so I have used my ISP's mail server idnet.com for the time being. The moderators have verified that email now gets through to Microsoft -related servers again.

I'm not suggesting people start using Microsoft email accounts again. I don't know how long I will be able to use idnet server. They don't specify really any "acceptable usage policies" other than that there is one but they do not tell you what it is. But for the very few emails which I will be passing through it I cannot see there being a problem. But just never really can tell. I could get banned tomorrow or never!

So I would suggest anyone who has not been able to login with hotmail / outlook / live etc because they have forgotten their password or whatever, that they should be able to reset their password and use a alternative email address such as yahoo mail.

I also remind people that even though you may have your own domain name, you could still be using a Microsoft email server and still suffer from the same problems. So again please take this opportunity and ditch Microsoft related domains / services.