Emails to aol addresses undeliverable

[mhendo]

I’ve just sent emails to two different people, both with aol.com email addresses, and both have been returned undeliverable.

The error message was as follows:

Recipient address: some_person@aol.com
Reason: Rejection greeting returned by server.
Diagnostic code: smtp;554 (RLY:B2) http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554rlyb2.html
Remote system: dns;mailin-02.mx.aol.com (TCP|128.220.2.66|51010|64.12.137.121|25) ([RLY:B2] http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554rlyb2.html)

When i go to the errors page linked above, it tells me:

This error message indicates that a block has been placed against your IP address because we have received numerous complaints concerning mail coming from that IP address.

Please have your ISP or server administrator contact AOL for assistance. The mail administrator should request a feedback loop that will alert them to reported spam from their network. You can access the Feedback Loop request form here.

My own situation is as follows:

ISP: Verizon DSL
Email: my university email account
Email client: Outlook

I send emails from Outlook, and the settings (STMP and POP) are both the university email system settings.

So, my questions are:

1. Is the IP address being blocked my own, personal Verizon IP, or the IP of the university’s email server
2. Who is the best person to contact to fix the situation, Verizon, or my school?

[CookingWithGas]

I would guess that someone you know has a virus, or some spammer is spoofing your email address. In both cases, it could cause large volumes of spam or virus-infected mail to go to addresses including AOL addresses. They detect this and screen you out. Not sure how the IP blocking would work, so I don’t know if it’s your IP (do you have a fixed IP?), or the school’s mail server IP. I don’t know what IP would be picked up by a spoofer, maybe your school’s since that’s your email domain.

I would take the message’s advice and contact postmaster@<yourschool>.edu or other system administrator there for help.

[lexi]

I work for a company which as part of the entertainment services it provides sends reminders to people who have subscribed to that service. The email is not spam becaue the users can change settings on their profile with ease and they can choose not to get these reminders, but many people stick stuff into spam because they are too lazy to unsubscribe - therefore AOL has deemed that email from the companies servers is spam.

I think it entirely possible AOL is getting a tad over-zeleous at fighting spam and from that page seems to be blocking IP addresses although no real spam comes from that address. It seems email sent from my ISP’s webmail is also considered spam to AOL as well, but via the web mail, spam is far less likely a concern.

Say for instance another student or user at the same IP address at the university sends all his friends annoying emails with kittens and crap saying to pass it on or one of the kittens will die, his “friends” who got the email at aol could catagorize that email as spam, and therefore nobody at aol can receive an email from your university or ISP.

Even if one person at your IP had a virus that had spammed some AOL users, you could be blacklisted, and there doesn’t seem to be a way for an individual to get on a white list via the web, although there is information for bulk mailers on getting on the white list.

Your IP according to AOL could be either the university’s or your SMTP server (Verision) - so perhaps you should contact both, and get them to try to get the IP addresses back on the white list.