No "new messages" emails being sent?

[BigT]

I’ve had this problem with a website back when I was using Yahoo Mail. What worked for me was adding the email address to my address book. I don’t see this working though if you aren’t using web based email.

[dropzone]

@StarvingButStrong

Okay, the ‘villain’ in this piece turned out to be Earthlink. For some unknown reason they put the straight dop address on their ‘confirmed spammer’ black list. Meaning that every message from them got automatically deleted.

Dammit! I thought the answer was, “Nobody cares what you say,” but I have to keep it as my own.

[Tamex]

OK, I get notifications on my gmail account, so the problem is likely Comcast after all. Not sure what those checkboxes are for, since they don’t seem to make a darn bit of difference.

Afraid to try switching back. What if I don’t get the message allowing me to switch?

[TubaDiva]

@Tamex

I just checked the spam folder on Comcast’s webmail and there is nothing in it. I usually check email offline as well using Mail on the Mac. I changed the “automatically delete spam” setting at Comcast to 30 days (used to be 3). However, I should have gotten a message from this thread yesterday and I didn’t.

I have a gmail account, so I’ll give that a try.

I just sent you a test email through the notification system. Please let me know if you got it.

I’m sorry you’re having problems.

[TubaDiva]

@Tamex

OK, I get notifications on my gmail account, so the problem is likely Comcast after all. Not sure what those checkboxes are for, since they don’t seem to make a darn bit of difference.

Afraid to try switching back. What if I don’t get the message allowing me to switch?

I don’t know how Comcast runs things – I’m sorry they’re giving you a hard time.

[WolfpackJeep]

I’ll try adding SD email address to my address book; if that doesn’t help, I’ll switch to another email address. I don’t know how responsive Time Warner would be over something like this.

[amarone]

@Tamex

I am still not getting emails. There are none in my spam mailbox on Comcast’s website.

Ditto.

[TubaDiva]

@amarone

Ditto.

I’ve sent you a test email through the webmaster mail address. Please let me know if you received it.

[TubaDiva]

@WolfpackJeep

I’ll try adding SD email address to my address book; if that doesn’t help, I’ll switch to another email address. I don’t know how responsive Time Warner would be over something like this.

I sent the test email to your email address as well. Please let me know if you received it. It’s from “webmaster@straightdope.com.”

[amarone]

@TubaDiva

I’ve sent you a test email through the webmaster mail address. Please let me know if you received it.

Nothing yet. I just turned off Spam filtering (which will not help if Comcast is blocking the The Straight Dope). My wife’s company has had a lot of problems with Comcast deciding that they are rogue and blocking emails from them. A bit of Googling shows that other companies have had the same issue.

[TubaDiva]

I do suspect we have made it onto Comcast’s bad boy list.

I would really appreciate help on this from the community – usually when an ISP blocks us they won’t talk to us at all, so it’s up to you folks to get us off the list.

Again, I am so sorry. We’re not doing anything nefarious, my hand to Jesus.

[WolfpackJeep]

@TubaDiva

I sent the test email to your email address as well. Please let me know if you received it. It’s from “webmaster@straightdope.com.”

No email yet…

[TubaDiva]

@WolfpackJeep

No email yet…

Then it’s official: Your ISP hates us.

If you haven’t gotten it by now you’re not going to and you need to find out why your ISP is blocking us from serving you.

[Tamex]

I was looking at Comcast’s technical support page, and I came across this[: (Note: I tried to link to it, but when I tested the link on preview, it did not take me to the right page.)

What can I do if somebody receives an error message when trying to send an email to my Comcast.net email address and how do they get unblocked?

If email is unable to be delivered to a Comcast.net email address, it is possible that the sender’s email provider is blocked as an anti-spam precaution for Comcast customers.

[ol]
[li]The error message the sender receives contains a URL. This URL links to an FAQ with valuable information regarding the issue and steps necessary to request removal.[/li][li]Email administrators can submit the blocked IP address to the Comcast Security Assurance department to determine if the IP address is eligible for removal by completing the [URL=“http://www.comcastsupport.com/rbl”]Blocked Provider Request Form](XFINITY | My Account | EcoBill® Online Bill Pay). Requests submitted through this form are reviewed on a 24/7 basis.[/li][/ol]

Looks like Comcast subscribers can fill out the form, too, but I think it would be more effective if the SDMB did so, since I don’t know the IP addresses, etc.

[TubaDiva]

Thanks, I filled out the form at Comcast.

For anyone else who would like to speak up, the IP number for this site is 209.104.5.198.

[TubaDiva]

Let me see if I can get an update on the situation here.

Tamex, I’m testing your new email address. Please let me know if you get the email test message from “webmaster@straightdope.com”

Jeep’s Phoenix, same thing, sent you another test.

amarone, a test to you as well. Comcast says they are not blocking the Straight Dope IP#.

I would recommend all of you who wish to receive notification emails and the like to add “webmaster@straightdope.com” to your list of accepted email senders. And check your spam filters/folders regularly.

I also should mention that at times of stress on the system – lots of people signed in, lots of activity, including searches and etc. – the vB system may drop tasks. It’s prioritized to put reading and writing posts and searching ahead of sending email. The system may also send email in batches, which may lead to delays. Then again when I sent the email test to myself I got it in under 10 seconds so what the heck.

All tests I just sent gave me this message from the system: “No errors were returned while attempting to send the email.”

[WolfpackJeep]

I’ll try contacting Time Warner about this.

[C3]

@WolfpackJeep

I’ll try contacting Time Warner about this.

I have Time Warner, too, and haven’t gotten anything from SDMB for a couple days no, not even in my Spam folder.

[TubaDiva]

Seems like we might have another problem here – I’d appreciate y’all looking into it from the Time-Warner place.

In the meantime… . if you’d like to try a gmail address I’ll send you an invite.

[curlcoat]

@TubaDiva

I would recommend all of you who wish to receive notification emails and the like to add “webmaster@straightdope.com” to your list of accepted email senders. And check your spam filters/folders regularly.

I have put webmaster@straightdope.com in my address book (don’t know where the list of accepted email senders is) but the only thing that worked for me was to set my spam blocking to None. That way the email notifications do come to my regular email inbox, but I also am getting a ton of spam to wade thru. I’m on Earthlink, and did talk to them, but it did nothing.