# Problems with e-mail delivery between specific people only? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problems-with-e-mail-delivery-between-specific-people-only/557724 "2010-10-20T00:34:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problems-with-e-mail-delivery-between-specific-people-only/557724/1 "2010-10-20T00:34:02Z")
OK, there are three people in this scenario: A, B, and C. (Actually, A is my father, who’s fairly tech-savvy. B and C are a couple of his friends.) This has been going on for at least a few months. A can send e-mail to B, no problem. But if B sends e-mail to A, it just disappears. A knows to check his spam filter, and it’s not in there. A cannot send e-mail to C. Same thing: it just disappears, it’s not in spam, etc. I think C can send e-mail to A, but I’m not sure. As far as I know, all three have no trouble sending and receiving e-mails to anyone else, including people using the same ISPs. A is using Outlook with a [comcast.net](http://comcast.net) e-mail address. B’s e-mail is [mindspring.com](http://mindspring.com), and C’s is Yahoo. It seems very odd that A can’t receive from one person and can’t send to a different person, but as far as I know has no trouble sending or receiving to/from anyone else. Any thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problems-with-e-mail-delivery-between-specific-people-only/557724/2 "2010-10-20T01:11:32Z")
Has your dad tried personally whitelisting B and C’s email addresses via the Comcast webmail system? [here are instructions](http://www.whitelistinginstructions.com/comcast/). C could try putting dad’s email address in his Yahoo contact list, but I’m not sure if Yahoo considers that a whitelist or not. Another thing dad can try is sending email to C using the Comcast webmail system, to eliminate the possibility of his IP address being a problem. FWIW Being able to send email to an address generally does not have any bearing on whether or not one can receive email from that address. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problems-with-e-mail-delivery-between-specific-people-only/557724/3 "2010-10-20T03:23:23Z")
Thanks, **ZipperJJ**! I’ll pass your advice on to him. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/problems-with-e-mail-delivery-between-specific-people-only/557724/4 "2010-10-20T10:21:41Z")
I had similar experiences a few years ago when (a) I found that email from my Earthlink account was not getting through to an address at a Canadian University that I was trying to contact, and (b) at a later time, we realized that no emails sent by my wife from the law firm where she worked were getting through to me. In both cases it appeared to be a result of overenthusiastic spam-blocking measures, blacklisting of whole domains, by service providers. I really don’t know what the Canadian University can have been thinking to block the whole of a major ISP (it was then, anyway) like Earthlink, but it appears Earthlink was mistakenly blocking my wife’s firm because its domain name was rather similar to a rogue Chinese site (Google was listing it as a site attempting to breach browser security). Another thing I experienced (also a few years ago) was having a particular email completely blocked by a system because it had a zip file attached. I can appreciate why they might be suspicious of zip files, I guess, but why they could not either simply strip the attachment and let the message through, or at least bounce back an “undeliverable” message to me, I do not understand. As it was, I very nearly ended up failing a course I was taking for not doing my “homework”. I don’t know if spam-blocking techniques have improved so as to give fewer false positives since then (or of the Comcast whitelisting facility mentioned by **ZipperJJ** will solve your problem). If not, it may call for the contacting of relevant ISP to get this sorted out. I haven’t noticed it happening to me lately, but, of course, you never really know whether email is not getting through or if someone is simply ignoring you.