Group round robin email bouncing - any solutions?

usignuolo

I am secretary of a Friends group for a small local charity.

There are only around 25 of us on my circulation list (some members are secretaries of other groups and forward on the emails I sent out). I send out minutes, visits etc. using a mailing list which I maintain with a group alias on my PC (XP Pro and Outlook Express.)

Just lately quite a few of these emails have been bouncing back with various error messages but basically they all seem to say that I cannot send messages to certain of the members via a group mail out. This is a real nuisance. It is not my ISP imposing this restriction but theirs. It seems to be a filter imposed by their ISP (typical error message = " relaying not allowed"-) 02 is one which bounces these emails with this message.

I really do not want to have to send out the same email individually to each user (at present I blind copy the alias list and send the main copy just to myself). Is there any way round this?

Avoriaz

One solution, possibly not the best, is to group mailshot those that allow it and individually mail those that block group emails.

At least it will reduce the total number of emails you send.

Sorry, I can't help with a more technical approach. Maybe someone else can.

usignuolo

Just to add that I have had this problem previously when sending out emails from a remote pc via Netmail (Pipex's remote email) service. This time it is for an email send out directly from my home pc. There are three 02 users who have been bounced back to me all with same error message.

This is the message (I have changed recipients name to any.body but the rest is as received).

Reporting-MTA: dns; mk-outboundfilter-5.mail.uk.tiscali.com
Final-Recipient: rfc822;any.body@02.co.uk
Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0 (permanent failure)
Remote-MTA: dns; [82.132.141.69]
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 5.1.0 - Unknown address error 550-'RCPT TO:<any.body@02.co.uk> Relaying not allowed - please use SMTP AUTH' (delivery attempts: 0)

I have spoken to Tech Support at Pipex (I think they are now owned by Tiscali) and they have talked me through my SMTP settings and say they are correct. They claim (?) it is a problem with 02 which 02 know about but seem disinclined to fix.

Can anyone explain, in LAYMAN's terms please, what might be going on here.

debitcardmayhem

I think that the problem possibly lies in the fact that you are sending to 3 O2 users in one go, your last post says snipped....
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 5.1.0 - Unknown address error 550-'RCPT TO:<any.body@02.co.uk> Relaying not allowed - please use SMTP AUTH' (delivery attempts: 0)

Do you get one bounced email message or one for each recipient ?
If you try sending a test mail to one of the recipients if it comes back then it seems that O2 have deemed tiscali.co.uk a possible spamming site, or possibly that it may be just your own address. Try a one user test and post back please.
My sendmail knowledge is well out of date, 8 years probably, but usually when you (ie your mail client) sends more than 1 addressee at the same domain (ie .O2.co.uk) some clients group the mail with multiple RCPT headers eg
HELO mailer.tiscali.co.uk
.....
RCPT To: <a@O2.co.uk>
RCPT To: <b@O2.co.uk>
RCPT To: <c@O2.co.uk>
.....Rest of mail

JasX

do you have the same problem when thery're all blind CC'd so can't tell its a big group email?

peteb23

You could set up a private Yahoo group and get everyone to sign up - http://groups.yahoo.com/

usignuolo

I just tried sending an individual email direct to a single 02 user from my PC and it still bounced. As I said I have confirmed my settings with Pipex who claim they are fine. I can receive incoming emails from 02 users but not send them apparently. Mystified.

This is the message

Reporting-MTA: dns; mk-outboundfilter-6.mail.uk.tiscali.com

Final-Recipient: rfc822;any.body@02.co.uk
Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0 (permanent failure)
Remote-MTA: dns; [82.132.141.69]
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 5.1.0 - Unknown address error 550-'RCPT TO:<any.body@02.co.uk> Relaying not allowed - please use SMTP AUTH' (delivery attempts: 0)

Why does it think I am relaying? So far as I am concerned I am sending it direct and I have enabled smtp password authentication etc. as advised by Pipex. I know the recipient's email id is correct because I got them to send me an incoming email so I could verify I had it right. That arrived OK.

Anyone care to explain how relaying might be causing a problem here (bear in mind I am not an email expert)

pkryder

I have a customer with a similar problem Im trying to get to the bottom of reading elsewhere suggests that you may have the domain wrong. It looks like you are sending to 02.co.uk (the number zero) rather than o2.co.uk which is the actual company name.

whilst if you visit 02.co.uk in a browser it will redirect you to the correct website o2.co.uk the same may not apply to emails therefore when you email 02.co.uk it is not capable of relaying that message to the right address which is o2.co.uk.

Please try it and let me know if that solves the problem.

JasX

Likely causes of 'relaying' is when something doesn;t add up with the senders credentials the receiving email server assumes the mail has been 'relayed' (ie sent without necessarily having a direct/tracable return path) and rejects, might be worth checking your outgoing mail settings and authenticating with your outgoing server if possible, less chance of tripping up a 'fussy' receiving server that way

usignuolo

All very curious. I have checked the incoming emails they sent and all were sent or at least arrived with ZERO2 as the prefix. (This is how 0 appears on my PC and it is the character they have used.)

So now I have sent them a test message using O (Capital Letter O) and o (Lower case o) from my PC as well. Note difference in appearance of letter 0 and number O and 0).

I will just go and check if these have bounced........I'll be,,,,,it seems to have worked using the letter o and O. So why are the O2 users' emails arriving as 02 -all of them - and how come it isn't causing them problems with any other email servers? Are all O2 users equally deluded about the difference between 0 and O? You would think it would be a known problem.

I'll try it again in a minute to see if it really has worked but if so, please accept my grateful thanks. Who'd a thought it?

Usignuolo

pkryder

From what I have read on other forums o2 / 02 / O2 are well aware of the problem but dont do anything about it. The reason that the emails you receive show as from 02 might be user error. It is possible in email clients to specify a reply to address they might have mistyped their address there. If you have a look at the header it probably actually came from o2.co.uk

The use of O2 or o2 (capital/lower-case) should make no difference if one works both should as domains are not case sensitive you could visit MiCrOsOfT.com or microsoft.com