Problems with a single email address bouncing back

soolin

Firstly apologies I'm not at all techie but will try and explain the issue as best I can.

I use Virgin emails (the old Virgin.net format) via Thunderbird for all my emails and can also access emails via the Virgin media hub online. One email address - which is unfortunately an important work one bounces back 99% of the time with an error message 'You sent the following message but this message could not be delivered to all recipients'   Then further down it says 'Recipient address rejected:'  plus pages of text and codes.

Occasionally though an email will get through first time.

The email address is in my address book, I have clicked everything I can find to 'allow' it but still it happens.

It is causing me real problems as It's work, they won't use any other email for me (I've had to verify this one about 20 years ago) I can't find anything online as to why this is happening, and my colleagues all using various email addresses have no issues at all.

Any suggestions as to what I can try please?

Work IT  want to see the bounce message- which of course I can't send- but I'm going to try and send it via Hotmail and hope they will accept it on this one occasion as it is nothing that needs me to be verified.

Neil_Jones

"Recipient address rejected" means what it says.   It may be that their system thinks you're spamming them is the usual thing.

Why can't IT see the bounce message?  You've just quoted it!

p00hsticks

soolin said:

Work IT  want to see the bounce message- which of course I can't send- but I'm going to try and send it via Hotmail and hope they will accept it on this one occasion as it is nothing that needs me to be verified.

A couple of suggestions for this bit 
- forward it to a colleagues non-work e-mail address and get them to forward it on ?
- print out the e-mail response and pass it to them in person or via snail-mail ?

Editted to add - when did you first notice the problem ? 

My mother also uses virgin.net and I know they were problems over the last few weeks with certain set ups (Windows 7 & Outlook is the one I'm aware of) not being able to send or receive e-mails. When I investigated I know it was a common problem whcih seems to have been resolved now. 

p00hsticks

Neil_Jones said:

Why can't IT see the bounce message?  You've just quoted it!

Presumably because the e-mail never reaches the recipient so they don;t see anything their end ? 
And the OP says that the short message they quoted is follwed by 'pages of text and codes'.

born_again

Could be getting caught by works spam filter.

We were always told never to use a personal email for work related emails..

soolin

To answer all the above.

I've tried sending an email with the cut and paste of the error message, but it bounces back like all the others, so I did suggest I just printed it out and sent it snail mail, but they seemed unimpressed with that as an idea (I can declare I work for a sub department of a  Government body who are difficult to pin down when things go wrong) - possibly because virtually all the off site departments now work from home.

I do have colleagues, but all remote as we now only work from home, I don't have special friends who I feel comfortable enough with to continually pass across my records and reports for onward submission.

Due to the nature of my work I cannot have an official address (it's complicated but there is no work round to that) hence using Virgin as I have done for over 20 years. They have always been reluctant to use Hotmail due to perceived security issues and apparently 20+ years ago my email address was verified - and any attempt to use a second one has been rejected by them and ignored. Despite that I have just sent 2 emails via Outlook to see a) if they bounce back (they don't appear to have done) and b) if they will be accepted (and they are being studiously ignored).

Sorry to be mysterious about this- but I have certain regulations due to bureaucracy.

It looks like all i can do realistically is get them to 'allow' my emails somehow , which I suspect is not going to be as easy as it sounds. I may end up using the official geographic address, explain my issue in writing and ask them to get their IT department to 'allow' my Virgin address.

Vitor

>Occasionally though an email will get through first time.<

When the emails bounce, are you attaching files which are encrypted, Excel files with macros or archives like .zip or .rar?  Most UKG email servers will reject these.

soolin

Vitor said:

>Occasionally though an email will get through first time.<

When the emails bounce, are you attaching files which are encrypted, Excel files with macros or archives like .zip or .rar?  Most UKG email servers will reject these.

Sometimes- but occasionally it is just a single sentence , no attachments, no docs no files, simply a 'yes I acknowledge the date and time' sort of reply.. Although today an excel attachment was received on only the 3rd attempt of sending.

It is looking more and more like my email is definitely blocked- which doesn't account for the occasional emails getting through.

Vitor

>which doesn't account for the occasional emails getting through<

My guess is that Virgin emails originate from multiple servers. The IP address of (one or more) of these servers has been used for sending a lot of spam and IP address has been placed on a 'greylist' that the anti-spam suppliers share. 

soolin

I suppose my next question will be, can I change my IP address and if so how, and if I do does that affect anything I do on my PC going forward?

Edit, I have got myself confused by trying the Virgin email assistance FAQs, but they appear to say if I power down my hub (I assume that means unplugging it?) for a few hours it 'might' change my IP address, does that sound right? 

glennevis

soolin said:

I suppose my next question will be, can I change my IP address and if so how, and if I do does that affect anything I do on my PC going forward?

Edit, I have got myself confused by trying the Virgin email assistance FAQs, but they appear to say if I power down my hub (I assume that means unplugging it?) for a few hours it 'might' change my IP address, does that sound right? 

That sounds right. Most ISPs allocate a dynamic (changing) IP address. To address your question, it may not be your machine's IP address which is the problem but the virgin.net mail servers' IP addresses or the mail servers' DNS configurations. Not something over which you have control.

Mail servers have implemented more security protocols than they had 20 years ago (google DMARC, DKIM and SPF).

If it is an authentication issue there is a thread on a Virgin forum which discusses a similar issue to yours and might help you check and if necessary amend your settings:

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Email/Virginmedia-com-IMAP-server-setting-for-outlook/td-p/5398206

ETA. If you want meaningful help from the IT admins at work they will need the full headers of a delivery failure report in plain text to analyse the issue (google how to show full headers in thunderbird/outlook/whatever your chosen mail client). Then it shouldn't be difficult for them to work out where the problem lies (standard stuff for mail server administrators).