Re: AOL user's post not delivered to other AOL addresses

On Sunday 11 February 2007 13:53, Clay Goss wrote:
> When a list subscriber with an AOL address posts to the list, I get this
> long error message from an AOL system with error messages like:
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> [email protected] on 2/11/2007 1:54 PM
>             The e-mail system was unable to deliver the message, but did
> not report a specific reason.  Check the address and try
> again.  If it still fails, contact your system administrator.
>             < listserver.listdomain.net #5.0.0 SMTP; 554-:  (RLY:SN)
> http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554rlysn.html>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> While it doesn't give the email address it is refusing to relay to, the
> number of these messages roughly matches the number of AOL addresses in my
> list.
>
> Any thoughts?
Clay,

I've been 'round-n-round' with AOL about this - for over three years.  I get 
on their "white-list" and their policies change and things reject again.

As I understand it, the current AOL policy is that when a certain trigger 
amount of email messages come from an individual ip (which is not otherwise a 
paying and/or "approved" email "service provider") over the course of a 
finite number of minutes, seconds, or whatever ... then AOL rejects 
everything AFTER the trigger has been tripped.

In practice what I find is that usually two or three AOL users will receive 
the email but all of the others do not.  And then I receive the lenghty 
rejection messages you mention.

As a stop-gap measure, I have built an archival system which posts all 
majordomo email to a web page for the users to view.  That means that 
everyone in the world can view the email, but only majordomo-registered users 
can send.  It does not solve the problem, but it does get around it in some 
ways.

I think a real solution would be to throttle the outgoing messages, so that 
only a couple are "released" every five or so minutes.  But I'm fed up with 
trying to deal with AOL so I haven't done the necessary research to implement 
this plan.

hth

lane
P.S.