Can't send ANY emails to AOL

M

Mitsurugi

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Jul 19, 2005
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39
554- AOL does not accept e-mail transactions from dynamic or residential
554- IP addresses.

I've set up a POP/SMTP address and configured it in Outlook for a domain we're hosting.

The client cannot send any emails at all to AOL accounts.

Although there seem to be lots of instances of this message on Google, nobody appears to have the faintest idea what to do about it.

Please help! It looks bad if I can't fix this.
 
Having done some investigation, I haven't setup Reverse DNS for any of the domains on my server. My host allows me to do this, but I'm not sure the best way to go about it.

For example, I have:

MAIN SERVER IP

SECONDARY IP 1
SECONDARY IP 2 <- Client's site (using SSL)
SECONDARY IP 3

I can see that I need to bind a domain name to an IP address. However, the "connecting IP" quoted in the email from AOL is the MAIN SERVER IP.

Should I bind their domain name to the MAIN SERVER IP or to SECONDARY IP 2 (the one I've allocated to the domain in DA)?

Also, should I use "www." when setting up a Reverse DNS record?
 
You should only have one reverse DNS entry per IP#.

However that's not what's confusing AOL.

AOL's response is quite specific:
554- AOL does not accept e-mail transactions from dynamic or residential
554- IP addresses.
Click to expand...
The first thing for you to do is see if your client is actually sending email through your server or not.

If he is you'll find this message in your /var/log/exim/mainlog file. If the message isn't in your log file, then the client is either using his own, or some other, mailserver.

If the message is in your log file, then the problem is that AOL believes your IP# is either a residential or a dynamic IP#.

How would they get to believe that? They check lists distributed by ISPs. If your ISP has given them a list with your main IP on it (that's the only one they care about), then your ISP has to resolve the problem.

You can try going to postmaster.aol.com, and try to get help through that site, but they won't deal with you unless you've checked the other things I've discussed first.

Jeff
 
2006-03-08 10:11:31 1FGvdh-0003CZ-57 <= MY-CLIENT-EMAIL H=cmoore1965.plus.com (MONTY) [84.9
2.48.41] P=esmtpa A=login:MY-CLIENT-EMAIL S=81910 id=076501c64298$a0b73020$6796a8c0@MONTY T
="My E-Mail Subject" from MY-CLIENT-EMAIL for AOL-EMAIL
2006-03-08 10:11:32 1FGvdh-0003CZ-57 ** AOL-EMAIL F=MY-CLIENT-EMAIL R=lookuphost T=re
mote_smtp: SMTP error from remote mailer after initial connection: host mailin-03.mx.aol.com [64
.12.138.120]: 554- (RTR:RD) http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554rtrrd.html\n554- AOL does
not accept e-mail transactions from dynamic or residential\n554- IP addresses.\n554 Connecting
IP: MY-SERVER-IP
2006-03-08 10:11:32 1FGvdk-0003Cd-OP <= <> R=1FGvdh-0003CZ-57 U=mail P=local S=83018 T="Mail del
ivery failed: returning message to sender" from <> for MY-CLIENT-EMAIL
2006-03-08 10:11:32 1FGvdh-0003CZ-57 Completed
2006-03-08 10:11:32 1FGvdk-0003Cd-OP => MY-CLIENT-EMAIL F=<> R=virtual_user T=virt
ual_localdelivery S=83161
2006-03-08 10:11:32 1FGvdk-0003Cd-OP Completed

--=--

This is an excerpt from my log for the offending message. So they definitely sent the email using my server. Also, the offending IP quoted in AOL's message is my main server IP.

I can't really understand it - I'm in the biggest data centre in the UK and the IP is anything but dynamic. :(

Please let me know if anything from the above log stands out for you.
 
Last edited:
I've cleaned up the link in my log:

http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554rtrrd.html

So maybe setting up reverse DNS would help me?

My control panel for my colocation account gives me a drop-down box of IP addresses and a text field to enter a domain name:

"You may add a reverse DNS mapping from any of your IP addresses to any domain name in the domains you currently have in this system, or any domain name which resolves back to that IP address."

IP ADDRESS: (select from list - includes my main IP and my extra IPs used for SSL accounts)

DOMAIN NAME: (text field)

All help is very much appreciated! I'm not sure which domain names to bind to which IP addresses.

(I realise that this might not be the entire solution if a recipient has designated an email as spam, but it's a start.)
 
Have you checked your current reverse DNS ?

From a windows command line prompt:
Code: 
nslookup xx.yy.zz.aa
where xx.yy.zz.aa should be replaced by your IP#.

If that doesn't return anything or doesn't return what you want, then you should set up your reverse DNS and see what it looks like after that.

Note that it could take up to 48 to 72 hours to propagate.

Jeff
 
Thanks for the advice. I didn't have reverse DNS set up, so I've added an entry on my bandwidth provider's system from my main server IP to my server's hostname.

Is this all I have to do? For example, in DA I could put something in the PTR field for my server's hostname, but I'm not sure if that's needed. (I don't own my own IP block.)

In the meantime, I'll watch and wait for my DNS to propagate.
 
If your provider is handling reverse DNS then you don't do anything on your system, because it's never queried.

Jeff
 
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