Mail problems at AOL Over the last few months there have been ongoing mail problems at AOL. These problems are all over the map and are resulting in a lot of delayed and unsent email. People are reporting a number of different error messages from AOL mail servers. These messages don’t seem to always be accurate or correct. A couple examples: SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data: host mailin-02.mx.aol.com [64.12.90.65]: 521 5.2.1 CON:B1) http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554conb1.html reported by the owner of a low volume discussion list with paying subscribers that should have zero complaints. delivery temporarily suspended: host mailin-01.mx.aol.com[205.188.146.193] refused to talk to me: 421 mtain-dg03.r1000.mx.aol.com Service unavailable – try again later reported by all sorts of senders. 205.188.190.2 failed after I sent the message. Remote host said: 521 5.2.1 “TempFail†reported by a small mail host. 554 mtain-dc03.r1000.mx.aol.com ESMTP not accepting connections reported by an ESP. 421 4.7.0 mtain-dg05.r1000.mx.aol.com Error: too many errors reported by a university, a mailserver vendor and a bunch of ISP and telcos. This is not a constant or consistent set of errors. It is coming and going, with AOL reporting things are fixed and senders reporting queues emptying. However, every time it seems to be fixed, something else breaks. There isn’t much anyone outside of AOL can do, though. This has to be fixed internally by their engineers. I’m afraid this is just the result of a highly complex system that is failing due to bit rot, though. Which means only significant investment in time and programming power can fix this for all of us. I do hope I’m wrong. It’s weird to be writing this blog post the same day I found out that Jay Levitt, one of the original AOL mail system architects has died. I didn’t know Jay well, although he did post a comment here once or twice. I haven’t heard any details, yet, but it’s strange to be writing about AOL mail today. Source: http://blog.wordtothewise.com/
AOL ESMTP Error I've been seeing this message way more than I'd like to in the last few days: "554 mtain-db04.r1000.mx.aol.com ESMTP not accepting connections" Has anyone noticed if this is an IP specific issue, or is it entirely on AOL's end?
http://postmaster.aol.com/Postmaster.Errors.php#mdr says: 550 Service unavailable or SMTP error from remote mailer after initial connection The information presently available to AOL indicates this server is being used to transmit unsolicited e-mail to AOL. Based on AOL's Unsolicited Bulk E-mail policy, AOL cannot accept further e-mail transactions from this server or domain. Please have your ISP/ASP or server admin visit http://postmaster.info.aol.com for more information.
As reported today from WordtotheWise: It's Thursday: AOL must be having problems And, in fact, they are. This time I'm seeing random reports of FBL failures. Some folks are seeing a significant (more than 50%) decrease in FBL emails. Other folks are reporting FBL reports that aren't really FBL reports, but instead look like failed code output. If you're seeing this kind of problems it's not just you. As always, people at AOL are working to fix things and cooperating with people in the sending community who are having this problem. In other news, I found out last week that the one Really Smart Mail Guys I thought was still there is still at AOL but is no longer in their mail division. That means that the guys who built the AOL version of Skynet have left it to its own devices. Be afraid. Be Very Afraid. Source: http://blog.wordtothewise.com/
I've been noticing some pretty drastic filter changes in AOL the last couple weeks, too. Anyone else?
