When using a commercial Web host, your naughty neighbors can get you in trouble, too… Today I drafted a few designs for a client of mine, and e-mailed her a link to the JPG files that I’d posted to her new Web hosting space. Since we haven’t changed her domain name yet, I used the temporary URL provided by the hosting company.
The mail bounced. AOL says: 554 TRANSACTION FAILED. They included a link to their page for more information about this problem, which is somewhat more helpful. But essentially, you have to call them. Ten minutes of hold music later…
Turns out, AOL has placed the host company onto their blacklist of known spammers. Now, I’m sending from my domain, to an AOL domain — but just because there was a link inside the body of the message that referenced the host, AOL summarily bounced the message.
The friendly but insistent AOL phone operator told me that I have to contact the host and have the host contact them. But there’s been no guarantee that the problem will be resolved… And if it is, there’s no guarantee that it won’t happen again.
So, I hate Spam as much as anyone, or more. But when somebody else’s bad behavior gets my legit messages barred, I say AOL has gone too far. And now I have another worry to keep me awake at night. Sheesh!
May 22, 2006
use PGP ? or maybe tinyurl the link ? or do they walk the link to see to what it resolves ? I suppose mere MIME64 wouldn’t do it, but one could create one’s own hash, as if one had nothing else to do …
June 19, 2006
And sometimes there are software reconfigurations that accidentally modify a setting that you were not explicitly checking….and you become an open relay….and if you’re not paying attention you get yourself listed on one of the nasty open relay blacklists….and you can’t send or receive email until you sort out the whole mess.
Fun, huh?