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10-24-2015, 10:29 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Zone: 8a
Location: West Midlands, UK
Age: 49
Posts: 25,462
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Hotmail Email Addresses not getting notifications
It has come to our attention that many members with hotmail addresses are not getting notifications (this includes @live.com addresses)
Since we changed the email address our notifications are sent from I am seeing the 'bounce back' messages from ones we have sent but have not arrived. A lot of these are ones we sent to hotmail accounts that have been bounced back with a message that we are blocked by hotmail.
We had this problem in the past with AOL which is the reason that we ask members not to use AOL email addresses. I have let Marty know and he may be able to get our provider to try and get us unblocked, but I know from past experience that this can take a long time, even if it's possible.
What you can do if you are using hotmail... - If you ARE getting notifications let me know by replying here. I want to see if it is all hotmail users or just some.
- If you are NOT getting notifications and you want to get them, can you try using a different email address.
- If you are NOT getting notifications and you are happy to not get them, or if you don't have another email address/don't want to use another email address, then can you set your settings on your account to not receive notifications.
The reason I ask those who don't want to or can't change their email address to change their settings to not get them is that we are more likely to not get blocked in the future if we are not sending to huge numbers of addresses that bounce back every day.
Last edited by RosieC; 10-24-2015 at 11:17 AM..
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10-24-2015, 10:54 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Zone: 5b
Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 3,402
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I did, now I don't.
Why isn't the 'bug' that caused these problems not being addressed at source, rather than expecting users to create, or use, new e-mail addresses ? Just askin'.
__________________
fine print - anything I say cannot be used against me and ymmv on any growing advice
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10-24-2015, 11:13 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Zone: 8a
Location: West Midlands, UK
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It's not a bug as such. The problem is that hotmail has blocked our orchidboard server, they incorrectly think we are a spammer. We are sending out the notifications, hotmail are receiving them, but then hotmail reuse to send them to the end user.
We are looking to ask our provider to ask hotmail to unblock us, however none of that is guaranteed and when I've been involved with such a process before it took months.
We had a problem in the past with AOL in the same way. That is why when you register it says to NOT use an AOL account. Now I've found that actually AOL accounts ARE now working, however it was years that they were blocked for.
If we can't get this block by hotmail cleared we will have to ask all members to not register with hotmail accounts.
These blocks tend to happen if we are continually sending out a lot of emails to accounts that don't exist or we can't send to for other reasons.
Our emails all go to users who have subscribed to Orchid Board, who have given their email address and who have chosen on their account settings to receive notifications. We provide an unsubscribe link in our emails and we provide an unsubscribe option on our account settings. All of which mean we are not spammers.
However over time as people change email address but don't tell us (possibly they have stopped using the forum at that point) we get a build up of more and more addresses we are sending to which are invalid.
Or maybe a user (or many) who registered then decides they don't want our emails and rather than un-subscribing they click the spam/junk button on their email, or move the email into their spam folder on a provider such as gmail. This get's fed back to the provider and at some point when the provider sees it happening a lot they decide we are spammers and block us.
Something like that is what has happened here. Hotmail has blocked our whole server (possibly relatively recently as several members have recently been reporting that notifications have stopped). They didn't just block the one email address but all emails sent by our server.
It's not anything we can 'fix'. The fact I am seeing the 'bounce backs' now I have access to the email address we are sending from shows that our servers are correctly sending the emails and that they are reaching hotmail's servers. As I said above we can (through our provider) ask for this block to be removed, but it's not guaranteed it will be.
---------- Post added at 04:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:09 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by orchidsarefun
I did, now I don't.
Why isn't the 'bug' that caused these problems not being addressed at source, rather than expecting users to create, or use, new e-mail addresses ? Just askin'.
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See above about why this is happening, however I can confirm you are one of the users affected by this. When I replied to this thread after your post it tried to send you a notification and I've seen a 'bounce back' because hotmail has blocked it
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10-24-2015, 11:30 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Zone: 2b
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 9,667
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Maybe subscribers who are not getting the notifications could also contact Hotmail and say they want them let thru. It might speed up the process if individual Hotmail subscribers are complaining.
Thanks for looking into this RosieC
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10-24-2015, 11:38 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Zone: 8a
Location: West Midlands, UK
Age: 49
Posts: 25,462
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Quote:
Originally Posted by silken
Maybe subscribers who are not getting the notifications could also contact Hotmail and say they want them let thru. It might speed up the process if individual Hotmail subscribers are complaining.
Thanks for looking into this RosieC
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May be a good idea. Not sure how to go about that, but if anyone has a way to do it please do.
Our mail server has in IP address of 199.91.126.24 and hotmail are reporting that it is that which s blocked.
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10-24-2015, 11:43 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Zone: 2b
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 9,667
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RosieC
May be a good idea. Not sure how to go about that, but if anyone has a way to do it please do.
Our mail server has in IP address of 199.91.126.24 and hotmail are reporting that it is that which s blocked.
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Individual Hotmail subscribers should have some form of info in which to contact their provider. At least I do with my e-mail provider. It's not Hotmail tho. With the IP address you provided, I would expect my provider to let it thru to my e-mail if I want it coming thru.
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Post Thanks / Like - 1 Likes
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10-24-2015, 01:28 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Zone: 10a
Location: Cooper City, Florida
Age: 76
Posts: 245
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I had the same problem with my outlook.com email address. I believe the hotmail and outlook emails have been merged into one account these days. I had another email address so I changed to that address and have not had any other problems.
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10-25-2015, 10:24 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Zone: 8a
Location: West Midlands, UK
Age: 49
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JDT
I had the same problem with my outlook.com email address. I believe the hotmail and outlook emails have been merged into one account these days. I had another email address so I changed to that address and have not had any other problems.
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Yes I think unfortunately this includes outlook.com as well
---------- Post added at 02:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:13 PM ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by orchidsarefun
I am sure Hotmail wouldn't just block an entire up without a valid reason. Are you certain that the ob server is secure and hasn't been hijacked in the past to send spam? I don't know how these matters should be resolved but I would think that whoever maintains the ob server has some responsibility to find out exactly why emails are bounced back so that the issue can be resolved. I don't even get the emails so cannot fwd them to anyone at Hotmail to investigate.
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Marty has contacted our hosted server provider to request this is unblocked.
We believe it has happened because we are sending out so many emails every day and a lot bounce because people have changed email address and not updated their account here.
Marty has not had time in the past to keep on top of all the bounce back emails (there are a LOT every single day) and since he was very ill earlier this year he wasn't able to monitor them at all. This is why I have just taken over monitoring the email that our forum receives. Believe me there is an almost overwhelming volume of it. It was in reviewing it that I discovered this problem with hotmail and other Microsoft based email accounts.
Some email providers see someone sending out lots of messages, many of which are going to accounts that don't exist, as being spammers. We have never had the server hijcked but it doesn't need to be when we send out so much mail every day, something that spammers also do.
Marty has put in the requests to have Microsoft based accounts unblock us, but we are helpless to do anything else, other than reduce the number of bounce backs we get.
This is why I have asked some members I've identified as having changed email addresses to update their account with the new details (thanks everyone who has done that so far ) and I am asking those who have hotmail to either change their setting to not get notifications (so the server no longer tries to mail them) or if they want to get notifications (while we wait for Microsoft to unblock us) to use another account if they have one.
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Post Thanks / Like - 2 Likes
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10-24-2015, 03:09 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Oct 2011
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I am sure Hotmail wouldn't just block an entire up without a valid reason. Are you certain that the ob server is secure and hasn't been hijacked in the past to send spam? I don't know how these matters should be resolved but I would think that whoever maintains the ob server has some responsibility to find out exactly why emails are bounced back so that the issue can be resolved. I don't even get the emails so cannot fwd them to anyone at Hotmail to investigate.
__________________
fine print - anything I say cannot be used against me and ymmv on any growing advice
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10-24-2015, 07:00 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: May 2008
Zone: 9a
Location: Nor Cal
Posts: 26,634
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I get notification emails from OB to gmail, and have never gotten any spam.
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