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Can not deliver mail to @bigpond.com or @bigpond.net.au - 421 Message rejected

Hi All,

I am having trouble sending messages to some of our customers who have bigpond accounts
I am aware of at least 5 accounts at bigpond that we regularly have a problem with.

Below is a sample from the server log.

SMTPClient: MAIL FROM:<xxx@appliedaustralia.com> SIZE=14348
SMTPClient: RCPT TO:<yyy@bigpond.net.au>
SMTPClient: DATA
SMTPClient: End of pipelined commands
SMTPClient: ReceiveResponse: 250 Sender <xxx@appliedaustralia.com> and extensions (SIZE=14358) Ok
SMTPClient: ReceiveResponse: 250 Recipient <yyy@bigpond.net.au> Ok
SMTPClient: ReceiveResponse: 354 Ok Send data ending with <CRLF>.<CRLF>
SMTPClient: Data Send Succeeded 12217 bytes
SMTPClient: ReceiveResponse: 421 Message rejected
SMTPClient: Attempting to Disconnect:
SMTPClient: CommandQUIT:
SMTPClient: Connection terminated with status: 2562
Router: No messages transferred to BIGPOND.NET.AU (host extmail.bpbb.bigpond.com) via SMTP

The message retries a number of times and just occasionally will get through, but mostly will go back to the sender as rejected.

I tried calling Bigpond, but as my account is not with them (only the receiving user) they would not help me.

Any suggestions on how to fix would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Gary.

pistolslapper

Sounds to me like bigpond doesn't like your mail server. They have implemented some changes in recent years to reduce spam. Im not sure exactly what they have implemented but i would guess that greylisting is one of them.

Greylisting is when the recieving mail server does not make a connection with a new host straight away. It usually gives you a message like "try again later" or if the admin of the server is thoughful enough "This server usues greylisting to help reduce spam - please try again withing X minutes". Usually this is quite a low figure like 3 or 4 minutes. If you try to resend after this timeout period the message will be accepted and usually your address placed in a whitelist for a certain period of time.

Also, it could be a number of things combined... like if you do not use SPF (sender policy framework). SPF is a zone record you add to a domain, which advertises the address of your sending mail server/s so if the IP in the mail header doesnt match, it will fail the test and either be rejected or marked as spam (according to the admins own policy). Configuring SPF isn't a bad idea.

An online resource i like to use is www.mxtoolbox.com . It has a great blacklist checker and other diagnostic tools.

Also, having a static ip for your mailserver is a good idea too (im sure you probably do) but also having a generic PTR record for your ip can also cause you to be listed (i.e server111-111-111-111.supa-servers.org) . To resolve this you can call your ISP to have this done for your IP (make it revsolve to mail.yourdomain.com - or as appropriate)

Fixing a few of these issues could lead to the spam system in place at big pond not scoring your incoming mails so high as to get your mail server removed from any blacklists on their server.

Hope this helps, if you need any more info just ask.

Gary_Brown_Applied

ASKER

Checked mxtoolbox and we are not on blacklist
Yes we have static IP address

This is the response I get when I do a SPF check.

Prefix Type Value PrefixDesc Description
+ a Pass Match if IP has a DNS 'A' record in given domain
+ mx Pass Match if IP is one of the MX hosts for given domain name
+ include tpgi.com.au Pass The specified other domain is searched for an 'allow'.
? all Neutral Always matches. It goes at the end of your record.

v=spf1 a mx include:tpgi.com.au ?all

Does that all look right??

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

pistolslapper

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