SMTP

uberwolf

Hi,

I have poked around the eircom forums but not found what I was looking for. Registering there didn't seem appropriate because it is not my account I'm having difficulties with.

I am trying to resolve a problem sending emails via outlook for an eircom.net account holder. They have not had problems previously, but must have made some amendment in error as the outbound server was a gmail server. I've tried both mail1.eircom.net and mail2.eircom.net, I have tried both options (i.e. needed and not needed) for outbound mail authentication requirements to no avail.

There is some suggestion of problems with the servers over on the eircom forums, could this be an issue? Or is there some obvious trick I'm missing?



Thanks

eircom: Mark

uberwolf wrote: »

Hi,

I have poked around the eircom forums but not found what I was looking for. Registering there didn't seem appropriate because it is not my account I'm having difficulties with.

I am trying to resolve a problem sending emails via outlook for an eircom.net account holder. They have not had problems previously, but must have made some amendment in error as the outbound server was a gmail server. I've tried both mail1.eircom.net and mail2.eircom.net, I have tried both options (i.e. needed and not needed) for outbound mail authentication requirements to no avail.

There is some suggestion of problems with the servers over on the eircom forums, could this be an issue? Or is there some obvious trick I'm missing?



Thanks

Hi uberwolf,

From what you outlined there may be an issue with your computer software. Either a problem with the actual email client (MS Outlook); or with a programme on your computer blocking your access.

The main thing was to check your email username and passwords are correct. You have tested and confirmed this using eircom's Webmail. Therefore, it would appear clearly a problem with your computer software.

You could try to access your email using a different email client; other than MS Outlook Express (please see website link below). If this works then you know you have a problem with your current email client (MS Outlook Express). You could try recreating or re-setting up your email account on your email client again. This usually works with most email clients, like MS Outlook Express.

Also, you could try to temporarily disable your anti-virus or firewall(s) applications. These programmes could be blocking your access to certain ports. If you are unsure how to disable these applications then you may need to check with the manufacturers (e.g : Norton, McAfee, Zone Alarm, Etc).

If there is a fundamental problem with your Windows OS or with MS Outlook Express, you will need to contact Microsoft's technical advisors. Their Irish contact is : Microsoft 1850 940 940 (local) www.support.microsoft.com

The following information may be helpful when setting up your email client again :

eircom E-mail settings:
Mail server type: POP3
Incoming mail server: webmail.eircom.net
Outgoing mail server*: mail1.eircom.net

http://bit.ly/J2JqbZ - How to configure your e-mail client

Let me know how you get on.

Thanks, Mark

uberwolf

thanks for coming back to me.

this is the latest

The message could not be sent because one of the recipients was rejected by the server. The rejected e-mail address was 'removed'. Subject 'removed', Account: 'removed', Server: 'mail1.eircom.net', Protocol: SMTP, Server Response: '550 5.1.1 <removed@hotmail.com> Blacklisted by Spamhaus: http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=69.247.35.11";', Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 550, Error Number: 0x800CCC79

does this mean anything to you?

eircom: Mark

uberwolf wrote: »

thanks for coming back to me.

this is the latest


does this mean anything to you?

Hi uberwolf,

The part of the error suggests that the body of the email you are sending contains the email address "blank@gmail.com" which has been flagged by SpamHaus. This is not your email address causing the issue, rather one of the intended or previous recipients. Open the email that you are trying to send, hold "Ctrl" on the keyboard and press the "F" key. Then type "blank@gmail.com" into the search bar. This will highlight the offending text in the email and you can then remove it from the body of text. The reason this is happening is most likely that SpamHaus have flagged any email containing the 'blank@gmail.com' string and so this is preventing the mail from leaving your account. Can you try this please and let me know how you get on.

If you would like further info about SpamHaus and what they do, see this link: About SpamHaus - http://bit.ly/HWCTLo

Thanks, Mark

Sponge Bob

There is a thread about this "one of the recipients was rejected by the server" intermittent eircom SMTP server issue that comes and goes. It was diabolic around last may or june and fixed by july.

jeckle

Hotmail is notorious for rejecting eircom.net emails - despite the sender being in the recipients address book or being added to their safelist & the mail doesn't even get as far as the Spam Inbox. Sometimes you can get around it by replying to a mail sent from the same hotmail address, but not always.

To confirm that there is no problem with the actual sending/receiving of the Eircom email setup just send a test mail from the Eircom email address to that same Eircom email address.

Sponge Bob

They are rejected by eircom ( when this happens) and never sent on to Hotmail.

uberwolf

I actually sent an email to the same address from within the eircom webmail and it was received no problem. I am one of the intended recipients.

I tried sending an email to the eircom address (as suggested above) itself which was also blocked with the same message.

jeckle

I don't mean to sound condescending here, but are you sure that Eircom is the persons ISP?, as if it's not you will have to use the relevant outgoing mailserver settings e.g. if it's UPC you would have to use smtp.upcmail.ie as the outgoing server.

The reason I ask is that i've just changed my outgoing setting to an incorrect one & got the same error message as you got above.

uberwolf

jeckle wrote: »

I don't mean to sound condescending here, but are you sure that Eircom is the persons ISP?, as if it's not you will have to use the relevant outgoing mailserver settings e.g. if it's UPC you would have to use smtp.upcmail.ie as the outgoing server.

The reason I ask is that i've just changed my outgoing setting to an incorrect one & got the same error message as you got above.

This is a notebook which routinely commutes from ireland to the states with no issue. Owner is less tech savvy than me and wouldn't have been changing outgoing mailserver manually over the last number of years.
Although I may have messed something up trying to fix the original problem

java

uberwolf wrote: »

thanks for coming back to me.

this is the latest

The message could not be sent because one of the recipients was rejected by the server. The rejected e-mail address was 'removed'. Subject 'removed', Account: 'removed', Server: 'mail1.eircom.net', Protocol: SMTP, Server Response: '550 5.1.1 <removed@hotmail.com> Blacklisted by Spamhaus: http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=69.247.35.11";', Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 550, Error Number: 0x800CCC79

does this mean anything to you?

This means the ip address that your friend is coming from 69.247.35.11 is blacklisted by Spamhaus. Clicking the link in the message will bring you to the Spamhaus page with more information.

That is not an eircom ip. It seems to Comcast: http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-69-247-32-0-1/pft

Clicking the Spamhaus link has information specific to Comcast which may help: http://www.spamhaus.org/pbl/query/PBL1523194

This isn't an eircom problem.

eircom: Ant

uberwolf wrote: »

This is a notebook which routinely commutes from ireland to the states with no issue. Owner is less tech savvy than me and wouldn't have been changing outgoing mailserver manually over the last number of years.
Although I may have messed something up trying to fix the original problem

Hi uberwolf,

thanks for post. As Mark has suggested try to send a test message using eircom's webmail service :

www.eircom.net/email

If this works then you may have to look at other options : your email client, or applications that may be running in the background on your computer.

I've had issues in the past posting to large email servers like hotmail and yahoo. For a standard domain with one back up mailsever it is easy enough to test. Some large mailsevers, lilke hotmail can have 5 or 6 or more backup servers. Host MX Records for larger mailservers are often updated and may not be picked up right away, or and may take time to propagate.

I've found the following website is quite useful for analysing mail headers and testing mail servers :

http://www.mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx

E-mail settings:
Mail server type: POP3
Incoming mail server: webmail.eircom.net
Outgoing mail server*: mail1.eircom.net

OR Webmail access: http://webmail.eircom.net

*Note: If you are NOT using an eircom net connection, you MUST use your internet provider's own SMTP server OR eircom webmail.

Regards,
Ant

Thoie

jeckle wrote: »

Hotmail is notorious for rejecting eircom.net emails - despite the sender being in the recipients address book or being added to their safelist & the mail doesn't even get as far as the Spam Inbox. Sometimes you can get around it by replying to a mail sent from the same hotmail address, but not always.

To confirm that there is no problem with the actual sending/receiving of the Eircom email setup just send a test mail from the Eircom email address to that same Eircom email address.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

They are rejected by eircom ( when this happens) and never sent on to Hotmail.

I'm having this problem - I'm just not receiving any mails (on hotmail) from an eircom.net address. The eircom address is able to send other mails fine, and the hotmail account receives mail OK. Sponge Bob - is it eircom needs to fix something?

eircom: Mark

Thoie wrote: »

I'm having this problem - I'm just not receiving any mails (on hotmail) from an eircom.net address. The eircom address is able to send other mails fine, and the hotmail account receives mail OK. Sponge Bob - is it eircom needs to fix something?

Hi Thoie,

Have you insured that you have set up the eircom SMTP as - Incoming mail server: webmail.eircom.net

Then changed the outgoing SMTP server to the hotmail settings?

Thanks, Mark

Thoie

eircom: Mark wrote: »

Hi Thoie,

Have you insured that you have set up the eircom SMTP as - Incoming mail server: webmail.eircom.net

Then changed the outgoing SMTP server to the hotmail settings?

Thanks, Mark

Apologies Mark, I didn't explain it very well.

Fred is sending Thoie emails.
Fred has an eircom.net address, while Thoie has a hotmail account.

Thoie isn't receiving Fred's mails, but is receiving all other mails. Fred's mails are not in spam folders.
Fred isn't get a bounce back from the mails sent to Thoie, or any indication that there's a problem. The mails sent to Thoie are showing normally in his Sent folder. Fred is receiving all mails (including Thoie's) correctly.

eircom: Mark

Thoie wrote: »

Apologies Mark, I didn't explain it very well.

Fred is sending Thoie emails.
Fred has an eircom.net address, while Thoie has a hotmail account.

Thoie isn't receiving Fred's mails, but is receiving all other mails. Fred's mails are not in spam folders.
Fred isn't get a bounce back from the mails sent to Thoie, or any indication that there's a problem. The mails sent to Thoie are showing normally in his Sent folder. Fred is receiving all mails (including Thoie's) correctly.

Hi Thoie,

Apologies for the delay in getting bak to you. I have been speaking to support. They asked if Fred knows anyone else with an eircom.net e-mail address to send some test e-mails to confirm they are not being sent as well?

Thanks, Mark

Thoie

eircom: Mark wrote: »

Hi Thoie,

Apologies for the delay in getting bak to you. I have been speaking to support. They asked if Fred knows anyone else with an eircom.net e-mail address to send some test e-mails to confirm they are not being sent as well?

Thanks, Mark

Sorry for the delay. 3rd person (John, with an eircom.net account) has sent mails to Thoie, which haven't turned up in Thoie's hotmail account either. If it helps, I can PM you the various email addresses?

eircom: Mark

Thoie wrote: »

Sorry for the delay. 3rd person (John, with an eircom.net account) has sent mails to Thoie, which haven't turned up in Thoie's hotmail account either. If it helps, I can PM you the various email addresses?

Hi Thoie,

I spoke to managers in broadband support and they stated the majority of the time the other e-mail platforms re-direct the eircom.net e-mail to the trash or spam folders.

I know you checked the spam folder, did you check the trash folder as well?

Also, I know this is very basic... Are you sure that your friends have your correct (exact) e-mail address?

Thanks, Mark

Thoie

Hi Mark, yes, the issue only started happening a few weeks ago - there was never a problem until then. They're definitely using the right address. I've checked everywhere that the mails could have gone, and they're not turning up on the hotmail side anywhere.

The eircom mails to other places are sending and being received correctly.

eircom: Mark

Thoie wrote: »

Hi Mark, yes, the issue only started happening a few weeks ago - there was never a problem until then. They're definitely using the right address. I've checked everywhere that the mails could have gone, and they're not turning up on the hotmail side anywhere.

The eircom mails to other places are sending and being received correctly.

Hi Thoie,

Just to confirm, have you asked your friends (If you have another e-mail address) To sent a mail to your hotmail from their eircom.net address and straight away send another one to your other e-mail address from the same eircom.net e-mail address.

Thanks, Mark

Thoie

eircom: Mark wrote: »

Hi Thoie,

Just to confirm, have you asked your friends (If you have another e-mail address) To sent a mail to your hotmail from their eircom.net address and straight away send another one to your other e-mail address from the same eircom.net e-mail address.

Thanks, Mark

Yes, they've done that, and the other mail comes through.

I PMd you the hotmail address - do you want to try sending me a test mail from an eircom.net account so that you can trace it?

Alun

This kind of thing happens to me on a regular basis too, and is usually down to one or more of Eircom's outgoing mail servers being on one or more blacklists. The problem is that Eircom have several outgoing mail servers in a load balancing setup, so when you send an email you never know in advance which one is going to be actually responsible for sending your message. One time you'll be lucky, the next time you won't.

I don't actually use my eircom email address to any degree, as I have my own email provider, but often get reports from irritated eircom customers who've sent me emails that I've not responded to, because I never received them.

I've had a number of discussions with the (very capable) support people from my email provider (hover.com) and they've been very helpful, but have stressed that I need to raise this problem with eircom's abuse dept. but any attempt I've ever made has resulted in zero response, nada, zilch, nothing. It's like abuse@eircom.net is a black hole or something.

ninge

I am having this exact problem. It only occurred in the last couple of weeks, and was only brought to my attention when people started to complain that I was not answering their emails - all of which are hotmail customers.

I have done test emails and cc'ed my gmail and eircom accounts on them and they come through fine on those but never reach the hotmail account. I also do not recieve any error message to say it has not been sent.

Retailer

i send a regular weekly email using smtp mail1.eircom.net to 4 recipients.
two are gmail recipients, and 2 are hotmail recipients.

i've been sending this email weekly for the past few years with no problems up until a couple of weeks ago.

the hotmail recipients havent been recieiving the emails at all.

ive sent several more 'test' messages to the hotmail recipients and other hotmail recipients, none of which they have recieved. the messages do not go into their junk folder and I never recieve an 'undeliverable' e-mail back.

i've also used a friend of mines account (on his laptop), who also uses mail1.eircom.net, and again each time the hotmail addresses dont recieve the emails.

ive sent the same emails from gmail and the hotmail people recieve those.

it does seem likely that hotmail (or somewhere in between) is blacklisting mail from the eircom mail servers.

a quick google shows that Vodafone users had the same problem a couple of years ago to hotmail which was eventually resolved.

i'd appreciate it if eircom took this issue seriously as it's obvious from this thread, and threads on eircoms own discussion forum, that this is an issue affecting a number of people that only started a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks!

Sponge Bob

I think it is the original IP address that is blacklisted not the servers. eircom are cack at managing their IP range.

Alun

Sponge Bob wrote: »

I think it is the original IP address that is blacklisted not the servers. eircom are cack at managing their IP range.

In my specific case it was, and still is occasionally, the outgoing SMTP servers that get blacklisted or greylisted.

There's a whole bunch of them in the 159.134.118.0/24 subnet, all called mailxx.svc.cra.dublin.eircom.net, where xx is a 2-digit number.

But yes, as well as that eircom are bad at introducing new IP ranges and then not providing reverse lookup DNS entries for months afterwards, which can also cause problems.

Retailer

What concerns me though is despite this issue being raised by a number of people on various forums (fora?!) in the past couple of weeks, In each case Eircom try to lay the blame at either the recipients laptop, or their hotmail account. A little bit of coordination would show staff that there are many people having the same problem that suddenly began a couple of weeks ago.

I'm not getting at Eircom here as its happens in many tech companies (I know cos I was one of those techies!). I've always had good service from Eircom and hopefully this is just a minor blip that can be easily resolved!

eircom: Ant

Retailer wrote: »

i send a regular weekly email using smtp mail1.eircom.net to 4 recipients.
two are gmail recipients, and 2 are hotmail recipients.

i've been sending this email weekly for the past few years with no problems up until a couple of weeks ago.

the hotmail recipients havent been recieiving the emails at all.

ive sent several more 'test' messages to the hotmail recipients and other hotmail recipients, none of which they have recieved. the messages do not go into their junk folder and I never recieve an 'undeliverable' e-mail back.

i've also used a friend of mines account (on his laptop), who also uses mail1.eircom.net, and again each time the hotmail addresses dont recieve the emails.

ive sent the same emails from gmail and the hotmail people recieve those.

it does seem likely that hotmail (or somewhere in between) is blacklisting mail from the eircom mail servers.

a quick google shows that Vodafone users had the same problem a couple of years ago to hotmail which was eventually resolved.

i'd appreciate it if eircom took this issue seriously as it's obvious from this thread, and threads on eircoms own discussion forum, that this is an issue affecting a number of people that only started a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks!

Hi Retailer,

I've had occasions when I was unable to receive email at my global webmail account. Likewise, I didn't receive a mail delivery reply from my host server. I found out later that the issue was due to my webmail host provider having multiple MX Records. It was explained at the time that some records may have been still propagating (updating). Larger global email providers like Hotmail, etc. may update their MX records more often, due to sheer volumes of mail that they handle.

I received my email a few days later. From what I can tell, my smtp server was attempting to relay my mail to the recipient, though there seemed to be an issue with distinuishing the priority of the multiple MX Records.

Don't know if this helps you with this mail issue. The fact that it is happening with another provider's mail as well, would leave me to believe it may be something to do with the global webmail client. I have given one possible suggestion.

If you need help with a direct eircom related email issue, or if this same issue re-occurs, I would advise that you report this to Technical Support for further investigation.

Broadband Technical Support : 1890 260260 (locall); Hours : 08:00 - 22:00 (7 days).

Please retain your case id /reference from Technical Support, as this will speed up your call and help if you need to follow this up. Alternatively, let me know your case id and I will follow this up with Technical Support.

Best wishes,
Ant


Helpful Information about MX records
Internet Email systems rely on DNS MX Records to transmit Emails between domains (known as zones in DNS jargon). The MX Record in the host known as the Mail Exchanger (Mail Server) that is responsible for receiving the emails bound for that particular domain. Domains can have multiple MX Records, each normally specifying a different host with a priority level. Hosts with lower priority level are to be contacted first as emails arrive. If a domain (zone) does not have a specified MX Record, the A Record (Address Record) for the zone is normally used as the Mail Server/Exchanger host.

Retailer

Hi Ant

I don't see way other providers mail it is happening with? The examples I gave we're from accounts using mail1.eircom.net.

Just this morning I had someone else with an @eircom.net email address to send a few mails and again all mails to hotmail failed.

So that's three different people I've given so far as examples.

Add to that the other examples on this forum and the 2 separate threads on this exact issue on the eircom forums.

I really don't think this could be a coincidence.

The fact that Eircom aren't taking this seriously forced me to sign up to another broadband provider this morning for my two accounts so it won't be a problem for me anymore.

It's just concerning though that you don't see this as a fault.

Even if hotmail are having problems with their MX records (which I know don't take 3 weeks to propagate), the onus is surely on Eircom to contact them.

A simple IP tracing tool such as ethereal (or whatever it's called these days!) should be run on the eircom mail server to attempt to find the point of failure.

eircom: Ant

Retailer wrote: »

Hi Ant

I don't see way other providers mail it is happening with? The examples I gave we're from accounts using mail1.eircom.net.

Just this morning I had someone else with an @eircom.net email address to send a few mails and again all mails to hotmail failed.

So that's three different people I've given so far as examples.

Add to that the other examples on this forum and the 2 separate threads on this exact issue on the eircom forums.

I really don't think this could be a coincidence.

The fact that Eircom aren't taking this seriously forced me to sign up to another broadband provider this morning for my two accounts so it won't be a problem for me anymore.

It's just concerning though that you don't see this as a fault.

Even if hotmail are having problems with their MX records (which I know don't take 3 weeks to propagate), the onus is surely on Eircom to contact them.

A simple IP tracing tool such as ethereal (or whatever it's called these days!) should be run on the eircom mail server to attempt to find the point of failure.

Thanks for your post Retailer,

eircom Technical Support have reported an issue with intermittent mail delivery with hotmail servers. Some eMails from eircom servers are being blocked by hotmail servers although this only lasts for about 24 hours. Technical Support advise that it is possibly due to the hotmail servers seeing a lot of spam coming in. Their servers are then temporarily blocking email and then unblocking this after 24 hours.

eircom Technical Support have been in contact with Hotmail. This is ongoing and a logged issue. Both parties are working on a resolution


As soon as I have a further update I will post this up here. In the meantime if you need to contact Technical Support on this.

Broadband Technical Support : 1890 260260 (locall); Hours : 08:00 - 22:00 (7 days).

Please retain your case id /reference from Technical Support, as this will help if you need to follow this up.

Best wishes,
Ant

Alun

eircom: Ant wrote: »

eircom Technical Support have reported an issue with intermittent mail delivery with hotmail servers. Some eMails from eircom servers are being blocked by hotmail servers although this only lasts for about 24 hours. Technical Support advise that it is possibly due to the hotmail servers seeing a lot of spam coming in. Their servers are then temporarily blocking email and then unblocking this after 24 hours.

Surprise, surprise

This is exactly what the support people at my email provider told me as well. There's simply way too much unsolicited spam emanating from the eircom network, and until Eircom take this problem seriously, and more importantly, PROACTIVELY rather than reactively, it will continue to happen, but I won't hold my breath.