Finally I found the reason why my emails to 4 btinternet friends have not been received since last November. SORBS must be the cause even though contacting my provider Boltblue and BT failed to deliver any satistafcory replies other that "Nothing is blocked at our end". So much for customer service.
I also have a dynamic IP address, but I thought that was useful to protect ME!
Thanks for the insight in what seems to be the problem.
Also, up until November/December 2006 my messages were received regularly, so this must be a fairly recent problem?
Ludo

Your best bet is maybe to contact the company that hosts your website and see if they can help. It might be a spam filter in their servers which is causing the problem.

Why will email sent TO me get checked by SORBS? The problem I'm having is getting mail delivered...

At least that's what I thought. I didn't get the spam message nor did I get anything else from you...

If incoming mail gets checked by SORBS that would suggest either Norton gets info from SORBS or BT's own spam filters do.

If BT filters any info using the SORBS data then they're potentially stopping their own customers from sending mail to each other! Surely that can't be the case....?

creditmarket:OK well my mail made it to you but I did not get the spam check email.... I know the kind you mean and it didn't arrive... I've received other mail to that address today so what does that indicate? Apart from the fact that it's mighty confusing!

Landshark, what do you suggest as an alternative to SORBS?

E-Mails sent to you will get checked by SORBS and some will be delivered (and some not). I am guessing that the spam check mail was rejected by SORBS as spam and so was not delivered as it came from the servers mail account which doesnt resolve to a hostname. You should of got the one from my E-Mail address though.

I dont know what to suggest really apart from contacting whoever is in charge of the SORBS blacklist and asking that the BT IP addresses are removed but I doubt they would do that.

Regrettably, SORBS is not an end-user choice. It is a product (if I can call it that) which is implemented as part of a Firewall solution by people who need better education!

There are many good firewalls for commercial use - anything is better than SORBS. Check Point is one that comes to mind but there are a host of them from Cisco and other reputable IT suppliers.

OK well my mail made it to you but I did not get the spam check email.... I know the kind you mean and it didn't arrive... I've received other mail to that address today so what does that indicate? Apart from the fact that it's mighty confusing!

Landshark, what do you suggest as an alternative to SORBS?

SORBS is usually implemented by managers who do not have much idea about the reality of the decision or by jobsworths who do not understand IT but believe the recycled garbage that SORBS puts out about its own self-importance.

SORBS is totally unhelpful and arrogant as they rarely answer a single e-mail or complaint.

Static IP Addresses are only useful to people who host servers on the internet or specialist services. For many, it is also a chargeable request as there are only a finite number of IP addresses that can be had. If SORBS then decides that your static IP address is a source of SPAM then you really are knackered as there is nothing you can do to bring them to face their allegations.

Bottom line here is that SORBS and their petty minded little Hitlers who continue to use them are little short of terrorists in cyberspace and it is high time that they were made culpable for their wretched lies and deceit and the misery that they heap on millions of innocent end users who have to face the consequences of their ridiculous product.

Your mail did get through, I have it in the queue awaiting you responding to the spam check email. The problem must be at the other end and not yours because the E-Mail got through fine.

In answer to your question "Will it make it or wont it". Yes it did!

I have a spam blocker on that sends an E-mail back to you that you have to reply too for the mail to get through (stop's mailing programs emails from getting through). If you didnt get a error message its possible that the person you are sending the mail to has the problem and not you.

If this is the case inform them of the error and hopefully their technical staff will be able to fix it.

email sent at 11.50am. No failed delivery message but no reply so I'm guessing it didn't make it...

If you are still getting 550 error's then probably not. Its an authentication error more than anything else. Can you try sending an E-Mail to my E-Mail address and see if it goes through?

me AT gazjones.com

If it doesnt go through tell me what the exact error message is word for word so I know exactly what you are dealing with. Ill try to help if I can.

I did not have the 'server requires authentication' box ticked so I've just tried that and sadly, another failed delivery report.

My static IP is being set up on the 1st Feb, should this ultimately resolve the problem? I'm becoming doubtful on the basis that nothing else seems to be doing the trick!

The error message you stated earlier was a 550 error which is an authentication error or "relaying denied". Do you have to put a username and password in to send e-mails from your domain name? On my server you have to enter your login details to send email. Give that a try, open outlook, open your account properties and goto the servers tab and you should see an tick box saying "my outgoing server requires quthentication". Tick the box, open the properties using the button that appears and fill in your login details and then give that a try.

immo, thanks for the tip but alas it did not work, although the failed delivery message is back!

I thought perhaps I might need to refresh my IP as well but that doesn't make logical sense. I'll turn the router off tonight anyway because it never hurts to try!

Sometimes you can get around this by using your mail servers IP addresses instead of the DNS name e.g. mail.yourdomain.co.uk

If you know your mail servers IP address try putting them into the POP and SMTP section of Outlook or whatever you are using. If you dont know the IP addresses you can get them easy enough by:

Using Windows

Press Start -> Run
Type cmd in the run box and click ok.

In the black window that appears type: ping mail.yourdomain.co.uk

It will return your IP address hopefully, if not contact the company that hosts your mail and ask for the relevent IP addresses, they maybe different for you POP and SMTP servers.


If that doesnt work let me know and I will try to think of some other solution.