Re: email problem with AOL Message #8 Posted by Les Bell [Sydney] on 5 July 2003, 9:17 a.m., in response to message #7 by Chris(FLA)
Just having a domain name is not enough. AOL has been constructing lists of network address ranges used for consumer-type ADSL and cable modem connections, where people "shouldn't" be sending mail directly but instead through their ISP's outbound SMTP server. If your IP address falls in one of those ranges, rightly or wrongly, AOL will not accept email from you.
Another problem arises when you're legit, on a permanenet IP address, but your ISP doesn't have any way of doing classless in-addr.arpa delegation. Your mail server contacts another and says "HELO mail.chris.org" and the other MTA does a reverse DNS lookup and finds that you seem to be cpe-203-35-202-153.some-isp.net and not mail.chris.org. Some MTA's are configured to reject mail if the HELO string doesn't match the reverse DNS lookup result, and you're hosed again.
If you're on some kind of dial-up or consumer-grade broadband connection, then it's just safer all round to send your outgoing mail via your ISP's mail server. It doesn't cost you any more, and it's a little more reliable.
Best,
--- Les [http://www.lesbell.com.au]
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