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Email Problems - FIX AVAILABLE |
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Monday, 07 July 2008 |
We are currently experiencing problems with sending/receiving email which was first reported on Friday 4th July 2008.
You may be unable to send outgoing email via Outlook/Outlook Express and receive an error message similar to the following:
The SMTP server returned an error. Server Response: 'rblsmtpd: xx.xxx.xxx.xxx pid 6816: 451 http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=xx.xxx.xxx.xxx'
Contacts attempting to send you email may have their messages returned with a message informing them that the email was identified as spam. Their email will not have been delivered to you and was incorrectly identified as spam.
The cause of this issue was an incorrect configuration change to the email server's spam filtering made by our hosting provider towards the end of last week.
We are working with our hosting provider to resolve these issues as soon as possible and will add additional information here as soon as it is available.
Please accept our apologies for this disruption to email services.
UPDATE (11th July 2008 6am)
We have now been provided with a permanant fix for this issue. Unfortunately it does mean that you will need to make a change to your email software's settings. In order to be able to send outgoing email again you need to set your email software (e.g. Outlook/Outlook Express) to use port 587 for SMTP connections rather than port 25.
To make this change in Outlook Express you need to select Tools from the main Outlook Express menu then Accounts; a window titled Internet Accounts should appear. Select the Email account that is causing this error message and click Properties. A new properties window will open, select the Advanced tab. Under Server Port Numbers you should see a setting for Outgoing mail (SMTP) and in the box to the right of it will probably be the number 25. Edit the number in the SMTP box to read 587 then click OK. You will be back at the Internet Accounts window click Close; this will return you to the main Outlook Express window. Repeat this process for any other accounts you have with us that are generating this error message.
UPDATE (10th July 2008 7am)
Please accept my apologies that the email problems are still ongoing. Our hosting provider has really let us down on this issue. So far they have still not come back to me with a satisfactory working solution to the problem. I am continuing discussion with them and would be delighted if they could restore things to how they were before 2nd July.
To prevent further disruption and loss of business for ASDF I will be contracting another hosting provider today to supply web hosting an email ready to migrate all ASDF customers' email services on to the new host.
UPDATE (7th July 2008 11am)
Following a lengthy discussion with a support representative at our hosting provider and initial mis-diagnosis they now fully understand the email problem and how they need to work towards a solution. The support representative has escalated the issue to their IT Engineers and say they will try their best to sort this out today.
Explanation of the cause
The problem is caused by the email server checking the Spamhaus PBL (Policy Block List) when sending outgoing email, this is incorrect and should not be the case. The PBL lists IP addresses which are either dynamic IP addresses or static address which should not be hosting email servers. If your IP address is listed in the PBL then this is ok and you should not remove it. A more detailed explanation can be found on the Spamhaus website: Should an ISP use the PBL to block their own users?
Workaround
Webmail is unaffacted by the outgoing email problem and so you can log in to webmail to reply to emails.
To access your webmail you can log in at http://webmail.a-s-d-f.co.uk using your full email address and password.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 11 July 2008 )
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