i run a very small hosting company (about a dozen clients) on a windows 2003 server with Helm and the latest version of Smartermail (www.smartertools.com) for my email server.

overall it works well but i have been experiencing problems lately when users on my email server try to send email to users at roadrunner (@nycap.rr.com). the messages always get delivered but sometimes they take hours to get delivered.

when i look in my mail server logs i keep seeing:
"RSP: 421 #4.4.5 Too many connections to this host.
CMD: QUIT"

so basically the message gets rejected by the roadrunner mail server and then when the server tries again to send the message it goes through. although sometimes it takes several attempts.

i have gone back and forth with roadrunner about this. according to their pages it looks like i am being affected by their inbound rate limiting policy but they SWEAR that there is nothing on their end preventing me from getting my messages through to their server. i have tried calling them, and emailing them at several different numbers and addresses and they all give me some BS answer.

my clients are really unhappy with the fact that their messages sometimes take hours to deliver, and i really don't know where to turn to get this resolved.

i don't have this problem sending messages to any other provider or domain, just roadrunner and unfortunately most of my clients communicate regularly with roadrunner users.

i would even be willing to pay someone to help me with this but i just don't kwow where to turn. can someone please advise?

You'll need to contact abuse@rr.com or security@rr.com and have them remove your IP from their blacklist.

You'll need to contact abuse@rr.com or security@rr.com and have them remove your IP from their blacklist.

i tried both of those (as well as some phone numbers) and it got me nowhere. i am not blacklisted because my emails EVENTUALLY go through. i think its more that i am on their list for inbound rate limiting (described here:http://security.rr.com/spam.htm#ratelimit)

but after 20 emails back and forth with them, they SWEAR up and down that there is NOTHIGN on their end that would cause my emails to be delayed. but they are ABSOLUTELY lying. either that or the person i was in touch with just didn't know where to look.

everyone i spoke to (and i encountered several) had no idea what i was talking about when i told them i was beign affected by their inbound rate limiting policy. each person i spoke to, i have to email or tell them the link above so that they could read about the policy and then come up with some ******** answer about whey they think its not their fault.

i am not saying that my server is perfect, maybe there's something i need to change on my end (although i dont think so), but if they could even tell me WHY they are delayign my messages then we could figure out how to fix it. but nobody at time warner seems to have any idea why this is happening.

Maybe you are misunderstanding what they are saying.

I interpret their response as being that there is nothing *explicitly* configured to delay email. But, if you look at the errors in your logs, it clearly says that the rr email server is experiencing too many connections. This response is perfectly compliant with the relevant smtp rfc's. It is saying, we're too busy, come back later. So, in the absence of an explicit rate limiting policy, they just might have some very busy servers.

On the other hand, are you opening more than "x" connections to rr simultaneously? If so, you might try rate limiting smartermail.

My bad, I just read your link to rr.

It might be that you fall into one of the 2 lowest rating categories. In that case you will have to fix it on your end so that you can get into one of the higher categories.

Have you checked your DNS configuration as suggested on that page?

yes that sounds reasonable enough but if its just that their server is too busy to handle my connections, then why don't other email providers have problems. as most people do these days, my clients who are complaining about the delays have accounts with various other providers (yahoo, gmail, and a couple other local hosting providers) and they say that they do not experience any delays with their other accounts.

so why would the roadrunner servers be too busy to accept mail from my server? thats what i have not been able to understand.

the volume of email coming from my server from theirs in not large at all so i am certain that it is not an issue with multiple simultaneous connections from my server.

its not like i am trying to pull a fast one on them or anything - i just need my clients' legitimate business email to get through to their intended recipients.



Maybe you are misunderstanding what they are saying.

I interpret their response as being that there is nothing *explicitly* configured to delay email. But, if you look at the errors in your logs, it clearly says that the rr email server is experiencing too many connections. This response is perfectly compliant with the relevant smtp rfc's. It is saying, we're too busy, come back later. So, in the absence of an explicit rate limiting policy, they just might have some very busy servers.

On the other hand, are you opening more than "x" connections to rr simultaneously? If so, you might try rate limiting smartermail.