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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    champaign, il
    Posts
    140

    rDNS troubles, advice/expertise needed

    i know as much about rDNS and PTR records as i do about rocket science...so uh, i'm pretty confused.

    i'm a freelance web designer, and i was recently hired by ismta.org (illinois state music teachers association). they were in desperate need of a new host and a new web site, so i referred them to instaspace.com for hosting. the hosting plan was simple, cheap, and plenty good enough for what they needed (shared hosting). or so i thought.

    -edit-
    was going to post a link to ismta.org's dns report, but apparently i need to make 5 posts first. ::grumble::
    -edit-

    we can't send emails to aol.com addresses no matter what. i've tried everything i know. i contacted the aol postmaster folks via phone and they confirmed that ismta's ip address (12.168.33.12)was blacklisted. they said they could whitelist us if we could get our reverse dns entries sorted out. well...i have no freakin idea how to do that

    i don't even know who to bring this problem to. i've contacted instaspace about it several times and they don't seem to know anything about it. said they'd email me when they could resolve the problem, but that was almost 2 months ago. i sent them an IM about it earlier and i didn't even get a response. i thought i'd go over their heads and see who their host was, and those folks had no idea what i was talking about either. told me to talk to instaspace.

    the thing is...i have 3 other domains hosted elsewhere that do not have proper rdns records, and i can send emails to aol members just fine.

    -edit-
    was going to post a link to gravitysquared.com's dns report, but apparently i need to make 5 posts first. ::grumble::
    -edit-

    same rdns error as ismta.org, but without the email problems.

    this stuff is totally out of my area of expertise! i also noticed that ismta.org's ip address is blacklisted with SPEWS, but my gravity squared ip is not.

    right now, i'm leaning toward just switching hosts. ismta paid for 3 years of hosting up front, so hopefully i can get that back for them. i've got some really ticked aol members to deal with, and i'm tired of not having answers for them.

    so...any thoughts? recommendations? advice?

    -edit-
    sorry about the edits
    -edit-

  2. #2
    Ok so it's listed in SPEWS and has no RDNS.
    Out of professionalism I would ask instaspace to please add the RDNS for the ip 12.168.33.12. If it takes longer than a week, then try to get your money back. If your client has a business and cannot send email to aol, but can send to other places then the host needs to investigate and solve the issue.

    Do you have the bounce back that they get when they try to send to an AOL user? That would help pin point the issue.


    Thanks
    Datums Internet Solutions, LLC
    Systems Engineering & Managed Hosting Services
    Complex Hosting Consultants

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    champaign, il
    Posts
    140
    yeah, i think i'm going to ask them nicely one more time and move on if nothing is done. ismta can't even have aol members sign up for their message board because the validation emails are bouncing. putting me in a very bad situation!

    the bounced emails are weird. sometimes i don't even get them, sometimes i get them immediately, sometimes i get them hours later. sometimes the emails won't even leave my outbox and i get an SMTP error.

    gotta make a couple quick posts before i can paste the header for you. there's links in it

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    champaign, il
    Posts
    140
    screw it, one more post and i'm all set ::whistles::

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    champaign, il
    Posts
    140
    alrighty then, here's a copy of the headers:

    Hi. This is the qmail-send program at unix-12.instanix2.com.
    I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
    This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

    <obscuredx@aol.com>:
    Connected to 64.12.137.152 but greeting failed.
    Remote host said: 554- (RTRC) http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554rtrsc.html
    554- AOL does not accept e-mail transactions from IP addresses which
    554- generate complaints or transmit unsolicited bulk e-mail.
    554 Connecting IP: 12.168.33.10
    I'm not going to try again; this message has been in the queue too long.

    --- Below this line is a copy of the message.

    Return-Path: <webmaster@ismta.org>
    Received: (qmail 28250 invoked from network); 10 Oct 2004 17:18:22 -0000
    Received: from 12-203-114-219.client.insightbb.com (HELO orionmine) (12.203.114.219)
    by ja.com.mx with SMTP; 10 Oct 2004 17:18:22 -0000
    Message-ID: <002e01c4aeed$1fb58b10$6501a8c0@orionmine>
    Reply-To: "Marion Morris" <webmaster@ismta.org>
    From: "Marion Morris" <webmaster@ismta.org>
    To: <obscuredx@aol.com>
    Subject: test 3
    Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2004 12:17:42 -0500
    Organization: ISMTA
    MIME-Version: 1.0
    Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
    boundary="----=_NextPart_000_001B_01C4AEC3.24A33CF0"
    X-Priority: 3
    X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
    X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1437
    X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1441

  6. #6
    There you go this IP is on AOL's own blocklist

    554 Connecting IP: 12.168.33.10

    There list is dynamic, usually a 24hr block, but since obviously this is not a solution, you should paste the header in your ticket to instaspace.

    I am sure there are others affected on the same server.
    Datums Internet Solutions, LLC
    Systems Engineering & Managed Hosting Services
    Complex Hosting Consultants

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    The Shadows
    Posts
    2,925
    Just switch hosts. If they don't know anything about rDNS, they shouldn't be hosting in the first place

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    champaign, il
    Posts
    140
    just an update...

    instaspace has been ignoring me. they won't even respond to emails or IM's anymore and i've been so polite even though i'm highly irritated

    they haven't fixed the problem, so i moved my client to my server. it just sucks because i feel guilty for so highly recommending instaspace to them in the first place. they pre-payed for 3 years and it doesn't look like instaspace is going to give them a refund. i'm currently hosting my client for free, and i'm just ticked that instaspace put me in this situation. blargh!

    stay away from www.instaspace.com, they're blacklisted and don't seem to give a rat's arse about it.
    Marion Morris
    Gravity Squared Media
    Design and Multimedia Solutions

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