Re: Go daddy mail services admin

[Jeff Kinz <jkinz () kinz org>]

On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 07:21:52AM -0600, Blake Pfankuch wrote:
> Amazingly its not a route problem.  Its actually confirmed an issue
> with the mail server.  Hense me asking for a mail services admin.  The
> issue is confirmed from 3 locations with 3 different ISP's and I do
> actually know whats going on.  I can connect to the server, but it
> will not allow me to send messages, even when authenticated.  Returns
> a 554.  It has been doing this with legitimate mail.  They do not have
> the ability to send outbound as they get a 554 from their home office.
> The secondary smtp server links me to spamhaus saying that it will not
> allow relay based on an existing PBL entry.  The PBL entry is because
> it's a residential DHCP connection, and the PBL entry was put in place
> by the isp.  Please see http://www.spamhaus.org/pbl/query/PBL191963 if
> you have questions.
>
> So.  Again.  Looking for a GoDaddy Mail services Admin.

Hi Blake - 

With Godaddy The 554 code is a tipoff.
Does the error also contain the text:
    SMTP error from remote mail server after end of data:
    host smtp.where.secureserver.net [xx.xx.xx.xx]:
    554 The message was rejected because it contains prohibited virus or spam content


GoDaddy has an unusual policy of rejecting any email that 
mentions anything that resolves to an IP address on the PBL 
list 

Note this means any text string with the email body itself,
not the originating IP of the email.  

Any text, a URL or a even a dotted quad that resolves to the
PBL list will cause the email to blocked.

By way of example, this policy blocks emails from amazon ec2
merchants even if the email only mentions a web site hosted
at ec2, and the email itself is from a static web server
with proper MX records.

They have been contacted multiple times over the years about
this issue and refuse to change their policy.  The PBL list
explicitly describes how to use their list and this way of 
using it is incorrect.  The PBL list is supposed to be used
to check the IP address of the system actually delivering the
email to your server, not the contents of the email.

Based on their long term refusal to adjust their policy to
conform to PBL intended usage of the list I suspect this
issue cannot be corrected.  The only answer I have found is
to inform the affected people they have to move from GoDaddy
to a company that does a better job to correct the problem.

If this is NOT the issue creating your problem, then you may be
able to get GoDaddy to do something to help.

Good luck.
Jeff Kinz.