FC: AOL blocking mail from The Well? Forwarded from IP list...

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

From: Bruce R Koball <bkoball () well com>
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 11:58:13 -0700 (PDT)
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: a favor from IP: AOL not accepting mail...

Dave,

I'd like to ask a favor from the estimable IP list, if you think it's
appropriate.

For the past several days, AOL seems to be effectively blocking all
email from my home system, well.com. Mail is not really being blocked
completely or bounced - it just isn't being accepted (there is no
response whatsoever from the AOL servers). This backup is starting to
become a serious problem on our servers and our sysadmin has had zero
success in trying to contact anyone at AOL who knows anything about
this.

I'm sure many IP'ers are familiar with the WELL, a seminal virtual
community currently owned by Salon. It's a commercial operation, run
professionally, and is home to thousands of users. And yes, our mail
server has a reverse-DNS PTR record, as AOL appears to require now.  We
also know we're not alone, having received reports from other sysops of
similar problems.

So, the favor I ask is that if any IP'er is in a position to help,
either to point us to the right person (or perhaps they _are_ the right
person) in AOL, please send me mail. Thanks!

-brk-


Bruce R. Koball         B. R. Koball, Inc.   (direct)   510 845-1350
bkoball () well com        2210 Sixth St        (office)   510 548-2450
bkoball () koball com      Berkeley, CA 94710   (fax)      510 845-3946

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin, 1759

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From: Carmel Hazard <carmelhaz () aol com>
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 18:29:14 -0400
To: dave () farber net
Subject: AOL not accepting mail... (fwd/re)

Hi all --

Amy Hale asked that I try to help resolve your email problem since I have a
history with the AOL mail team.  I wanted to let you know that I forwarded
your descriptions to the people in the mail operations group.  You should
also contact them directly to ensure that your issue gets resolved.
Hopefully this approach will eliminate the middleman and enable you to get
an expedient resolution.  Please let me know if you have difficulty in
reaching an equitable agreement.

Contact postmaster () aol com or call 703-265-6942 and explain the problem. You
may also find helpful information on the web at:
http://postmaster.info.aol.com/.

Regards,

Carmel Hazard
Associate Director
AOL University Relations
703-265-1951




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