Re: [exim] Can the Interface Option be Randomized

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Author: Lloyd F. Tennison
Date:  
To: exim users
Subject: Re: [exim] Can the Interface Option be Randomized
I am inserting only one of the over a dozen emails I have back and forth from
them. This was the most informative, and it stresses the bonded sender
program as do the web links and all of the other emails they have sent to me.
For me, the application fee is $750, with the subscription being $2000 and
then $20 per spam complaint - for any over one per million pieces of email
sent. The program they talk about the sender ID uses SPF and SPF cannot
be used if your domain forwards email. I do web hosting so that cannot be
sued.

Their solution is to repackage the email - but that does two things. First it
breaks the RFC's as the originating sender's info is then all gone, but worse it
makes all email that is sent (forwarded) look like I sent it - including SPAM.

"Hello Lloyd,

Your IP is blocked by MSN Hotmail because the vast majority of all the email
that you send to us has been judged to be spam by MSN Hotmail’s internal
filtering system. One possible explanation for this is the automatic forwarding
of unfiltered inbound messages, including spam messages, to MSN/Hotmail
addresses. This block lasts for 24 to 48 hours and then is removed. If again
the large majority of all the email from the IP is marked as spam it is blocked
again, and so on indefinitely.

Please confirm that your emails comply with MSN Hotmail’s technical
standards. This information can be found at:
http://advertising.msn.com/adproducts/Email_TechStd.asp.

It will also be helpful to send example emails directly to
randomtestacct@??? so that we can examine the types of emails
that you send. This will help us in our investigation. When you do this
please send us the subject lines of emails you have sent. Please make sure
that these emails are as functionally similar to the types of emails that
originate from your system, as any deviation from this may hinder our ability
to investigate your problem.

We have performed a manual unblocking of your IP for this purpose. Please
note that our filters are automated, and they will reinstitute an IP block if they
see similar activity in the future.

For information on common delivery questions please refer to the Hotmail
Postmaster Site found at: http://postmaster.msn.com/. MSN Hotmail has
also created the Smart Network Data Services program. This is a service that
helps legitimate email senders work with their customers and partners to
reduce spam originating from their IP. http://postmaster.msn.com/snds/.
Additionally you may want to investigate the Microsoft Sender ID program.
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/technologies/senderid/default.mspx.
While neither the SNDS nor Sender ID will enable emails from you domain to
bypass our filtering system they will help in the fight against spam.

Additionally you should consider evaluating the Bonded Sender program.
Bonded Sender (www.bondedsender.com) is the only White Listing service to
which we subscribe.

The only other way to ensure that your customers will receive your mail in
their Inboxes would be to request that they each add your domain to their
Safe List within their Hotmail mailboxes. Though this seems to be
cumbersome, several other mail senders have been able to do with without
too much trouble by putting the steps into the mail they send (usually at the
very top or very bottom) or putting the announcement on their web site.

Attached is a .doc with screenshots and instructions showing how this may
be done. Please feel free to distribute that information in whatever way you
feel will help resolve this issue.

Thank you,

Name Removed (Was First name only_


MSN Hotmail Technical
Support"



They stated that the blocking was part of the "upgrades" that took place last
week as is the new filtering system. One quote from them on the filtering:

"I am very sorry, but we are not able to discuss the details of the
filtering strategies or specific filters which MSN Hotmail utilizes in
order to combat unwanted e-mail. Our filters are highly confidential and
discussion of the specific filter rules would eventually render them
useless for all of our Hotmail mailbox owners."

That is when i asked why I was being blocked. And:
" I can(tm)t offer help with Symantec since they are a different company
with different policies. Usually, they will tell you if they are filtering your
emails, but that is up to them."

Symantec states all filtering is proprietary as are any listings. They only
divulge that information in court.

So, here is a solution give to me by another list member:

"John X. Smth wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Sep 2005, Lloyd :
>
>>Here is the text of the emails. They are pushing the BondedSender like
>>crazy - especially since I received an email direct from BondedSender.
>>sales department
>> at the address I only used with this ticket to hotmail.
>
> I would turn the problem around. Tell the hotmail users that hotmail is
> blocking their list mail, and they should contact hotmail and tell them
> to stop blocking their legit mail.
>
> Or, if it's not a business list, tell hotmail users they need to use a
> different address and move on. Send them all a gmail invite while
> you're at it.


That's what I recommend too. Your list subscribers are not getting
their list email because Hotmail is being unreasonable. Instead of
expecting you to jump thru hoops for Hotmail, it's perfectly reasonable
for you to put the shoe on the other foot and tell them to use a different
email provider that has more reasonable policies. When Hotmail finds that
they are losing users by droves they will stop expecting all legitimate
senders to jump thru these unreasonable hoops.

"The 'Net treats censorship as damage and routes around it." (John
Gilmore) In this case, the "censorship" is a side effect of Hotmail's
Bonded Sender program being badly implemented (saying that your mail
server can only "speak" to their mail server if it participates in Bonded
Sender) and rejecting legitimate email. Route around it by assisting your
Hotmail users in getting another email account.

ZZ "







Date sent:          Thu, 22 Sep 2005 07:23:30 +0100
From:               Peter Bowyer <peeebeee@???>
To:                 exim users <exim-users@???>
Subject:            Re: [exim] Can the Interface Option be Randomized
Send reply to:      peter@???
    <mailto:exim-users-request@exim.org?subject=unsubscribe>
    <mailto:exim-users-request@exim.org?subject=subscribe>


> On 22/09/05, Lloyd F. Tennison <lists@???> wrote:
> > I am trying to have the email sent out over my various IP's. I have several and
> > want to space the email out because of the new Hotmail email quota's that
> > took place last week that they are trying to enforce
>
> Can you post a reference to this policy? I just Googled for a while
> and couldn't find anything.
>
> I can't solve your problem immediately, but since the 'interface'
> option on the smtp transport is expanded, you could have it run a
> ${run or ${perl external command which could choose a random local
> interface for you... there may be a better way, though.
>
> Peter
>
> --
> Peter Bowyer
> Email: peter@???
> Tel: +44 1296 768003
> VoIP: sip:peter@???
>
> --
> ## List details at http://www.exim.org/mailman/listinfo/exim-users
> ## Exim details at http://www.exim.org/
> ## Please use the Wiki with this list - http://www.exim.org/eximwiki/
>
>



Thanks.

Lloyd F. Tennison
lloyd_tennison@???

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