# Earthlink & MSN/Hotmail/Outlook/Live blocking email from TUG



## Makai Guy (Jul 14, 2016)

On July 13 we started receiving rejection notices from emails sent by the bulletin board to Earthlink and email addresses.  This affects all emails sent by the bulletin board to Earthlink accounts: 
notifications of private messages
emails from other users sent via the bbs
notifications of new posts to subscribed threads and forums
password reset requests
etc.
It is worth mentioning that our server is NOT on any of the major block lists maintained by various organizations for combating spam.

[*Note: The weekly TUG Newsletter is set from a different server and has not been affected, at least not so far.*]

On July 13 we submitted the request for getting the IP of our server unblocked according to Earthlink's instructions.  So far we are still receiving rejection notices from Earthlink.

Shortly after that, we started getting similar rejection notices from Microsoft-run email addresses at MSN, Hotmail, Outlook, and Live.com.

We've done everything we can do at our end.  If you are an email account at one of the above services, and if there is anything you can do to request that they unblock IP 69.16.236.4, it can't hurt.

Meanwhile, if you have an email account with someone other than Earthlink, you might want to switch your bbs account to use that other address.  If you need help in doing this, please see this thread on the board re how to update the email address in your TUG BBS profile:
http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21616


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## sefotuff93 (Jul 16, 2016)

Hi there,
I did not get your email last Saturday or this week. I have aol as my email address. Would this be the same problem as EarthLink?
Sheri


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## TUGBrian (Jul 16, 2016)

you might want to check your spam folder or filters on gmail if you mean the newsletter?

we show you were on the distribution list for both the last 2 newsletter emails.


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## TUGBrian (Jul 17, 2016)

update to this, this is also impacting MSN emails as well, we are starting to get a number of message delivery failed emails claiming we are on MSNs blacklist.

sadly we have members every week that instead of deleting emails (including the newsletter) they mark them as spam.  apparently when we get enough, they start blocking the IP address that the emails originate from.


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## TUGBrian (Jul 17, 2016)

mindspring.com hotmail.com and live.com also are actively blocking all TUG emails.


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## moonstone (Jul 19, 2016)

TUGBrian said:


> mindspring.com hotmail.com and live.com also are actively blocking all TUG emails.



I have a hotmail.com e-mail address & I received the newsletter last Saturday with no problems. 


~Diane


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## tschwa2 (Jul 19, 2016)

I did not receive PM notification from TUG today (hotmail.com) and I have never not received them in the past.  It did not show up in spam or inbox.


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## Elli (Jul 19, 2016)

I have Hotmail.com as well, and did receive the TUG Newsletter.    Elli


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## TUGBrian (Jul 19, 2016)

the newsletter is not sent from this server, and thus would not be subject to the email blocking issue...its actually sent by a 3rd party we pay to subscribe to for this very issue.

emails generated from the forum, or sent from @tug2.net are all actively being blocked by the above listed providers.

emails being blocked include:

any notification from the forums (private messages, new replies, password reminder/resets, private message notifications, as well as direct email sent thru the forum)

other emails being blocked would be:  new membership emails, membership renewal reminders, etc that come from tugadmin@tug2.net


best thing we can hope for is that the block wont last very long, we have already appealed to hotmail/live/msn/etc but have gotten no feedback...we would suggest anyone with an of htese emails send a support request asking that they remove the block from 69.16.236.4 so that mail will actually be delivered again.


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## TUGBrian (Jul 20, 2016)

scratch that, just got another email block reply from hotmail

fyi tschwa2, you have a private message...sorry that hotmail doesnt want to send you the notification email!


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## tschwa2 (Jul 20, 2016)

Got it , Thanks.  I usually check in twice a day or so and as soon as I log in I get any messages.  

I am just curious does this also affect the messages from the marketplace?  I don't usually log in their unless I have a message or I am posting an ad.


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## TUGBrian (Jul 20, 2016)

no, the marketplace is on its own separate server and is not currently under any block lists that we can see.

however we do suggest logging in regularly as we get reports all the time where the marketplace message notification was delivered to someones spam folder (and most folks dont ever check that).

we have 89 ads this week alone that have unread messages on them, we know this because we send a SEPARATE reminder email every monday to anyone who has an unread message to remind them to log in to read the message 

its a regular process fighting spam and blacklists when you send so many emails...extremely frustrating given the number of CLEARLY spam/spyware/garbage emails that get delivered to my inbox every day.  Its hard to believe that any legitimate emails get filtered, while some of this nonsense makes it thru just fine.


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## TUGBrian (Jul 21, 2016)

still being blocked as of today....


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## ljmiii (Jul 23, 2016)

I just received the TUG Member Newsletter: Week 29, 2016 email into my MSN account.


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## TUGBrian (Jul 23, 2016)

the newsletter is sent from a separate server =)

this is why we put that announcemen there as folks can actually get it!  but tug membership/renewal and forum messages are all still being blocked.


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## JPD (Jul 23, 2016)

Is there any way you could send out a blanket test email from that server to see who gets it and who doesn't?


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## TUGBrian (Jul 23, 2016)

not sure what you mean, any email we send returns us a message informing us that the email was blocked.


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## Makai Guy (Jul 24, 2016)

http://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx?action=blacklist:69.16.236.4&run=toolpage

The above link should run a check of our tugbbs.com's IP number against almost 100 known block lists.  As of this morning, 24 July 2016, we are not listed on any of them.  Yet some of these mail services are still blocking our mailings.


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## TUGBrian (Jul 26, 2016)

still blocked as of this afternoon.


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## TUGBrian (Jul 27, 2016)

annnnd still blocked today!


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## TUGBrian (Jul 27, 2016)

gotta love this kind of support!  (note we are still being blocked)



> We have completed reviewing the IP(s) you submitted. The following table contains the results of our investigation.
> 
> We were unable to identify anything on our side that would prevent your mail from reaching Outlook.com customers.


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## TUGBrian (Jul 28, 2016)

hurray, perhaps a light at the end of the tunnel!



> Hello,
> My name is redacted and I work with the Outlook.com Deliverability Support Team.
> Recent activity coming from your IP (redacted) has been flagged by our system as suspicious, causing your IP to become blocked. I have conducted an investigation into the emails originating from your IP space and have implemented mitigation for your deliverability problem. This process may take 24 - 48 hours to replicate completely throughout our system.


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## TUGBrian (Jul 29, 2016)

no longer getting immediate bounce back/block messages when I try to send emails, and I didnt get the nightly bulk of them at midnight eastern when the forum sends out its usual notifications to subscribed threads etc.

hurray!


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