"Mail Rejected by Policy"

[skeezix]

An email was sent from someaccount@bluehost to me at bresnan.net. The sender had received an email forwarded to her by somebody else, and the sender forwarded the email to me. Typical joke email, has been done many times in the past.

This time the sender received a message from MAILER-DAEMON at outbound-mail-189.bluehost.com. The message said:

"I failed after I sent the message. Remost host said: 550 5.7.1 Mail rejected by policy" followed by a bunch of a= stuff.

I went to someaccount's computer and I looked at the source of the email that wouldn't go through. Didn't see anything unusual. The forwarded email had images (nothing new) and was an "eml" type.

I looked at all the Bluehost options and setups for someaccount. No forwarding, no filtering, no box-trapping, no other special setups.

Before I go to Bluehost to see what the problem is, does anybody here have any ideas where else I might look to see why Bluehost does not want to forward this particular email??

[Early Out]

Before I go to Bluehost to see what the problem is, does anybody here have any ideas where else I might look to see why Bluehost does not want to forward this particular email??You're looking in the wrong place. BH isn't doing anything wrong - it's bresnan.net that's rejecting the message. You'll have to ask them why.

[skeezix]

Hmmmm. I'm lost. Here's the exact message:

From: MAILER-DAEMON@outbound-mail-189-bluehost.com
Sent: (Date and time)
To: myaccount@mysite.com
Subject: failure notice

Doesn't this mean that the mailer-daemon at bluehost sent the failure notice??

Continuing with body:

"Hi. this is the qmail-send program at outbound-mail-189-bluehost.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.

"recipient@bresnan.net:
69.145.248.1 I failed after I sent the message.
Remote host said: 550 5.7.1 Mail rejected by policy: "

and then a bunch of a= text strings.

Sure looks to me as though Bluehost is the originator of the failure notice. I don't understand what part of this message points to bresnan as the originator.

I appreciate your help, please bear with me!

[Eriksrocks]

Yes, Bluehost was the originator of the failure notice, because it couldn't deliver it to bresnan.net - bresnan.net wouldn't accept it ("Mail rejected by policy").

It's like you giving the postman a letter, and saying, "Go deliver this to John at 132 Main Street." Then the postman comes back to you and tells you, "Sorry, I couldn't deliver it because John wouldn't take it - it was against his policy."

It's not the postman that is at fault, it's John who wouldn't take it. In this case, the postman is the Bluehost mailer and John is bresnan.net. :)

Get it now? :)

[felgall]

Is bresnan.net hosted on BlueHost? That would be the only instance where it would be a BlueHost server that has refused to accept delivery. The only instance where the server reporting that it can't be delivered is the server it can't be delivered to is if both accounts are hosted on the same server.

[skeezix]

Yes, Bluehost was the originator of the failure notice, because it couldn't deliver it to bresnan.net - bresnan.net wouldn't accept it ("Mail rejected by policy").

It's like you giving the postman a letter, and saying, "Go deliver this to John at 132 Main Street." Then the postman comes back to you and tells you, "Sorry, I couldn't deliver it because John wouldn't take it - it was against his policy."

Get it now? :)

Sure do, thanks to your analogy. What threw me was bresnan saying, "69.145.248.1 I failed after I sent the message".

This has piqued my curiosity. I can't see anything in the rejected message that bresnan would object to. I suppose I could try eliminating parts of the message until I isolate the offending section.

Felgall,

Bresnan is a major ISP for the Mountain States (Colorado, Utah, Montana, Idaho).

[felgall]

Bresnan is a major ISP for the Mountain States (Colorado, Utah, Montana, Idaho).

I didn't know who they are since I am in Australia and am not aware of the names of many of the ISPs in the US.

[Eriksrocks]

I didn't know who they are since I am in Australia and am not aware of the names of many of the ISPs in the US.

I live in the Midwest US and I haven't heard of them either. :p