At&t blocking e mail

[sheldon1451]

We have AT&T service in our office as well as home. They are blocking the forwarders sent via Blue Host. This has been quite a problem for us. I know there are ways around it (use google apps, forward to another account such as yahoo and then forward to the at&t address), but I don't believe I should have to do that. Blue Host IS aware and saying they are working with AT&T without any estimate of when this might be resolved. AT&T message is that the forwarders are being blocked due to "abuse". Isn't there some way to find out who is creating this issue (if anyone)?
This is really frustrating!:mad:

[felgall]

Isn't there some way to find out who is creating this issue (if anyone)?

It is a combination of actions in two places that is creating the issue.

1. AT&T is not checking where the spam that reaches their server originates from and so block all mail coming from the place the spam last passed through.

2. You and others who set up forwarders to a differerent domain who are forwarding all the spam to them in the first place.

[sheldon1451]

Are you insinuating that I'm using the forwarding to send spam? "You and others......"....that's quite a statement!:eek:

[farcaster]

As I read and re-read your post, that's pretty much what I am seeing you say.

[MrDelish]

Are you insinuating that I'm using the forwarding to send spam? "You and others......"....that's quite a statement!:eek:

It's a blunt way to put it, but forwarders do indeed contribute to spam problems. Most email addresses nowadays receive spam, so any address forwarding these messages to another server is sending a courtesy copy to another mail server that thinks the spam comes from the forwarding email address. Regrettably, many users that forward their emails like this think that they are contributing to spam prevention by marking these messages as spam, but this only results in another step towards blacklisting the mail server responsible for the forwarding (in other words, they cripple the same email service they pay for). The only exceptions to this rule, of course, are email addresses that get no spam, so no spam is forwarded. But I'm not sure those exist any more... :rolleyes:

I recommend users to set up POP accounts, whether it's through an email program running on your computer or a web-based email program (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and other providers support this). But really I wish a new deadly strain of some virus would surface that only afflicts spammers.

[felgall]

Are you insinuating that I'm using the forwarding to send spam? "You and others......"....that's quite a statement!:eek:

Yes - when you set up a forwarder any spam received at the address being forwarded is forwarded along with all the other emails.

The only way to stop that happening for indiividual email addresses is to make sure that an actual email account exists for the address as well as the forwarder. When an account also exists the email is received into the account and whatever spam filtering you have on the account is run (Spam Assassin or Postini) and then a copy of clean emails is forwarded. If an email account doesn't exist then the forwarder forwards everything meaning that most of what it is sending will be spam. Also when you use a forwarder then that email addres that is being forwarded is effectively the from address meaning that your forwarder address appears to be the origin of all that spam.

If you want to forward ALL email addresses then you don't set up any email accounts or email forwarders at all. Instead you point the domain's MX record to the place you want all the emails to be sent to. Then the emails are forwarded to that location still showing their having been sent by the original sender iinstead of by the forwarder.

[sheldon1451]

Let me re-phrase my issue. I do not have a forwarder set up in my Blue Host account. I receive e mail that I open via Microsoft Outlook. Some of those e mails require that I forward them to other people. Anyone with a AT&T address or SBCGlobal address is getting blocked.
I now have a better understanding of "forwarders" being an issue, but....there should be a better way around this!

[felgall]

So the problem that you are actually having is that because some people are automatically forwarding all the emails they receive at BlueHost to AT&T that AT&T have made the stupid decision to block all emails from BlueHost instead of working out where the spam really originates from and blocking that.

I think BlueHost may have someone on staff whose job it is to keep informing small players such as AT&T of how stupid that they are to block such a large percentage of the internet like that.

All you could do would be to get the intended recipients to complain to AT&T that the emails they expect to receive are being blocked.

[ittyxbitty]

This is the gist I got from BlueHost Abuse: "AT&T has put us in a catch 22. As we are ever growing we are ever adding new IPs/mail servers. AT&T realized we had added a bunch of new IPs to our regular outbound and forwarding servers. Those IP's didn't have a sending reputation, being new IP's. Due to the amount of mail, whether it was HAM or SPAM, didn't matter (because of no reputation on those IP's) AT&T blocked it. It was shear volume.

We are just an extremely large company now with millions of domains that we host. Its next to impossible for us to load balance a new IP so the volume is extremely low for the new IP, as we try to meet the demand of our customers that we are signing up.

AT&T due to their internal policy won't share what that thresh hold is nor would I expect them to because it would give someone the means to spam around their security measures. However we can't establish a reputation if we can't send mail through their servers. In an attempt to mitigate this we have tried specifically routing all AT&T and it sister companies, like SBC or Bellsouth, to be routed through servers with known good IP standing with them. But we are still working on tweaking load balance and volume so AT&T just doesn't start blocking everything again.

I completely understand any concerns and frustrations. All I can say is we are working very hard to eliminate this."

[felgall]

Sounds like BlueHost are doing all they can at their end so the only way to get any further is for those with accounts at the other end who are not receiving mail to complain to their provider about the mail that they need to receive being incorrectly blocked.

[sheldon1451]

Thanks all ;)
I tried getting my complaint across to AT&T. Might as well try getting ahold of Obama!
Hopefully, it will be resolved in the near future.

[swintgs]

Does anyone know contact information for AT&T? Web page? Phone number? I would like us to be able to complain directly

[farcaster]

Do not enlist others to turn this into a "witch hunt". If you want to contact AT&T yourself, it shouldn't be hard to find this information through a Google search.

Other posts of this nature will be deleted.

[sheldon1451]

Interesting analogy "witch hunt". FYI it's nearly impossible to get to a specific, back room department in any large organization.
Tell me what you get when you google it.
I'm not sure how someone could misuse the information required to get to a specific department?:confused:
Enlighten me, please.

[felgall]

Anyone with an account with them should have all the necessary contact details - probably in one of the emails they got when they signed up. Only those with an account there are likely to be listened to regarding any complaint like this anyway.

[Hakalau Tom]

I never spam. I never forward. Mail from my domain had been blocked by both ATT and HotMail before I moved to BlueHost. HotMail at least has the courtesy of explaining that I am a spammer and where I can go to repent. ATT, not so much. I got tired of pleading with the sites that passed judgement on me. Instead, I accept no mail from from users on ATT or HotMail. Silly, but it makes me feel better.

[bmadams]

We have AT&T service in our office as well as home. They are blocking the forwarders sent via Blue Host. This has been quite a problem for us. ....
This is really frustrating!:mad:

We are experiencing the same problem...THIS IS A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM!! We are operating a business in the heart of ATT/Bellsouth. It was better for awhile but is back. Not only are our Forwards effected...but other ATT/Bellsouth users cannot send or receive from us...we may/are loosing business.....

Please, if there are other users on this forum with the same problem...LET AT&T and Bluehost know...

Brian

[ramon357]

We were having this problem with not being able to reach AT&T. As of last week (Oct 19th.) we were finally able to get through. I called/chatted with bluehost on Oct 12th and they said they were working with AT&T. Info on how to contact AT&T is in the email that you would get from MAILER-DAMEON non delivery email.

So all you can do is wait.

Juan

[Ferdinand]

I guess you have heard it before, but if ATT's spam policy is affecting your business negativly I would recommend to migrate your emails to an external mail provider like Google Apps (http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.htmll). We use it since 1 1/2 years and the result: very comfortable to use, POP, IMAP, great web interface, very easy administer, nearly no spam and very rare false positives.
But above 100 email accounts it becomes very expensive (50 USD per email address).

For newsletters you could use professional web based mail services like aWeber, iContact, ConstantContact or so. These services usually guarantee not being blacklisted, but they aren't free. We just started to work with iContact.

[sheldon1451]

I guess you have heard it before, but if ATT's spam policy is affecting your business negativly I would recommend to migrate your emails to an external mail provider like Google Apps (http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.htmll). We use it since 1 1/2 years and the result: very comfortable to use, POP, IMAP, great web interface, very easy administer, nearly no spam and very rare false positives.
But above 100 email accounts it becomes very expensive (50 USD per email address).

For newsletters you could use professional web based mail services like aWeber, iContact, ConstantContact or so. These services usually guarantee not being blacklisted, but they aren't free. We just started to work with iContact.

Thanks for the information. I was given that same suggestion by a BlueHost rep (I believe), but I don't believe that I should have to go through all of that to send out mail from a service provider that I am already paying. I have a better picture of the complexities now and a better understanding.
On the + side, so far my messages are now going through to all AT&T and SBC Global addresses. Thanks to all for their help.;)

[robby]

Is anyone still having problems with AT&T/Bellsouth emails bouncing back? We recently have started having a LOT of problems again and causing me lots of headaches. Was anyone able to get ahold of a competent person at AT&T that cared at all about the problem?

[Jolly]

I would recommend to migrate your emails to an external mail provider like Google Apps (http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.htmll). We use it since 1 1/2 years and the result: very comfortable to use, POP, IMAP, great web interface, very easy administer, nearly no spam and very rare false positives.

I wonder if you've got any info on how to set this up with a domain that you are hosting with BH. I'd be very keen to set this up. However, I was not able to follow the link above.

Keen for any extra info on this.

[Jolly]

Worked out how to follow the link. For some reason there was an extra 'l' appended to the URL

This one worked for me
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html