Can't send emails to AOL

[GaryMurray]

The email just sits in the queue and gives the following error:

The connection was dropped due to an SMTP protocol event sink.

I checked in system manager under protocols for smtp and it had an old DNS in the Virtual server properties, advanced. So I changed it to the correct DNS.

It is only AOL I have the problem with, does anyone have any ideas what is stopping this?

 

[stevepasq]

I would contact AOL and see if they black-listed your domain. That happened to me (more than once) and the problem you described is exactly what was happening to me.

 

[markdmac]

Verify you have an RDNS entry and an SPF entry in public DNS.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

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[GaryMurray]

Could you explain in more detail what you mean?

>Verify you have an RDNS entry and an SPF entry in public DNS.

 

[zbnet]

Reverse DNS records are used to verify that your IP address you are using to send email belongs to the domain you are saying the email comes from.

Sender Policy Framework records likewise allow you to define what servers are authorised to send for the domains in the envelope sender address of the messages you generate.

These are sometimes used by email servers en route to authenticate the email that you send, and help others see that you are who you say you are - some ISPs are starting to block senders who don't comply with these standards, in an attempt to restrict spam on the Internet.

 

[58sniper]

As mentioned above, make sure the reverse DNS record is correct, and that it matches the MX record. For example:

your public IP address is 1.2.3.4
your MX record points to mail.domain.com
mail.domain.com points to 1.2.3.4
reverse DNS on 1.2.3.4 is listed as mail.domain.com

When all of those match, you'll have a much higher success rate.

Once that's done, you can explore the SPF records, although it's not absolutely required for AOL.

For more info on AOL, see

http://postmaster.aol.com/

Pat Richard
Microsoft Exchange MVP