Outlook Express blocking e-mails

[INArtCtr]

We have a Board member who is using Outlook Express to receive e-mails at home. The only way we have been able to successfully send her an e-mail is to reply to one from her -- e-mails that originate straight from us are blocked. I have tried our corporate e-mail system, my personal Yahoo account and personal GMail accounts -- all bounce back with an error 551. She swears there is nothing in her system blocking us, but I am suspecting somewhere in her Outlook Express she must have a rule set up to only allow people in her address book to send her mail, or some such. Not having ever used OEX, I have no idea how to tell her to remove the block. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks!

 

[trojanman]

Does she connect via POP3 to an Exchange mailbox?

 

[INArtCtr]

No, she has a simple Comcast cable internet account, but has OEX set up as her mail reader.

 

[smah]

How do you know the email is 'blocked'? Does it bounce back to you with an error or does it just never show up at the recipient?

 

[INArtCtr]

Well, frankly, I don't know that it is being "blocked". It is a guess on my part, considering that 1) all e-mails I send to her, no matter what account I use, come back with the same error, and 2) a co-worker is able to get mail through successfully, but only when she replies to an e-mail that this board member has sent to us. That seems to indicate some sort of authentication filter that is keeping out my e-mails. Originally, I suspected that Comcast may have our IP on a black list, but since we can successfully reply to her from this IP address, I no longer think that is the case. Now, why this person doesn't just add me to her address book or send me an e-mail so I can use reply each time, instead of complaining that my e-mails never get to her, I don't know. Short of going to her house and looking at her settings, I am hoping someone more familiar with Outlook Expres can describe to me what sort of blocking she might have set up.

 

[smah]

come back with the same error

So what's the error?

If you get an error message back, this indicates something happening at the mail server level, not the OE client.

 

[INArtCtr]

There was a SMTP communication problem with the recipient's email server. Please contact your system administrator.
<mail.myemaildomain.org #5.5.0 smtp;551 not our customer>

I agree, however, it is curious one other e-mail accounts at our same IP can get through and that all e-mails I am sending to her, even on personal accounts that she has no prior knowledge of, are bouncing back.

That is, I can compose a message and send it to here and receive a bounceback, while the person at the next desk can reply to an earlier e-mail from this person and have it sail through.

 

[trojanman]

Does she have an alternate 'reply-to' address? Meaning, when she sends an email and someone replies, it goes to a different address than the original one.

 

[smah]

Check the full header information (properties) of one of the messages that you can reply to. I think that you'll find that there's something different about the address information. It's likely correct in the 'reply to' field of the message that you receive and incorrect in your address book (despite what the board member might have told you).

 

[KenB]

INArtCtr,
Have her goto

http://www.comcast.net

and log into her Web Mail Box. This is where all of the mail sits before OE downloads it. In Comcast have her check her Preferences for the Spam Filter and Restrict Incoming Email (a White List). She may have set a Block there.
I have the OE setup to download my Email on my Comcast account and it took no special settings.

HTH
Ken