Bigpond rejecting Plusnet emails again

[#1]

This weekend our emails to friends in Australia are once again being rejected, with this message, which indicates that the Plusnet email server has been blacklisted. When this has happened before, it resolves after a day or so but is annoying and inconvenient.

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.      

Delivery to the following recipients failed permanently:

  * xxxxxx@bigpond.net.au

Reason: A message that you sent to the following recipient could not be delivered due to a permanent error. ** The remote server ?? responded with: ** xxxxxx@bigpond.net.au ??:?? This message was created automatically by mail delivery software on the server .

Reporting-MTA: dns; avasout-peh-004 [212.159.14.20]
Received-From-MTA: dns; smtpclient.apple [212.159.XX.XXX] (this being our IP address)
Arrival-Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2022 17:16:11 +0000


Final-recipient: rfc822; xxxxxx@bigpond.net.au
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 5.7.1 Connection refused. 212.159.14.20 is blacklisted in ReturnPath RPRBL List. See https://senderscore.org/blocklistlookup/

Last-attempt-Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2022 17:16:12 +0000

[#2]

Hi @Mad_Moggies

I'm really sorry to see the recipient's provider rejecting your e-mails again.

Based on the response I got from our NetOps team last year (Here), did the recipients raise this with their provider? 

[#3]

As we've not been able to get in touch with them, they don't know that our emails haven't been getting through (apart from not hearing from us)!
I emailed them from a different address yesterday but I think they may have set their email to block any 'unknown' addresses.
Just tried sending again this morning and the email hasn't been bounced back immediately, so hopefully the Plusnet emailserver has been removed from the dodgy blacklist.

[#4]

Thanks for getting back to me @Mad_Moggies

Last year you've advised us that your friends had started receiving your e-mails & had been replying to them.

I don't believe our e-mail server is blacklisted, because if that were the case, then it'd affect a vast majority of our customers and we'd be inundated with calls. Were you able to ask your friends to check with their provider in an e-mail they received?

[#5]

Thanks for your reply. Gandalf.

We've had a reply from Australia now, saying that they received several emails all at once around mid-day our time. I'm assuming the system just kept trying till they went through. I'll now ask if they've contacted Big Pond to find out what the delay was and why the emails were being bounced.

You say you don't think it's Plusnet mail server being blacklisted, but that's what it says in all the emails where they were bounced back:

"Final-recipient: rfc822; xxxxxx@bigpond.net.au
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 5.7.1 Connection refused. 212.159.14.20 is blacklisted in ReturnPath RPRBL List. See https://senderscore.org/blocklistlookup/
Last-attempt-Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2022 16:46:04 +0000"

 Is there any other reason it might say that if it wasn't true?

Thanks again

[#6]

Hello Mad Moggies

Reply from SimonFastEddy:

14th February 2022

I can verify that I too can't get my emails to Australia because Bigpond is refusing them.  This has been going for about a week now.  The potential recipients in Australia suggest that they can't see any issues and haven't altered their message rules; they believe the problem is with us.

Mail bounced at bigpond

Note: I've modified the recipient's email address with "xxxxxx" to ensure privacy

The Server sends the following advice:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed permanently:

* xxxxxx@bigpond.com

Reason: A message that you sent to the following recipient could not be delivered due to a permanent error. ** The remote server ?? responded with: ** xxxxxx@bigpond.com ??:?? This message was created automatically by mail delivery software on the server .

Reporting-MTA: dns; avasout-peh-004 [212.159.14.20]

Received-From-MTA: dns; [192.168.1.66] [84.93.96.230]

Arrival-Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 12:28:25 +0000

Final-recipient: rfc822; xxxxxx@bigpond.com

Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 5.7.1 Connection refused. 212.159.14.20 is blacklisted in ReturnPath RPRBL List. See https://senderscore.org/blocklistlookup/

Last-attempt-Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 12:28:29 +0000

Mad Moggies!  When a crowd complains it is something systematic at fault; we are doing that.  I tried a public library computer as well as my home one and they were both refused. 

Lets see what happens as the days pass!

Kind regards from SimonFastEddy

[#7]

That looks the same as we got over the weekend.

Our friends too said there didn't seem to be anything wrong, but the emails we sent were't receivd tilll much later than they were sent.

[#8]

I'm afraid we've no control over a third party's blacklist and how they see e-mails that go through our mail servers. 

I would recommend asking the recipients to supply their provider a full copy of the headers to investigate further. 

[#9]

To Gandalf

From SimonFastEddy

15th February 2022

Thank you for assisting Mad Moggies and myself.  These bouncy emails occurred around a month ago and were followed by huge Plusnet outages.  I have two email addresses in Australia (Adelaide) that I can send to.  Yesterday's email that I sent to Oz hasn't bounced back as Nobody@invalid.invalid  just yet, so it could be that the issue has cleared.  The UK has a better "istheservicedown" and "downdetector" utility compared to the Australian equivalent, making it easier to probe a dysfunctional service. 

Question: is it possible to discriminate between a Nobody@invalid.invalid bounced email caused by a blocking message rule on the sender's computer and one originating from the server bigpond or their service provider "senderscore.org"?

I feel that we need to press Microsoft for an analytical tool and troubleshooter.  This is clearly a weakness that can be exploited by ransom attackers or users with character weaknesses.

Good luck

SimonFastEddy

[#10]

I suspect the issue has cleared.

Carrying out a lookup against the offending IP address on Senderscore's site suggests there's nothing wrong with it:-

[#11]

To Bobpullen,

From SimonFastEddy

Thank you for your reply, Bob.  So far all is OK here.  I am guessing that we are good to go.

Mad Moggies and myself are the other side of the planet from Australia, so if it is an overload of spam circulating Australasian email rivers; shooting the excess mail into the river systems, we won't know for sure for 12 hours when it comes in on the flood tide.

Having worked on sorting and delivery at Royal Mail, I can say: refused mail should have a dead letter red sticker attached and a tick-box ticked giving reasons.

Might be back!

SimonFastEddy

[#12]

Thanks
That's what I've done. Then it's down to them if they want to investigate further.

[#13]

Ah, SimonFastEddy, our occasionally bouncing emails are also sent to Adelaide.

[#14]

Hello from SimonFastEddy,

Hi!   Mad_Moggies.  Thank you for the  update - Roger your emails also sent to Adelaide.

OK - my contact in Adelaide has responded and my email is back to where it should be - going just fine.

It looks like the problem has indeed been resolved. 

I will keep an eye on the post; I expect the problem will be back again; it could be a local fault.

Bye

[#15]

Bigpond seem to have a litany of inbound mail delivery / rejection issues - just one of many from a Google search Bigpond blocking emails - Electronics & Technology - Community (choice.community)