[73080] in North American Network Operators' Group
Fwd: Re: Are AOL's MXs mass rejecting anyone else's emails?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew Paprocki)
Wed Aug 11 23:34:34 2004
Date: 12 Aug 2004 03:34:00 -0000
To: nanog@merit.edu
From: "Andrew Paprocki" <andrew@ishiboo.com>
Reply-To: <andrew@ishiboo.com>
Errors-To: owner-nanog-outgoing@merit.edu
This message was sent to me offline after my post to the list. This apparen=
tly solved our problems. Just sending back to the list so anyone else searc=
hing for this issue can find an answer. Thanks NANOG!
-Andrew
> ----- Begin Forwarded Message -----
>
> To: andrew@ishiboo.com
> From: ajensen@ntsi.us
> Subject: Re: Are AOL's MXs mass rejecting anyone else's emails?
> Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 11:41:24 -0700
>
> Andrew,
>=20
> I lurk on the NANOG list for interesting topics (can't currently post thr=
u). I
> started having this exact same problem in June with AOL. Spent an hour on=
the
> phone with "Michael W" (linuxwolff@aol.com) and another couple hours doin=
g
> debuging via telnet to their servers before figuring it out.
>=20
> The problem in my case is that they seem to have put in place an email he=
ader
> order filter (which gives back the 554 RLY:FA error if failed). Of course=
, the
> web/mail masters didn;t seem to have any idea the mail admins did this.
>=20
> In my case, the problem is caused by the position of the "From:", "Mime:"=
, and
> "Content:" headers. The "From:" header MUST come before the other 2 in th=
e
> message flow, otherwise it is rejected. I don't know of any RFC which dic=
tates
> email header order... but apparently AOL is filtering on it... I forwarde=
d this
> info to them long ago and Michael said he would "add it to their notes".
>=20
> Below is the message I sent them with the details:
> ---
> >Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2004 12:22:35 -0700
> >From: ajensen@ntsi.us
> >Subject: Bouncing email - believe to have found the problem
> >To: linuxwolff@aol.com
> >
> > I think I have found the problem with the 554 RLY:FA error message.
> > According
> > to
> > my logs, I have been able to successfully send you a few messages.
> >=20
> > The problem appears to lie in the processing of mail header order withi=
n the
> > email message itself, not the SMTP "MAIL FROM" or "RCPT TO" commands.
> > Previously when I sent out email, the headers of the email would look
> > something
> > like:
> >=20
> > Received from: <blah blah blah>
> > To: <recipient@address>
> > Subject: <subject>
> > MIME-Version: 1.0
> > Content-type: text/html; charset=3Diso-8859-1
> > From: <tagged_sender@address>
> > Message-Id: <20040610185105.88AD63B8114@www.ntsi.us>
> > Date: <date string>
> >=20
> > <Message>...
> >=20
> > This was done through a PHP script using the "mail()" function, based =
on
> > the
> > example 4 in the PHP manual (http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mail=
=2Ephp)
> > (NOTE: in the example they have To/From/CC: and Bcc: headers following
> > MIME/Content headers). This method still works fine through several oth=
er
> > mail=20
> > servers (cox.net, arizona.edu, af.mil) and had worked fine for the past=
year
> > with aol.com. As of approximately Jun 9th, 4pm MST (or earlier, was wor=
king
> > at
> > 10am according to my logs), this no longer works with AOL servers.
> >=20
> > After some manipulation I have found that for the AOL servers, the From=
:
> > header
> > (regardless of the SMTP "MAIL FROM" command) MUST come before the MIME
> > and/or
> > Content headers within the email message. It appears that reordering th=
e
> > To/From/CC: headers does not affect the outcome, so long as the From: h=
eader
> > precedes the MIME: and Content: headers of the message.
> >=20
> > Therefore, for a message to get through to an AOL user, the message mus=
t be
> > formatted in the manner of:
> >=20
> > Received from: <blah blah blah>
> > To: <recipient@address>
> > Subject: <subject>
> > From: <tagged_sender@address>
> > MIME-Version: 1.0
> > Content-type: text/html; charset=3Diso-8859-1
> > Message-Id: <20040610185105.88AD63B8114@www.ntsi.us>
> > Date: <date string>
> >=20
> > <Message>...
> >=20
>=20
> =20
> Adrian Jensen
> ajensen@ntsi.us
> Systems Administrator
> National Traffic Safety Institute
> Tucson, Az
>=20
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> This mail was sent through webmail services for the=20
> National Traffic Safety Institute and may contain
> privileged and confidential information. Use or=20
> interception by any intermediate agency or=20
> individual is prohibited.
>=20
>=20
>
> ----- End Forwarded Message -----
