Tech: Strange email problems...

Subject: BS: Strange email problems...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 02:02 PM

Lately I have been having problems receiving emails from certain people...mainly people in England or the USA that I am buying stuff from on Ebay. They get every message I send them, but I don't get any of their replies...or I get a few of their replies but only a few. If they send me replies through Ebay itself, then those seem to make it, but the standard email stuff mostly doesn't. There are other people I have no trouble receiving from, as far as I know.

I'm on a dial-up server. They can't seem to find anything wrong at their end.

I downloaded "pop-up stopper" awhile back. Could that have anything to do with it?

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Strange email problems...
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 02:26 PM

it may depend on some setting in your email program....if you have any spam filters set, that might cause it...or maybe your email address is no longer correct AT EBay.

I have at least 12 ways I can find out if I have email, but only ONE is set to download it...the others leave it on the server.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange email problems...
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 02:31 PM

hmmm...you said 'certain people'...does that mean you get mail from some, but a few are lost? It 'sounds' like what a filter would do. I just the other day got a program I am "training" to recognize SPAM and to know desirable senders.

(I would doubt that a pop-up stopper is the problem, though I don't use that one..only Proxomitron)

Subject: RE: BS: Strange email problems...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 02:43 PM

It's hard to figure out what's getting through and what isn't, but I'm definitely not getting replies from 3 or 4 people on Ebay when they try to send them. I finally contacted one guy by sending him my phone number, and he called me.

Doesn't a spam filter dump the message in the Delete file? If so, I would be finding them there, because I check it every time.

The guy I phoned said that when he tries to email me, it doesn't make a good connection most of the time.

Maybe it's a problem with the phone line here...but then it should still reach my server.

I went into the "mail rules" and deleted all my filters, but it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Strange email problems...
From: Jeri
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 03:19 PM

Your ISP may have spam filters in place too, and sometimes they completely block other ISPs. (I believe that's what's meant by 'denial of service'.) You might want to check with your ISP.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange email problems...
From: Cluin
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 03:27 PM

Yes, some ISPs, when a lot of spam comes from a certain other ISP and they receive numerous complaints, will just have a filter block all e-mails from that ISP altogether. Like throwing out the baby with the bathwater, but it is often done to force that other ISP to clean up it's own act and enforce anti-spam rules on it's subscribers.

That happened to my ISP when I was on Sympatico dial-up years ago and I know it still happens, especially to WEB-TV subscribers.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange email problems...
From: mack/misophist
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 03:51 PM

My e-mail to certain addresses is often blocked by Road Runner because they apply black list filters without checking with the offending ISP's to see if the black listed addresses were spoofed. But I usually get a notice when that happens. It is possifle for e-mail to just disappear, but it's rare.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange email problems...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Jan 04 - 05:53 PM

Ah-hah! I suspect that is the problem right there. I'll check it out on Monday.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange email problems...
From: mack/misophist
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 11:44 AM

Little Hawk:

If your problem is the same as mine, I've discovered that a reply to some earlier message will go through. Provided there is an earlier message.

Subject: RE: BS: Strange email problems...
From: Willie-O
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 12:41 PM

As a former Sympatico tech support guy, I confirm: sometimes the receiving end blocks transmissions completely from a particular domain. Roadrunner and bellsouth.net have done this to Sympatico in the past, and it's also happened with overseas domains, like Russia.

That would explain why if you send mail through the e-bay domain it goes (if it's not going via your regular address).

It's a frustrating call for tech support cause there's nothing they can do about it, except to inform the department that runs the e-mail servers, which needs to negotiate with the other party.

If you have a spam blocking service in effect, the spam may never reach your machine. (The one sympatico uses i.d.'s suspected spam and puts in in a separate folder in your webmail account; it never reaches your e-mail program on your P.C, check your webmail.)

Try corresponding using a different address, like setting up a hotmail or yahoo account for contacting those people. If that works but your regular address doesn't, it's either domain blocking or a routing issue.

Bill

Subject: RE: BS: Strange email problems...
From: Little Hawk
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 12:50 PM

Good idea. I'll try that. Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Strange email problems...
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jan 04 - 01:01 PM

It took me a while to find where Earthlink was putting the spam when they first set up their "spaminator" several years ago. I finally discovered it on a separate folder through web mail. It's still via webmail, but much easier to locate now. Just today I spotted one "real" post in the mix of about 100 spams over in that collection. I open that folder, skim the "from" column, and if a name seems familiar I glance at the subject line. (Most of the subjects are so garbled or so nasty I don't want to see them!)

Your company may have put in a filter, but you should be able to see the mail they identified as spam if you poke around in the system. They are often "self-cleaning" but they don't want to just destroy it because they might be destroying mail you really wanted to receive. There should be some way that you can move it from one mailbox to the other and send the message "this is not spam" to their filter.

SRS