AOL users not getting email

[palehorse777]

I do know a little bit about this issue and I have tried to explain this the best I can. Clearly I have not been successful.

Unfortunately I don't have anythign else I can add. If you have a specific sufggestion then please feel free to post this in the suggestions forum here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=55

You have NOT been successfull because you are in FULL DENIAL. I too have tis problem, it is ALSO with msn.com as well as hotmail.

I recently swtiched to vbulletin from phpbb and phpbb sent the confirmation email just fine.

THE ONLY DIFFERENCE is in the forum software, nothing else.

It is true vbulletin is not a email server, but it does "use" the server, and it is *not* using it properly.

Please address this and stop acting like the problem does not exist, we pay good money for this software and we expect you to act better then the India based tech support at AOL. Get with the program please and stop denying the problem.

[Wayne Luke]

We're not denying the problem. It may not be within our capabilities to change it though.

Did you go through every step in the troubleshooting guide above:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/troubleshoot_email

I just registered for an AOL email account. Using default junkmail filtering, this is what I received in my email box:

Dear AOL EMAIL TEST,
 
Thank you for registering at the vBulletin Community Forum. Before we can 
activate your account one last step must be taken to complete your registration.
 
Please note - you must complete this last step to become a registered member. 
You will only need to visit this url once to activate your account.
 
To complete your registration, please visit this url: 
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/register.php?a=act&u=
 
<a href="http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/register.php?a=act&u=">America 
Online Users Please Visit Here to be Activated</a>
 
**** Does The Above URL Not Work? ****
If the above url does not work, please use your Web browser to go to:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/register.php?a=ver 
 
Please be sure not to add extra spaces. You will need to type in your username 
and activation number on the page that appears when you visit the url. 
 
Your Username is: AOL EMAIL TEST
Your Activation ID is: 
 
If you are still having problems signing up please contact a member of our 
support staff at [email protected]
 
All the best,
vBulletin Community Forum
 
 
--------------------
To stop receiving this email, please visit this url:

There are also settings on the end-user's side as well. AOL, Yahoo, and MSN all have junkmail features that automatically delete any email that don't match a contact list entry. Overzealous filtering on the client side is often the cause of many of these problems. We can't control that. We can't control if your server's DNS is setup correctly so that the receiving mail server doesn't automatically delete what it believes to be improper messages.

We can only control how the message is formatted and handed off to the email server. That is what the steps in the troubleshooter are for.

[briansol]

AOL is a huge problem, to the point where I made a note on my reg page NOT to use it. (see attach)


This is NOT a problem with vB, nor is it a problem with your host (if you have reverse set up). its AOL.

AOL sucks. people who are still using aol should be evicted from the internet

[palehorse777]

It may not be within our capabilities to change it though.

Did you go through every step in the troubleshooting guide above:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/troubleshoot_email

Well, YES it did sound like outright denial, but this response does not so I will cut you a bit of slack.

I am going to delve deeper into this, IE: comparing the phpbb verification letter with yours (since phpbb does not have the same problem) and I suggest *you* do this too.

I will post back what I find.

I agree AOL sucks, apparently they are contending for "vacuum cleaner of the month" lately...

[Pottsy]

I have this problem too. Could it be that when you're on a shared host, the email headers show that the email has come from the overall host address, and not your domain? So the host and the sender domains do not match.

My headers certainly look like that, and many AOL emails never even make it into the bulk.

[Wayne Luke]

I have this problem too. Could it be that when you're on a shared host, the email headers show that the email has come from the overall host address, and not your domain? So the host and the sender domains do not match.

My headers certainly look like that, and many AOL emails never even make it into the bulk.

It could be. This is what the "-f parameter" is for under Email Options. You should enable it. It is one of the things listed on the troubleshooting guide. It could also be that your IP address was previously used for spamming and it is blacklisted. It can be a lot of things really.

If your headers say [email protected] then you definitely need to enable the -f parameter. You can also switch to an offsite SMTP server if that doesn't work. Many companies sell just email servers these days with less restrictions on outgoing mails than your average hosting providers.

[antiekeradio]

something is not 100% indeed. I have a number of recent experiences with failed email messages. I have been pestering my mailhost about it but the mails do not even show up in their spam filter.

the board that did not manage to get its registration email in my inbox (or filtered spam list) is a bog-standard Vbulletin 3.6.5 installation with no e-mail errors (most users still recieve emails)

[Pottsy]

It could be. This is what the "-f parameter" is for under Email Options. You should enable it.

With -f:

Microsoft Mail Internet Headers Version 2.0
Received: from thermalthree.footholds.net ([195.62.28.240]) by dellboy.domain.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830);
Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:31:02 +0100
Received: from nobody by thermalthree.footholds.net with local (Exim 4.63)
(envelope-from <[email protected]>)
id 1HhuVK-0001g6-Sf
for [email protected]; Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:30:55 +0100
To: [email protected]
Subject: vBulletin Email Test (With -f Parameter)
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Priority: 3
X-Mailer: vBulletin Mail via PHP
Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:30:54 +0100
X-Thermalthree-Filtering-Information: Please see http://filtering.footholds.net for further details
X-Thermalthree-Filtering: Found to be clean
X-Thermalthree-SpamCheck:
X-Thermalthree-MailScanner-From: [email protected]
X-Spam-Status: No
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - thermalthree.footholds.net
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - myhomedomain.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [99 32002] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - mydomain.com
X-Source:
X-Source-Args:
X-Source-Dir:
Return-Path: [email protected]
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 28 Apr 2007 21:31:02.0268 (UTC) FILETIME=[8520D3C0:01C789DC]

Without -f:

Microsoft Mail Internet Headers Version 2.0
Received: from thermalthree.footholds.net ([195.62.28.240]) by dellboy.domain.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830);
Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:15:16 +0100
Received: from nobody by thermalthree.footholds.net with local (Exim 4.63)
(envelope-from <[email protected]>)
id 1HhuG5-0006HG-4n
for [email protected]; Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:15:09 +0100
To: [email protected]
Subject: New User at mydomain
From: "mydomain" <[email protected]>
Auto-Submitted: auto-generated
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
X-Priority: 3
X-Mailer: vBulletin Mail via PHP
Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:15:09 +0100
X-Thermalthree-Filtering-Information: Please see http://filtering.footholds.net for further details
X-Thermalthree-Filtering: Found to be clean
X-Thermalthree-SpamCheck:
X-Thermalthree-MailScanner-From: [email protected]
X-Spam-Status: No
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - thermalthree.footholds.net
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - myhomedomain.com
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [99 32002] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - thermalthree.footholds.net
X-Source:
X-Source-Args:
X-Source-Dir:
Return-Path: [email protected]
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 28 Apr 2007 21:15:16.0535 (UTC) FILETIME=[516D6C70:01C789DA]

Not much in it, but the sender still seems to be the hosting company, and not mydomain.com.

[Wayne Luke]

This would be a mail server configuration issue then. You should have your hosting company fix the problem. There may be a specific email address that they allow these kinds of emails to be sent from your domain. They can give you that information.

[Pottsy]

Wayne, I'm not sure I understand. I'm sending emails via your PHP script, how can the host change anything (or more specifically, what should they change)?

[Steve Machol]

vB can only send the emails to the server. The server adds the headers.

[Wayne Luke]

Wayne, I'm not sure I understand. I'm sending emails via your PHP script, how can the host change anything (or more specifically, what should they change)?

Here is an expansion of what Steve says:

The default email functions in vBulletin use a function called mail() in PHP. It sends PHP the from address, to address, subject and text of the email. PHP then passes it off to the mail server that is specified in its php.ini. The mail server then either returns and error or sends it. That is the scope of the control that we have. vBulletin doesn't actually send any email it doesn't have the capabilities. It relies on an application installed on the same computer to do the work for it. Just like Apache is a server application, MySQL is a server application, sendmail is a server application. We can interact with them and try to give them what they want but we have absolutely no control over them from vBulletin.

When everything works together, it works great. When it doesn't it become frustrating. Nothing is more frustrating than telling someone that its a server issue and not being able to do anything about it. However running in the "application" layer, we don't get control over much. Most things are very restricted.

[southeastsxs]

Hi, I have had the same problem so I contacted GoDaddy, my hosting company, and they informed me this is a know issue and has nothing to do with the VBulletin software.

It is because I am using shared hosting and the email goes out from a shared email server. They have said the ONLY way around this issue is to get a dedicated server. They knew all about it when I called them and said that basically Yahoo and AOL (both junk IMHO) did this to stop spamming.

I also do have a full reverse DNS entry - for what its worth in the context if this convo.

Soooooooooooo VB you are correct, it is not your fault.

[Alfa1]

Please read this: How to keep your board from getting blacklisted as a spammer