Linode.com Forum

[astrashe2]

This isn't a Linode problem, exactly, but I figured that some people might be in the same boat.

AOL is silently dropping mail I send to their customers.

I have my own domain and point my MX records for the domain to my linode.

At home I use my cable modem's pop account and SMTP server. I have my linode forward my email to the pop account, and I have my mail client configured so that it tags my outgoing mail with my own domain's address.

My ISP's SMTP server isn't rejecting the mail -- other people get it just fine.

I realize that there's a lot of movement in the mail system on account of spam, and I was wondering what I ought to do to keep my mail running, or if anyone else is having problems with AOL.

[caker]

I haven't had any reports of this, and I've emailed a few AOLers recently...

This *might* be helpful, dunno:

http://postmaster.info.aol.com/trouble/index.html

-Chris

[astrashe2]

Thanks, that is helpful.

From those pages, it doesn't seem like they'd be dropping my mail. I'm not sure what's going on.

I should probably try to send my outgoing mail through my linode too.

[NecroBones]

It's possible, without the presence of SPF records, that they may be trying to verify the source of your mail by other means, such as matching up your domain name with the IP/domain of the outgoing mail server you're using (in this case the cable company's mail server). I'd try adding SPF records that include the cable company's mail server IPs to your domain and see if it helps.

SPF info:

http://spf.pobox.com/