AOL server blocking procedure

[Jeff Koch <je...@intersessions.com>]

I just have to share this with the list. I just got off the phone with the 
AOL postmasters and found out that if you have hosting customers that 
forward their email to their AOL accounts and then complain about the spam 
they are receiving it is your mailserver that gets dinged by AOL. Get 
enough dings and AOL blocks your server.

We could call the customers and ask them not to complain to AOL about the 
spam they receive but I guess the only realistic solution is to filter and 
delete spam email whether the customer likes it or not.

This came up because we joined the AOL abuse feedback loop and got about a 
hundred copies of complaints - almost all of which were from our own 
customers complaining about spam that was forwarded through their email 
accounts.


Best Regards,

Jeff Koch 

Re: AOL server blocking procedure

[jdow <jd...@earthlink.net>]

From: "Jeff Koch" <je...@intersessions.com>

> I just have to share this with the list. I just got off the phone with the
> AOL postmasters and found out that if you have hosting customers that
> forward their email to their AOL accounts and then complain about the spam
> they are receiving it is your mailserver that gets dinged by AOL. Get
> enough dings and AOL blocks your server.
>
> We could call the customers and ask them not to complain to AOL about the
> spam they receive but I guess the only realistic solution is to filter and
> delete spam email whether the customer likes it or not.
>
> This came up because we joined the AOL abuse feedback loop and got about a
> hundred copies of complaints - almost all of which were from our own
> customers complaining about spam that was forwarded through their email
> accounts.

I'm ornery enough I'd block forwarding email to AOL at all. But then I
don't run an ISP and can afford to think like that. Of course, you do
realize that this is AOL "ordering" you to put in spam filters that may
have your own political, religious, or other agendas guiding the filtering.

A monthly reminder to your customers who are forwarding to AOL that their
email is being filtered and that they should use your own email services
directly to avoid the arbitrary filtering applied to satisfy AOL.

Nah, I still think I would prevent forwarding email to an AOL account
with no exceptions. If a customer tried this I'd send the customer an
email explaining the problem and that AOL is trying to fob off THEIR
support issues on you if you do forward.

{^_^}

Re: AOL server blocking procedure

[jdow <jd...@earthlink.net>]

From: "Bret Miller" <br...@wcg.org>
> > I just have to share this with the list. I just got off the 
> > phone with the 
> > AOL postmasters and found out that if you have hosting customers that 
> > forward their email to their AOL accounts and then complain 
> > about the spam 
> > they are receiving it is your mailserver that gets dinged by AOL. Get 
> > enough dings and AOL blocks your server.
> > 
> > We could call the customers and ask them not to complain to 
> > AOL about the 
> > spam they receive but I guess the only realistic solution is 
> > to filter and 
> > delete spam email whether the customer likes it or not.
> > 
> > This came up because we joined the AOL abuse feedback loop 
> > and got about a 
> > hundred copies of complaints - almost all of which were from our own 
> > customers complaining about spam that was forwarded through 
> > their email accounts.
> 
> Precisely the reason we filter ALL our e-mail for spam and virus
> regardless of where it's going. Harder to do that as an ISP, I realize,
> but you NEED to for AOL and MSN/Hotmail forwarding at the very least. If
> you don't you will end up blacklisted by them eventually.

That's a modest advantage I have using as large an ISP as Earthlink.
If Earthlink gets blocked AOL gets FAR more complaints than if they
get spam that purports to be from Earthlink. (On the other paw with
Earthlink's fairly aggressive anti-spam measures little spam seems to
come via Earthlink smtp servers. Heh, send too many emails too quickly
and sending mail becomes time expensive real fast. It's sort of a
thickening glue pot technology they use.

{^_-}

RE: AOL server blocking procedure

[Bret Miller <br...@wcg.org>]

> I just have to share this with the list. I just got off the 
> phone with the 
> AOL postmasters and found out that if you have hosting customers that 
> forward their email to their AOL accounts and then complain 
> about the spam 
> they are receiving it is your mailserver that gets dinged by AOL. Get 
> enough dings and AOL blocks your server.
> 
> We could call the customers and ask them not to complain to 
> AOL about the 
> spam they receive but I guess the only realistic solution is 
> to filter and 
> delete spam email whether the customer likes it or not.
> 
> This came up because we joined the AOL abuse feedback loop 
> and got about a 
> hundred copies of complaints - almost all of which were from our own 
> customers complaining about spam that was forwarded through 
> their email accounts.

Precisely the reason we filter ALL our e-mail for spam and virus
regardless of where it's going. Harder to do that as an ISP, I realize,
but you NEED to for AOL and MSN/Hotmail forwarding at the very least. If
you don't you will end up blacklisted by them eventually.

Bret