Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

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e.Shubee
Posts: 21
Joined: September 18th, 2006, 8:11 am

Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by e.Shubee »

Being a former student at UCSD, I have two email addresses that I like to use for work related correspondence: name@ucsd.edu and name@alumni.ucsd.edu. All emails sent to those addresses are successfully forwarded to my Thunderbird inbox with address name@everythingimportant.org. However, when I use the identity name@ucsd.edu or name@alumni.ucsd.edu to send email from Thunderbird, the email bounces back. And all emails that I send from name@everythingimportant.org are getting through. What went wrong and how do I fix this?
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by tanstaafl »

Its probably due to your email provider. See if the same thing happens if you send it via webmail, using a browser. Or experiment with sending from a different account, such as gmail. Sometimes smtp servers automatically check if the destination is for a domain that is on a spam black list, and refuse to send/forward the message there on the assumption its too likely to be spam too.
e.Shubee
Posts: 21
Joined: September 18th, 2006, 8:11 am

Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by e.Shubee »

I don't see where I can create alternative identities in my webmail or in my gmail account. But I do wonder if my most recently bounced email (from name@alumni.ucsd.edu to name@gmail.com) contains any clues:

Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender

This is the mail system at host gateway20.websitewelcome.com.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

<name@gmail.com>: host gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[74.125.127.27] said:
550-5.7.1 This message does not have authentication information or fails to
pass 550-5.7.1 authentication checks. To best protect our users from spam,
the 550-5.7.1 message has been blocked. Please visit 550-5.7.1
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/ ... entication for more 550
5.7.1 information. p20si3903180oip.214 - gsmtp (in reply to end of DATA
command)


Reporting-MTA: dns; gateway20.websitewelcome.com
X-Postfix-Queue-ID: 00FCD400C800F
X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; name@alumni.ucsd.edu
Arrival-Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2019 15:48:46 -0600 (CST)

Final-Recipient: rfc822; name@gmail.com
Original-Recipient: rfc822;name@gmail.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.7.1
Remote-MTA: dns; gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550-5.7.1 This message does not have authentication
information or fails to pass 550-5.7.1 authentication checks. To best
protect our users from spam, the 550-5.7.1 message has been blocked. Please
visit 550-5.7.1
https://support.google.com/mail/answer/ ... entication for more 550
5.7.1 information. p20si3903180oip.214 - gsmtp
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tanstaafl
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Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by tanstaafl »

SMTP error code 550-5.7.1 means it won't relay your message. That's gobbledygook that means you need to authenticate yourself (prove you are a legitimate user by providing login information) to the SMTP server if you want to use it to send a message to somebody in another domain. That is why you got the link to a web page about bulk mail. They don't care who you are if you are just trying to send mail to somebody in the same domain, which is why certain messages were successfully sent.

Check your SMTP server entry in Thunderbird. Normally it should have the same username and authentication method that you used in the POP/IMAP account.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/5.7.1_Unable_to_relay
e.Shubee
Posts: 21
Joined: September 18th, 2006, 8:11 am

Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by e.Shubee »

I believe that my web host fixed this problem for me. Originally I thought that the problem was with Thunderbird.
Zarnia1
Posts: 8
Joined: December 1st, 2014, 4:51 pm

Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by Zarnia1 »

I have the same problem. It started a week ago and since then every email I send to any gmail.com address comes back with the same error as above.

I have not touched the settings in Thunderbird for several years, so it must be a change in gmails system. Unfortunately the email address is associated with a web domain that is hosted on a friends account, who I have lost contact with, so I am unable to get technical support from the host. :oops:

Is there anything I can try changing in Thunderbird? I've noticed that if I set the emails to send as text not html then sometimes they will go through, but otherwise they all come back.
Thanks. :D
petesmom
Posts: 2
Joined: February 25th, 2019, 4:03 pm

Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by petesmom »

I can receive emails fine, but when I try to send I get this error:

The mail server sent an incorrect greeting: 4.7.1 Client host rejected: cannot find your hostname, [137.103.86.121]

The settings are exactly as the service says to set them up. Is this a problem with Thunderbird, or with the email service (Expedient)?

Thanks.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by tanstaafl »

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p12665369
https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comme ... find_your/

They might be doing a reverse DNS lookup on the IP address of the SMTP server, and were unable to find its host name. I used https://mxtoolbox.com/ReverseLookup.aspx to lookup the IP address and verified there is a hostname. However, it turns out that IP address is black listed by Spamhaus ZEN. So the recipients SMTP server might be rejecting the mail that your SMTP server is trying to send because it thinks your SMTP server is heavily used by spammers, but it didn't choose the most appropriate error code.

I suggest you contact your email provider. In the interim see if they have a different SMTP server that you can use. If not, try editing your account in Thunderbird to use a SMTP server from another account.
mgagnonlv
Posts: 848
Joined: February 12th, 2005, 8:33 pm

Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by mgagnonlv »

@e.Shubee

If I read correctly the error message you are displaying above, you are using a Gmail account. Gmail requires you to only send messages through a verified address. So you can only send your emails using ID "me@gmail.com" or using an ID you have previously authorized.

So here is what to do to authorize "name@alumni.ucsd.edu" or "name@ucsd.edu" as a valid address on Gmail.

– Log in on your Gmail account.

– Click on the cog (upper right) and select "Settings".

– Select "Accounts and Import".

– Under "Send mail as", click "Add another email address".
Click the display name you want to use (probably FirstName LastName) and the email address (either "name@alumni.ucsd.edu" or the other one, but you can't do both at once).
You will be sent a verification email to which you need to reply.

– Once it is done, you can decide the name/email you want to use for new emails, and whether you want to reply to emails using either the same address that people wrote you to (i.e. gmail or alumni.ucsd.edu), or if you want all emails (including replies) to always use the same email address (say "name@alumni.ucsd.edu").

– Once you check it works in the web interface, configure Thunderbird accordingly. For instance, you could have the STMP server defined as:
– account name: My Account
– Electronic address: name@alumni.ucsd.edu
– Username: myname@gmail.com
– IMAP server parameters: Gmail parameters (imap.gmail.com if I remember correctly)
– SMTP server parameters: Gmail username and parameters (smtp.gmail.com...)


(Edit : updated the Gmail server addresses)
Michel Gagnon
Montréal (Québec, Canada)
e.Shubee
Posts: 21
Joined: September 18th, 2006, 8:11 am

Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by e.Shubee »

mgagnonlv wrote:@e.Shubee

If I read correctly the error message you are displaying above, you are using a Gmail account.
No. That's not correct. I'm using an address based on my domain name everythingimportant.org and two forwarding accounts on a UCSD server that forwards all my emails that are addressed to UCSD to my everythingimportant.org account in Thunderbird on my desktop.

And it seems that my problem has returned. Or maybe this is a different problem. My recently returned email now says:

550-5.7.1 This message does not have authentication information or fails to pass 550-5.7.1 authentication checks.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by tanstaafl »

Did you check that the SMTP server entry for each multiple identity in the everythingimportant.org account in Thunderbird still has a valid username and password? That SMTP server entry is not the same SMTP server entry that your account normally uses, though it would normally have the same username and password.

Does this problem only occur when sending using one of the multiple identities to a email address that doesn't use the ucsd.edu domain?

Do you get the same error if you try to send a message to that same email address using ucsd.edu webmail (with a browser)? I'm not suggesting it as a workaround, but to try to figure out if this is actually a Thunderbird problem or not.
petesmom
Posts: 2
Joined: February 25th, 2019, 4:03 pm

Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by petesmom »

They might be doing a reverse DNS lookup on the IP address of the SMTP server, and were unable to find its host name. I used https://mxtoolbox.com/ReverseLookup.aspx to lookup the IP address and verified there is a hostname. However, it turns out that IP address is black listed by Spamhaus ZEN. So the recipients SMTP server might be rejecting the mail that your SMTP server is trying to send because it thinks your SMTP server is heavily used by spammers, but it didn't choose the most appropriate error code.
I'm not sure that I understand a lot of the information provided. So I have a few questions:

1. Is there an intermediary between my computer/Thunderbird and my email service? Because it appears that it is my service that is rejecting the outgoing emails, not any recipient. I sent a test email to myself at the same service, and got the same message.

2. In some of the examples, it mentions that having a different domain in incoming and outgoing email can cause this blacklisting. My service has that, since my email is a "legacy" service that is now administered by expedient, who kept the old domain name in the incoming email address. They recently changed the SMTP sever name to use expedient rather than the former toadmail. Could that be the cause? Yet, I'm back at the same spot, that it appears that it's the email service that is not accepting the email from Thunderbird. I can send emails from the expedient webmail tool, and they go through just fine. Again, this looks like it's expedient that is not accepting the outgoing email.

3. Could this be a problem with expedient not liking my Internet provider?

I will contact expedient and see what they say. I have a gmail account and can use that off the browser to send emails when I need to.
e.Shubee
Posts: 21
Joined: September 18th, 2006, 8:11 am

Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by e.Shubee »

tanstaafl wrote:Did you check that the SMTP server entry for each multiple identity in the everythingimportant.org account in Thunderbird still has a valid username and password?
The creation of multiple identities in Thunderbird doesn't need valid usernames and passwords. For proof, I just now created an obviously bogus identity in Thunderbird and successfully sent and received an email from President Donald J. Trump <theDonald@whitehouse.gov> to my primary gmail account.

Again, it's just select emails with real working addresses that are bouncing back! What's going on?
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tanstaafl
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Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by tanstaafl »

e.Shubee wrote:The creation of multiple identities in Thunderbird doesn't need valid usernames and passwords. For proof, I just now created an obviously bogus identity in Thunderbird and successfully sent and received an email from President Donald J. Trump <theDonald@whitehouse.gov> to my primary gmail account.
That didn't prove anything. When you create a multiple identity it inherits all of the existing settings of the account. You merely created a clone that has a different From: email address.
e.Shubee
Posts: 21
Joined: September 18th, 2006, 8:11 am

Re: Only Certain Emails Are Bouncing Back

Post by e.Shubee »

tanstaafl wrote: You merely created a clone that has a different From: email address.
So why is my bogus identity working (President Donald J. Trump <theDonald@whitehouse.gov>) but my clones with my real name and legitimate from addresses name@ucsd.edu and name@alumni.ucsd.edu not working?
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