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Why you might ask? Well here is the scenario
in a nutshell. AOL has strict spam policies. Because
of these policies, they block large chunks of
IP addresses merely based on the service provider.
Even though we have a business class internet
connection on dedicated lines with managed servers,
AOL has found it in their great wisdom to ban
all emails sent from our servers merely because
other people using the same ISP have sent mass
email messages before. Our service provider does
not condone or allow this, but even sending a
single email to one person who reports it to AOL
using their nice 'one click' spam report system
will get your server, along with all others in
your IP block banned.
We contacted AOL multiple times, and after days
of wrangling with them on the phone had them re-instate
our IP block, only to have it blocked again just
days later.
This we found was also caused by some of our
other clients on this server using AOL's spam
blocking features as well. We have clients that
setup forwarding addresses from their domains
to their AOL account. For example:
They setup a forwarder from their domain to their
AOL account (Bob@BobDomain.com -> Bob123@aol.com).
This way, they get all email sent to JoeSoap@JoesDomain.com
and everything gets forwarded to their AOL email
account. Nice, easy, simple, and our clients only
have to check one spot for their email.
HOWEVER, one day the client receives some spam
at Bob@BobDomain.com, which of course gets forwarded
straight to the AOL email account. The client
opens the AOL email box and sees the spam, then
clicks to add it to the AOL spam filter - spam
is gone - life is good!
Here is the problem: AOL's spam filter (wrongly)
does not register the originator of the message
as the spammer - instead, it registers the last
place the email came from as the spammer, and
the last place the email came from is our web
host server (JoesDomain.com). But the story doesn't
end there ... AOL goes one step further to make
things even uglier - they don't just block BobDomain.com,
they block the entire web host server that the
site is on, and in many cases the IP block associated
with our IP as well, which means all the other
web sites that share the server and use the same
ISP (typically, hundreds of them) now cannot send
email to anyone at AOL either and we are back,
once again, being blocked by AOL and we have to
start at the beginning again.
We are not alone. Mailing lists, legitimate emails
from schools and universities, email from users
workplace, and valid op-in lists such as ours
are being blocks by AOL and there are articles
about it all over the web.
So what can you do? Setup a FREE email account
with Hotmail,
Yahoo,
or Google
gmail. All three provide spam protection that
works very well and will not effect your mailing
lists or other important emails.
Hope this little primer explains why we can't
put AOL users on our list, but also we hope this
will open the eyes of any AOL users out there.
Break out of the hold of AOL and use your email
as it was intended to be used! Don't let some
corporate entity dictate what you can and cannot
receive because they are too cheap or lazy to
institute real spam protection like you find at
Hotmail,
Yahoo,
or Google
Gmail.
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