Whirlpool

Can anyone advise me why bigpond users get the error message "550 Invalid recipient: " when they try to send emails to anyone in my business. I have tested the address with other ISP's and mail comes through as normal. It is a concern as it is an advertised contact address for my business. I have spent hours on the phone today trying to resolve the problem. Any advise would be really welcome. Thankyou

margo writes...

Can anyone advise me why bigpond users get the error message "550 Invalid recipient: " when they try to send emails to anyone in my business. I have tested the address with other ISP's and mail comes through as normal. It is a concern as it is an advertised contact address for my business.

More information needed.

Could you please post the message (including headers)? Of course, delete any details which should be kept private.

J.

margo writes...

Can anyone advise me why bigpond users get the error message "550 Invalid recipient: " when they try to send emails to anyone in my business

Perhaps your domain name has expired??

Have you checked to ensure your domain is still registered?

Hi Margo,

I whimmed you ... (private message, click the WHIM PRIVATE MESSAGING bit on the left of the page...

Yes, I have spent hours on the phone with IT Melbourne (where the domain name is registered); Bigpond & TPG. As I saidl, send mail from any other place but Bigpond and the mail comes through to me? Are you with bigpond - if so could you try to send an email to sales@gundabluey.com.au. Thankyou

Johnno,

This is the message I continually get back.

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject:
Sent: 18/09/2005 8:18 AM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

'sales@gundabluey.com.au' on 18/09/2005 8:18 AM
550 Invalid recipient: <sales@gundabluey.com.au>

Tks.
Margo

margo writes...

This is the message I continually get back.

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject:
Sent: 18/09/2005 8:18 AM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

'sales@gundabluey.com.au' on 18/09/2005 8:18 AM
550 Invalid recipient: <sales@gundabluey.com.au>

That's strange.

I checked which mail server(s) handle mail for gundabluey.com.au, and then telnetted to port 25 on two of them and attempted to send email to that address.

Neither one had a problem with sales@gundabluey.com.au.

Can you post the full headers of the message so I can see what path it took from its origin to the end of its journey?

J.

Johnno,

Have had several test messages come through to me this morning through optusnet; tpg & hotmail accounts - but nothing from bigpond. This is how the messages look.

-----Original Message-----
From: System Administrator
Sent: Sunday, 18 September 2005 9:16 AM
To: 'sales@gundabluey.com.au'
Subject: Undeliverable: hello

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: hello
Sent: 18/09/2005 9:16 AM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

'sales@gundabluey.com.au' on 18/09/2005 9:16 AM
550 Invalid recipient: <sales@gundabluey.com.au>

You would think it would have to be something very simple?

Thankyou
Margo

margo writes...

Have had several test messages come through to me this morning through optusnet; tpg & hotmail accounts - but nothing from bigpond. This is how the messages look.

I need the message headers, not the content.

What email software do you use?

J.

Johnno
I use microsoft outlook - have also tried outlook express with the same results.
Just had a friend try to send an email from his bigpond account and he go this response- Error 559;Port: 25, Secure(SSL): No, Server Error: 550, Error Number: 0x800CCC79.

There is nothing in the header of the emails I try to send through bigpond - the emails don't seem to get past first base. When I right click on options to look at the path, it is empty, there is nothing there!

I have whimmed you with details of a successful message I just sent by going into my ISP mail box - TPG.

Tks
Margo

Hi Margo,

Your domain seems to be hosted with Webcentral, or a Webcentral reseller. Is this the case?

As far as I can tell, these issues can be solved...

Have emailed you.

-- chrisp

this is likely to be bigpond having a stale entry in their mailserver files - or as I call it 'rcpthosts'

ie: now that the domain no longer has an MX pointing to a telstra/bigpond IP address range has telstra/bigpond remembered to remove references to this domain within bigpond?

I've had problems with this before, and found it problematic to get this fixed. usually tons of whinging gets the job done.

A 550 mail bounce always comes down to two things (and correct me if i've made a mistake here) - if there is any other way this can happen I definitely want to know about it.

either you are sending mail via the wrong SMTP server - ie: trying to send via bigpond when connected to optus (for instance)
[you have proved this is not the case for your situation as you can send mail]

or bigpond has an invalid entry in their mailserver configuration. Under linux this will be relay-domains, mailertable, virtusertable (sendmail), rcpthosts (qmail). No idea what bigpond uses for their mailserver - but good luck getting this fixed, I doubt the Help Desk staff will have a clue on this one.
[this is highly likely as only bigpond users have difficulty in emailing you]

Prove me wrong.

Steve

madness writes...

this is likely to be [ ... ]

Yes!

I have talked with Margo and ascertained that (many years ago) this domain was handled at Telstra, with virtual mail mapping to a Bigpond account.

Margo is sending domains at online.telstra.com.au the request to scour and remove all such relics from their systems. It might be fixed by Monday...

Many thanks also to Webcentral support for their superlative Sunday afternoon support!

-- chrisp

Many thankyous to everyone has tried to help me with this problem, especially Crisp being so generous with his time. I have sent an email off as advised by Chrisp and hopefully will be "on air" tomorrow. Will keep you advised. Thankyou Margo.

Thankyou once again for all your assistance. YOu were correct - stale Telstra hosting was the problem. All email addresses checked in the last half hour and working!!!
Thankyou
Margo