Blocked by msn.com MX, contact for MSN.COM postmaster ?
I found out that our outgoing SMTP servers have been blocked by the msn.com MXes. In a nasty way, too -- no SMTP error, the TCP connection is simply closed by them immidiately after establishing it. We're not listed on any RBL/DNSBL and have an active abuse desk. I mailed postmaster@msn.com, msnhst@msn.com, noc@microsoft.com, but didn't get a reply from any of them. Does anyone here know who to talk to ? Thanks, Mike. -- Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job -- Douglas Adams.
Miquel van Smoorenburg(miquels@cistron.nl)@2003.01.28 11:49:16 +0000:
I found out that our outgoing SMTP servers have been blocked by the msn.com MXes. In a nasty way, too -- no SMTP error, the TCP connection is simply closed by them immidiately after establishing it. We're not listed on any RBL/DNSBL and have an active abuse desk.
Miquel, does this problem still endure? I had such a thing quite a while ago (mid-2002) with them, but apparently it was a temporary problem of their MX in servers. I am also not listed in RBLs (due to pretty restrictive relaying policy) and the like, I was also _not_ able to reach someone at their end (postmaster@msn.com). After several hours of closed sockets, everything just worked again. Right now, our mail to msn.com goes via smtp-gw-4.msn.com(207.46.181.13) which appears to work: 220 cpimssmtpa19.msn.com Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 5.0.2195.4905 ready at Tue, 28 Jan 2003 06:09:46 -0800 Apparently their service runs on some successor of Win2000, so I wouldn't be very surprised, if it turned out to be resource shortage on their end (WRT things like The Worm Of The Week[tm] and the like). A misconfigured proxy or load balancing device might be another option. Also, their clock is off by approx. five minutes. Their system apparently lacks NTP support, or the clocks in Redmond are 5 minutes behind the rest of the world... :-> Oh no - not-so-funny - they got different clock drift for every machine (cpimssmtpa[01..40].msn.com) that happens to pop up when connecting to their best preference MX. Looks like they DNS-loadbalance their loadbalancers for SMTP, too. Funny. Regards, /k[Ok-I-am-silent-now]arsten --
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On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 11:49:16AM +0000, Miquel van Smoorenburg wrote:
I found out that our outgoing SMTP servers have been blocked by the msn.com MXes. In a nasty way, too -- no SMTP error, the TCP connection is simply closed by them immidiately after establishing it. We're not listed on any RBL/DNSBL and have an active abuse desk.
I mailed postmaster@msn.com, msnhst@msn.com, noc@microsoft.com, but didn't get a reply from any of them. Does anyone here know who to talk to ?
I'd be interested in knowing what you find out. We observed the same thing a while ago from one of our mail servers-- but just one. Connection drops immediately, no clue given as to why. However, from another mail server just a few IP numbers away (in the same /24), the connection goes through just fine. The workaround was obviously to configure the first mail server to relay mail for msn.com via the second one, and to try to get Microsoft to tell us what was up. No luck on that last front though. -mm-
I'm actually dealing with the same issue as we speak. Out of racks of web servers doing shared hosting, MSN decided to block the eth0 on one of our Linux boxes. I called a friend and was given a direct number to level 3 MSN technical support; they are the last tier of support you can speak to about technical issues as they forward everything via email to the MSN NOC. Tier 3 support #: 877.606.9433 I spent sometime on the phone with an engineer (?) Jerry (Gerald) Jones at the above number. If you'd like you can reference my ticket number (103316949), which should have numerous comments on it and all the details concerning the SMTP relay issue at hand. FYI: MSN's email addresses are useless; I tried NOC@, Postmaster@, Network@ & Abuse@ to no avail. Hope this helps. Still waiting for the issue to be resolved though, ticket was created 4+ hours ago. Todd Mitchell ProNIC Solutions | -----Original Message----- | From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu] On | Behalf Of Mark E. Mallett | Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 5:44 PM | To: Miquel van Smoorenburg | Cc: nanog@merit.edu | Subject: Re: Blocked by msn.com MX, contact for MSN.COM postmaster ? | | | | On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 11:49:16AM +0000, Miquel van | Smoorenburg wrote: | > | > I found out that our outgoing SMTP servers have been blocked by | > the msn.com MXes. In a nasty way, too -- no SMTP error, the TCP | > connection is simply closed by them immidiately after | establishing it. | > We're not listed on any RBL/DNSBL and have an active abuse desk. | > | > I mailed postmaster@msn.com, msnhst@msn.com, noc@microsoft.com, | > but didn't get a reply from any of them. Does anyone here know | > who to talk to ? | | I'd be interested in knowing what you find out. We observed the same | thing a while ago from one of our mail servers-- but just one. | Connection drops immediately, no clue given as to why. However, from | another mail server just a few IP numbers away (in the same /24), the | connection goes through just fine. The workaround was obviously to | configure the first mail server to relay mail for msn.com via the | second one, and to try to get Microsoft to tell us what was up. No | luck on that last front though. | | -mm- | |
Does anyone have a contact at msn.com that will respond to a situation similar to this thread? Our email queries to support/abuse/etc @msn.com have gone unanswered. We have a class C allocated from one of our /16's that has been blocked by MSN without any prior warning/notice from them. Unfortunately for our customers, this class C is heavily subneted and their efforts to block a potential spammer is akin to throwing the baby out with the bath water. a /32 I can understand, but a /24? Why not a /23 or heck a /8 - carpet bomb everything... We have *always* been responsive to spam complaints so to be blocked without any contact/notice is a bit disconcerting. I'm as anti-spam as they come, but this is a bit extreme... Darin
I'm actually dealing with the same issue as we speak. Out of racks of web servers doing shared hosting, MSN decided to block the eth0 on one of our Linux boxes. I called a friend and was given a direct number to level 3 MSN technical support; they are the last tier of support you can speak to about technical issues as they forward everything via email to the MSN NOC.
Tier 3 support #: 877.606.9433
I spent sometime on the phone with an engineer (?) Jerry (Gerald) Jones at the above number. If you'd like you can reference my ticket number (103316949), which should have numerous comments on it and all the details concerning the SMTP relay issue at hand.
FYI: MSN's email addresses are useless; I tried NOC@, Postmaster@, Network@ & Abuse@ to no avail.
Hope this helps. Still waiting for the issue to be resolved though, ticket was created 4+ hours ago.
Todd Mitchell ProNIC Solutions
| -----Original Message----- | From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu] On | Behalf Of Mark E. Mallett | Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 5:44 PM | To: Miquel van Smoorenburg | Cc: nanog@merit.edu | Subject: Re: Blocked by msn.com MX, contact for MSN.COM postmaster ? | | | | On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 11:49:16AM +0000, Miquel van | Smoorenburg wrote: | > | > I found out that our outgoing SMTP servers have been blocked by | > the msn.com MXes. In a nasty way, too -- no SMTP error, the TCP | > connection is simply closed by them immidiately after | establishing it. | > We're not listed on any RBL/DNSBL and have an active abuse desk. | > | > I mailed postmaster@msn.com, msnhst@msn.com, noc@microsoft.com, | > but didn't get a reply from any of them. Does anyone here know | > who to talk to ? | | I'd be interested in knowing what you find out. We observed the same | thing a while ago from one of our mail servers-- but just one. | Connection drops immediately, no clue given as to why. However, from | another mail server just a few IP numbers away (in the same /24), the | connection goes through just fine. The workaround was obviously to | configure the first mail server to relay mail for msn.com via the | second one, and to try to get Microsoft to tell us what was up. No | luck on that last front though. | | -mm- | |
participants (5)
-
Darin Wayrynen -
Karsten W. Rohrbach -
Mark E. Mallett -
Miquel van Smoorenburg -
Todd Mitchell