HostGator Blacklisting AOL Emails Problem

[bargainbloodhound]

I'm looking for a new host

Yep, the manual blacklists were dumb but it's fairly common for entire blocks of IPs at hosting companies to be placed on blacklists due to a few spammers using the hosting company.

[iron_chick]

This is the response I got this morning to my question as to what keeps on happening and why:

Hello.

This is because of the forwarder used for your account.

When email is forwarded, it is sent through our gateway server as if it were mail sent directly from one of our servers. Since the email address has @paypal.com, the gateway believes it to be originating from our server. (Basically, no one should be sending mail with a paypal.com address FROM our servers, so it's blacklisted at this time to help reduce the amount of phishing).

Mail should now be able to send TO paypal properly from our servers, but not email FROM our servers with a paypal.com address as the from address. (When a forwarder is used, it isn't just incoming, it's also outgoing. The outgoing is being filtered because of the FROM address being @paypal.com)

The only way to get around this completely is to use a regular email account (where you download it from the server), or to use a third party email account as you have.


Thanks for choosing HostGator!

If you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Best Regards,
Daniel
HostGator Level 3 Support
Server/Abuse Administration Team

Now, this all sounds like bullwombat poo poo to me and I responded pointing out that:
1) I forward spoof emails to paypal every day and have never had a problem until two days ago and no longer have a problem, since another tech said it was fixed.
2) I received the same error message last week when trying to write to a friend who uses aol.com.  I write to folks using aol every day and never had a problem and didn't have a problem again once the HG tech said it was fixed.
3) I've changed NONE of my email settings at HG before, during, or after these events. 

(I have all of my incoming email forwarded to a yahoo account as a back up. I think that's what he's talking about.)

[dnc_ont]

Hmm, well the premise behind what he`s saying is a good one, to help cut down on the bastards that may subscribe to their hosting services thinking they can use them to operate their phishing business.

[Anita]

Hang in there, Beth!

[bargainbloodhound]

Now, this all sounds like bullwombat poo poo

I'll give it a partial bullshit.  I think the part about sending emails with aol/paypal in the "from:" field being blocked is true, but I think Hostgator screwed up when they first set it up and also blocked emails with aol/paypal in the "to:" field and didn't notice their error until you complained.

[iron_chick]

Hi,

Everything should work correctly now as we removed the block on the gateway for the paypal domain.
Thank you.

If there is anything else we can assist you with please do not hesitate to ask.

Regards,
        Ben Gabler
        Support Operations Manager,

Of course, that means that when the hostgator tech told me yesterday morning that the problem was that my local IP address was blacklisted by paypal . . . they were just wrong. 

[bargainbloodhound]

Of course, that means that when the hostgator tech told me yesterday morning that the problem was that my local IP address was blacklisted by paypal . . . they were just wrong.

On the positive side they did know what a blacklist was...unlike BellSouth.

[iron_chick]

[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=2527.msg12242#msg12242 date=1144805469]

Of course, that means that when the hostgator tech told me yesterday morning that the problem was that my local IP address was blacklisted by paypal . . . they were just wrong.

On the positive side they did know what a blacklist was...unlike BellSouth.
[/quote]

LOL!  You're absolutely right.  ;D