Why didn’t my email go though?
One of the most common questions that I get is about email “bounces” - why did this message get returned?? The funny part is, the more time I spend managing email servers, the more surprised I am that any email ever gets to the intended recipients! That said, we can usually figure out why the message didn’t make it through from the information in the bounce message.
Here’s a few Non Delivery Reports (NDR) that different customers have received in the past couple of weeks
goodemail.server.com #5.3.0 smtp;553 5.3.0 nlpi050,DNSBL:521< 65.6x.1xx.7x>_is_blocked.__See_http://www.att.net/bls_rbl/_for_information.>
goodemail.server.com #5.5.0 smtp;591 recipient@idontknowtheirblockingemailtome.com your host [64.1xx.2xx.2xx] is blacklisted by feb.spamlab.com. No mail will be accepted>
goodemail.server.com #5.5.0 smtp;550 lotsofemail@recipient.net…User account is overquota
In many cases, unless you’re the email administrator, you may not be able to resolve the problem but you’ll never know unless you read the error message. While these error messages are not “user-friendly” as computer error messages go, they are far from cryptic. The words “blocked” and “overquota” should give you a clue on what the problem is. If an email server is blocking your email, you’ll need to get the administrator (either your admin or the recipients) involved. However if you see an “overquota” or “mail box is over allowed size” message, you can often solve the problem by phoning the recipient and having them delete some of the email stored on their server!
Many times, there will be links listed in the error message that have more information about why the email didn’t go through. In the first NDR listed above, the sender’s email server was listed on a “real-time blacklist” (RBL - a spam prevention mechanism - a topic for another post) and you can use the link to get your server removed from the list.