Member Avatar for carolraydon

This isn't about bugs, but it's nasty & I don't know where to put it...so...
I don't live in the US, and I have a problem getting through to certain internet servers in the US, because (apparently) of my email address which ends in .pf. I send and receive mail from all over the world with few problems, except from . (Road Runner) and some .edu addresses. I can receive mail, but not send. Or I can send for a while, and all of a sudden, I'm blocked. Then, I continue to get mail from upset tourists who need to confirm their lodgings and are wondering why I'm not answering. I change machines & use my personal address, but nothing works, short of sending a message to the person through someone in the US. (Definitely unprofessional, even on our relaxed, tropical island.) This happens to a lot of people who live here, and I wonder why. Is it some kind of anti-immigration policy for email or something? After all, doesn't "world-wide" mean just that?

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Dani AI

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This looks like a classic deliverability problem, not an anti-immigration policy. Country-code addresses (.pf is French Polynesia) and small ISPs or residential IP ranges sometimes get lumped into spam filters or blacklists used by large US providers and some .edu systems. As suggested, trying a mainstream webmail account is a good quick test, and ’s Gmail result shows why: different outgoing servers and IPs are treated differently by receiving systems.

To narrow it down, gather one full bounce/email failure (the complete SMTP error text and the full headers). Key things to look for are the SMTP reply code (550, 554, etc.) and any “blocked” or “blacklist” mention. Then try these checks: send the same message from another provider (Gmail or another webmail), send to a couple of different rr.com/.edu addresses, and ask one recipient to forward the bounced message and headers to you. If the problem only appears to certain receiver domains, it’s almost certainly a receiving-server block.

Fixes and next steps that actually help:

  • Ask your mail host to confirm the sending IP has a proper reverse DNS (PTR) that matches the mail server name, and that SPF (and DKIM if possible) records are published for your domain.
  • If you’re on a home/dynamic IP, send via your ISP’s SMTP relay or a reputable relay service rather than directly.
  • Check whether your sending IP/domain is on public RBLs and, if so, ask your host to request delisting.
  • Have the recipient contact their postmaster (postmaster@their-domain or abuse@their-ISP) and send the full headers and bounce text — that’s what their admin needs to whitelist or diagnose.

Short-term workarounds: use a reputable webmail/relay (as tested), ask frequent US contacts to whitelist your address, and avoid sending bulk or poorly formatted messages that trigger filters.

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Member Avatar for crunchie

I'm not in the US either so I can only guess that for some reason, rr and others have added those particular references to their spamblocker or some such. Perhaps you should try contacting them through hotmail or other internet based email client and let them know what is happening :).

Member Avatar for carolraydon

All is well. As if by magic, a gmail invitation was in my box today, and so I signed up and got through to the phantom .rr address. She came back saying that nobody else seems to be answering her queries for hotels, etc., and now she knows why. Road Runner, are you getting any of this????
I still end up off of the business domain for these sticky addresses, though, because it's .pf, too.
Mauruuru.

Member Avatar for 'Stein

It might be best to mabe have your thread moved to the Internet Browsers forum.

Tell me and Ill move the thread if ya want.

Thanks.

Member Avatar for carolraydon

Thanks - I'l appreciate it if you'd move it for me.

Member Avatar for 'Stein

Roger that :)

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