AOL blocks Gmail

[giza]

Attention AOL users! Those of us who have Gmail accounts cannot email you. When we try, we get this error:

Technical details of permanent failure:
TEMP_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 12): 421-: (RLY:CS4) http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/421rlycs4.html
421 SERVICE NOT AVAILABLE

Gmail is being blocked for one of two reasons. Either:

1) They have a serious spam problem.

2) AOL's spam filter being stupid in some way.


The first would be rather shocking to me, since I haven't read about it on Slashdot, or The Register, or any other news source. The second is far more likely, given that is has happened before. And hey, there was even that time just a few weeks ago when AOL blocked email that criticised it.

Those of you who use AOL for email may want to consider an alternative provider that doesn't censor things they don't like. I've been using Gmail for over a year; it's fast and free. Information on Gmail can be found here and you can signup over here.

</rant>

[Edit: rigelkitty points out that he can send email to his own AOL account from Gmail, so it's not ALL of Gmail that is affected.]

Comments

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be so hasty to assume the worst. Since AOL has strategic partnerships with Google, it would be highly unwise of them to block GMail. That looks to me like an ordinary outage of some sort.

[giza.livejournal.com]

An outage? Outage of what, exactly?

If a mailserver is down, I'd expect to see a timeout, not a message that says in effct, "we refuse to accept your email because you've sent spam".

(I was unaware of the strategic partnerships part, BTW)

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3572226

I don't know what the outage is of, but you don't either. I have no idea how you're deriving "we refuse to accept your email because you've sent spam" from the webpage that suggests a malware script or viral error. So, as I said before, I wouldn't be so hasty to assume the worst.

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

I just sent myself mail from my GMail account and received it on AOL fine. Whatever outage is occurring, it's either over, or it doesn't affect all GMail users.

I'd recommend correcting your original post to be less baselessly accusatory and inciteful.

[giza.livejournal.com]

I'm still getting bounces coming back to me, so it is definitely not over.

I've ammended my post to include that not all of Gmail is affected.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I don't live in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey or the United States

Fortunately I already have a gmail account =P

[khakiwolf.livejournal.com]

Well AOL in general is fucked. I know people who are still using it, and have been using it since I first met them in 1996. HELLO! Broadband!

PS: Yes I know there is AOL broadband. =P

Die, AOL, die!

[fc-greyfox.livejournal.com]

AOL's filters are pathetic, and the IT staff tends to be worse. Why do I say this? Certain GMail users aren't the only ones blocked. Among the others, my own server in its entirety is blocked. Upon inquiring about their reasoning for this, the response was similar to the following:

(translation from political geekinese)
Purchase an IP address or subnet from an unused block and register with us. If your server's IP is a part of a block belonging to an ISP that serves non-enterprise customers and you don't have a sponsor (I read that as: If the server isn't owned and operated -by- an ISP or an organization that pays money to AOL for the privilege of mailing their users), it will be blocked and treated as SPAM.

Additionally, I was warned that should I persist in this matter, I could be charged for every email sent to their users. Why? They call the mail SPAM, and use those regulations against anyone that isn't stuffing their pockets.

Anyone else want to step forward with a similar situation? I've heard similar from a few other places, so I know I'm not alone.

Okay, fine. I'm done ranting for now, too.