Email Activation (Aus Also).

[sskmercer]

Hi Guys,

I have noticed a couple of posts now from Aussie members that are not getting email activations or email re thread subscriptions. Below is from Jordan https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=145707&highlight=email#post4357448.

Ah, interesting. You are now the fourth or fifth person with an Australian ISP email account who has not received the activation message. I searched the server email logs and found that all of your activation messages were sent to you, so this appears to be exactly the same suspicious problem.

Unfortunately, there is little that I can do to help. My best advice is to contact your ISP to see if you can find out more information about why they are blocking emails from GTPlanet, or just activate your account with a different email service. Sorry for the confusion and trouble. Perhaps Australian ISPs are circulating some sort of email blacklist, but have not notified their customers about it.

I have tried multiple email addresses with my isp Westnet and to no avail (will probably be heaps of activation emails in the logs sorry). Have even added forums at gtplanet dot com to their Safelist to their Quarantine Manager.

For me atleast it started sometime early last year and i noticed it when i didnt get my birthday email LOL, otherwise have just been lurking since till GT5 was out. Will pass this onto them and see what they have to say, then will try a hotmail account or something.

BTW keep up the awesome work Jordan.

 

[FastOldHippy]

Yes m8, any email with .au on the end will not get through. I was waiting for a few days for confirmation before I tried another email address. Hotmail works fine. 👍

 

[sskmercer]

Yes m8, any email with .au on the end will not get through. I was waiting for a few days for confirmation before I tried another email address. Hotmail works fine. 👍

Thanks for that mate. I am hoping that Westnet might find a work around for me though, unless it's Conroys net nanny at work LOL.

 

[Jordan]

I'm sorry to hear that you guys are having the same problems. Until myself or one of you get any kind of response from the Australian ISPs, there is very little that can be done. I cannot find GTPlanet listed in any of the publicly-accessible spam blacklists on the Internet, and I've made use of SPF DNS records for several years now to ensure our emails are trusted and remain in good standing. The fact this issue appears to be isolated to Australian ISPs is also very peculiar. For now, the best recommendation I still have is to use another email provider.

 

[Small_Fryz]

Our ISP's are stupid thats why...

Internet filtering....

 

[sskmercer]

Our ISP's are stupid thats why...

Internet filtering....

I do wonder if it's on the that "LIST:tdown:" in some way. I really cant believe this would be the case, although stranger things have happened.

My ISP is Westnet and maybe if we could get an idea of others we might be able to try and work it out. I have been corresponding with Westnet and they cant really see why GTPlanet is getting blocked. They checked their Spam list and assured it's not on it.

One of their engineers did respond early this morning,

Hi Scott,

It does seem to be an issue affecting a nummber of our customers and we have since gotten our network guys on the case to take a closer look at things.

Cheers

BTW Thanks for looking into it on yur end also Jordan. MSN is working for me atleast lol.

 

[lbsf1]

It depends on where you live, if you go to an internet cafe or a public library then you might be able to acsess the email from there if it is your isp that is blocking it.

Hope this helps.
Luke

 

[Jordan]

I believe I have discovered a bit more information on the problem, thanks to some bounced email error messages I've "received" from attempted email deliveries to Westnet addresses. I found your address in these logs, sskmercer, and you may want to pass this information along to your Westnet support representative. The bounce message contained the following:

The mail system <*******@westnet.com.au>: lost connection with
mulgara.westnet.com.au[203.10.1.146] while receiving the initial server
greeting

Final-Recipient: rfc822; *******@westnet.com.au
Action: failed
Status: 4.4.2
Diagnostic-Code: X-Postfix; lost connection with
mulgara.westnet.com.au[203.10.1.146] while receiving the initial server
greeting

Further research of this error message has led me to discover that it often stems from a receiving mail server (or a firewall which protects it) which is unable to accommodate or incorrectly handles incoming TCP connections with variable window sizes. I can implement a "quick fix" for the issue by disabling TCP window sizing on my server (please let me know if you received one of my test activation messages, sskmercer - sorry for using you as a guinea pig but I felt you would be the most understanding ). However, considering the same server is used to deliver GTPlanet's web pages and emails, this is not a practical option as it effectively limits all TCP packets to 64K in size, restricting performance and increasing overhead.

Though it is never good practice to accommodate software or equipment on the Internet which incorrectly implements specifications, I am seeking further clarification and information on this now which may help me discover some less intrusive workarounds.

 

[sskmercer]

I can implement a "quick fix" for the issue by disabling TCP window sizing on my server (please let me know if you received one of my test activation messages, sskmercer - sorry for using you as a guinea pig but I felt you would be the most understanding ).

Hi Jordan,

Sorry for the late reply mate, been on night shifts. Do i need to change the email in my settings back to what it was? If not i havent recieved any messages (checked junk etc also), but i gather you just sent the email to me directly from the servers.

I'll pass the other info onto Westnet also. I also recieved another email from them that they are still looking into it which is good. If there is anything i can do please let me know.

Cheers

Scott

 

[Jordan]

No worries, and no, you don't have to do anything. I tested the above workaround by disabling TCP window scaling on the server and then re-sent the activation email to your Westnet address. During my test, it did not produce a bounce message with the error, and I assumed that meant it was delivered. Interestingly, as you report, the message was still not actually received. The plot thickens, but it looks like the problem is definitely on their end. I have also tried sending manual commands directly to Westnet's mail server from GTPlanet's server (72.254.193.202) via telnet and found that it immediately refused my connection.

 

[Jordan]

I've made one more minor tweak, sskmercer - if you have time, I would be interested to see if you can now activate your account with your IINet email address. Probably not, but it would be interesting to see if this has any affect...