When trying to register the mailhosts for my BT Internet email address I get these errors:

I never get the probes. I've waited about 48 hours since the first time this happened. Back then, I only got the deferred message for one of the two servers. Now I get it for both.

I have searched the forums and can find plenty of mentions of Yahoo but with other problems which suggest that other people haven't encountered this difficulty.

Yes, I have referred to the URL suggested above, but there's nothing I as a user can do with the information provided. I can't reconfigure either SpamCop's or Yahoo's mail servers!

Hi!
...Thank you for taking the time to do that! <g>
...While you're waiting for someone more knowledgeable to happen along with a more directly helpful answer, I would refer you to the Pinned message labeled "Pinned: Mailhost Issues - please read before posting" which you will find in the main page of this (Mailhost Configuration of your Reporting Account) Forum.
...Good luck.

Thanks, yes, but I did already read that, and thought that with Yahoo being so popular I am probably not the first person to come across this issue, and that someone would pop up with a quick and easy answer!

This sounds like Yahoo has started using greylisting to reduce the spam load on it's servers. I have not seen the issue myself but will try to redo my yahoo mailhost now.



When did you see the error message?

On several occasions over the last 48 hours.

I can try it again right now...

and now I don't get the problem. I wonder if I'll actually receive the probes this time...

No, I never receive the probes. I have checked that I do receive "normal" email to the relevant address, and I have looked in the Yahoo Spam folder.

I actually meant, when in the process do you see the message? Is it after you enter the email addresses? Is it after you check the boxes and submit (my best guess as to when you would see them)?

It would seem they have greylisting enabled in the BT Internet mail servers, but not the public yahoo.com servers. If this is the case (contact support and try to get the answer), to try and complete this process yourself, you will need to find out how long they are configured before they allow the second try through. Then you would need to submit once, wait that amount of time and submit the probes again. Otherwise, follow the directions in the pinned item at the top for mailhost issues. This involved emailing the deputies.

Yes, I think the time has come for that!

Well, I did email the deputies, but never got a reply (or, if I did, it must have got trapped as spam!).

Not sure that I understand all that, as the data used to register here includes a SpamCop.net account ...
Not that it will help, but .....

Data munged for this post.

That is the error message generated by the Yahoo server which wouldn't accept our email. They are engaging in "greylisting," which means they won't accept an email on the first contact. They know that standard mail servers will continue to try to send an email until they are successful, or until they reach their limit and quit trying. Spammer servers don't normally try to send more than once. They make one try at sending the email and then move on regardless of whether they were able to send the message. SpamCop's Mailhost servers are the same way. We make one try to deliver the test probe message and then quit.

The way around that is to keep trying to send the test probe every few minutes until SpamCop reports that the message was sent. Maybe wait an hour or so between tries. You have to do that until you get SpamCop to send a test message to each of the different MXs that it wants to send mail to.

SpamCop is working normally. If SpamCop says it sent the test probes to you, then it did. Our mail to you is not bouncing, which tells me that it is getting to Yahoo. I have no way of knowing what happens to it after that. Most likely you'll find it in your Trash or Junk Mail folder.

- Don D'Minion - SpamCop Admin -

Many thanks for your help and the explanation.