error during mailhost configuration (Comcast)

[anyone8 0]

Displayed by http://www.spamcop.net/mcgi:

Sorry, all tests failed.

We cannot deliver mail to the address you provided: <removed>[at]comcast.net. Double check the address provided or try again later. Your mailhost appears to be offline.

Detailed errors:

Connecting to mx2.comcast.net.:
smtpSend:smtpOpen: smtpsend connection error from smtp server (554 resimta-ch2-06v.sys.comcast.net comcast 184.94.240.112 Comcast block for spam. Please see http://postmaster.comcast.net/smtp-error-codes.php#BL000000)

Connecting to mx1.comcast.net.:
smtpSend:smtpOpen: smtpsend connection error from smtp server (554 resimta-po-15v.sys.comcast.net comcast 184.94.240.112 Comcast block for spam. Please see http://postmaster.comcast.net/smtp-error-codes.php#BL000000)

Sometimes, mailservers are temporarilly unavailable. If you believe you have entered your email address and other details correctly, you might just wait a few minutes (or 24 hours) and try again.

[DavidT 0]

Just tried adding a mailhost for the forwarding of my old CESMail account by Cisco, but here's what happened:

Sorry, all tests failed.

We cannot deliver mail to the address you provided: [munged][at]spamcop.net. Double check the address provided or try again later. Your mailhost appears to be offline.

Detailed errors:

Connecting to vmx5.spamcop.net.:
smtpSend:smtpOpen: timeout after 20 seconds during connect

Sometimes, mailservers are temporarilly unavailable. If you believe you have entered your email address and other details correctly, you might just wait a few minutes (or 24 hours) and try again.

But, upon closer inspection, I see that vmx5.spamcop.net is alread on the drop-down list in the existing mailhost for my [at]spamcop.net address, so I guess I'm OK. The error is not so OK, however.

Edited October 3, 2014 by DavidT

[anyone8 0]

Apparently they fixed the original error (as I had been getting it consistently), but now we're getting a variety of errors. My current error is in the last line of this quote:

Sent test email to [removed][at]comcast.net through mx1.comcast.net.

SpamCop has just sent you 1 test messages to [removed][at]comcast.net.

Please allow for up to an hour for those messages to reach you, and then follow the enclosed instructions.

Some errors were encountered sending test email, but other tests were sent without trouble. This is probably normal, but here is a detailed list of errors:

Detailed errors:

Connecting to mx2.comcast.net.:
smtpSend:smtpOpen: smtpsend connection error from smtp server (550 No expected reply from SMTP)

[BAlfson 0]

In fact, I found the instructions to be opaque. They seem to be written by a bright, young engineer with limited experience in documentation and training - apparently, since he thought it was clear to him, that meant everyone would understand immediately. I had to answer "No" to the question of whether I "understood and agreed" - the designer of the page assumed I disagreed...

DavidT, you've been here for awhile - how do we suggest improvements in the documentation or just point out unclear prose?

Cheers - Bob

PS For example, unless you knew that it once was possible to have an address at spamcop.???, the entire page would make no sense. I also had to go back and re-enter the mailhosts I had entered because the instructions were unclear. My personal address is BAlfson[at]businessdomain.com, but I'm also the administrator of an internal mailing list info[at]businessdomain.com. Unfortunately, I zapped the first registration with the second one, and, failing to notice this, then entered bob[at]familyname.org which also is forwarded to BAlfson[at]businessdomain.com. When I realized my error, it was not clear whether I could simply re-register BAlfson[at]businessdomain.com or if I had to delete bob[at]familyname.org and start over - which is what I did.

PPS If Cisco owns this, they need to get their name off it or employ a good technical writer.

Edited October 4, 2014 by BAlfson

[DavidT 0]

DavidT, you've been here for awhile - how do we suggest improvements in the documentation or just point out unclear prose?

It depends on which documentation you're referring to. There are some broken links to local forum-based documentation/help, but perhaps you're talking about the official Help writeup here:

http://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/397.html

If so, I don't know the best way for you to get someone's attention who will actually update language there.

BTW, I just did some testing and was able to clean up my mailhosts, deleted outdated ones and adding new ones, so someone has apparently done some fixing, but not told us.

DT

Edited October 5, 2014 by DavidT

[Keithj 0]

Spamcop will accept mail to my Spamcop account from some addresses, but not others. I can't work out the logic of it. I just deleted from the mailhost config one account that it wouldn't accept. and it deleted two others and changed the server name of a third to CESmail.net (which I thought had ceased to exist.)

Someone's in there changing stuff, but my mail and held mail are disappearing without trace, which is not good.

[turetzsr 0]

It depends on which documentation you're referring to. There are some broken links to local forum-based documentation/help, but perhaps you're talking about the official Help writeup here:

http://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/397.html

If so, I don't know the best way for you to get someone's attention who will actually update language there.

<snip>

&nbsp &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp The proper contact would be deputies[at]admin.spamcop.net.

[anyone8 0]

Spamcop will accept mail to my Spamcop account from some addresses, but not others. I can't work out the logic of it. I just deleted from the mailhost config one account that it wouldn't accept. and it deleted two others and changed the server name of a third to CESmail.net (which I thought had ceased to exist.)

Someone's in there changing stuff, but my mail and held mail are disappearing without trace, which is not good.

When you say it will accept mail from some addresses but not others, are you referring to submitting spam to the reporting system via email, or the forwarding system that (sort of) replaced the SpamCop email accounts that were ran by CES (cesmail.net)?

For the mailhost config, they seem to have silently fixed at least one of the errors, so it might be worth trying again. If it's still having problems, I'd suggest posting back here. It looks like one of the moderators will comment if it's something that can be addressed by the deputies.

Regarding disappearing mail, any mail sent to your SpamCop address would be divided into two categories: spam and non-spam. Assuming there are no technical problems at the moment, your non-spam would get forwarded to you and the spam would get deleted. There is no more held mail. There has already been much discussion of this in the section of the forums related to the SpamCop email service, so you may be able to find more answers there.