Is anyone else having trouble getting mail through spamcop?

[mckemie]

During the evening of 12/28/2011, the flow of mail through my spamcop address abruptly stopped. Both mail addressed directly to spamcop and mail popped by spamcop from another server failed to appear in my spamcop inbox. Spamcop continued to pop mail from the other server but that mail disappeared. spam continued to show up in my spamcop heldmail.

I reported the problem via the spamcop webmail "problem" button, but got no response. This is likely because the "from" address was my dead spamcop address. After searching for a communication path, I sent a message to admin at spamcop dot net. I then started a very un-productive dialog on "case 46785" through my gmail account. Meanwhile, I was able to get a second gmail account set up and functioning the way my spamcop account used to function. I successfully stopped spamcop from popping mail from the other server and started popping it myself. I changed mail list subscriptions, eBay, and PayPal over to the second gmail account. And got back to semi-normalcy.

Since 12/28/2011, approaching two weeks ago, my spamcop situation has been static: Mail addressed to my spamcop address disappears; nothing is popped (though I quit attempting pops a few days after the problem was evident); nothing appears in my spamcop webmail inbox. Some unknown number of messages remain in spamcop limbo.

Anyone else?

This is most frustrating. I have been a spamcop subscriber for ten, maybe fifteen, years and have had no such trouble in the past.

[petzl]

During the evening of 12/28/2011, the flow of mail through my spamcop address abruptly stopped.

Anyone else?

This is most frustrating. I have been a spamcop subscriber for ten, maybe fifteen, years and have had no such trouble in the past.

POP and Send working for me?

I gave up using ISP provided email they are unreliable SpamCop email is my only real provider, although I use gmail for newsletters specials etc.

Sometimes a server you have SpamCop "pop" goes off line (or changes).SpamCop then stops trying. You need to remove and replace the server you POP. It is better to have your ISP forward email to your SpamCop email account. Better still to stop using them (let it fade out) and just use your SpamCop email address

[mckemie]

POP and Send working for me?

I gave up using ISP provided email they are unreliable SpamCop email is my only real provider, although I use gmail for newsletters specials etc.

Sometimes a server you have SpamCop "pop" goes off line (or changes).SpamCop then stops trying. You need to remove and replace the server you POP. It is better to have your ISP forward email to your SpamCop email account. Better still to stop using them (let it fade out) and just use your SpamCop email address

I came to spamcop ten (or fifteen) years ago when I had a poor experience with ISP provided mail. Since then, I've been through 5 or 6 ISPs and mail has flowed un-interrupted through spamcop. I have not used ISP provided mail since. I have used spamcop to pop mail from at least two hosting services. That has worked well and been trouble-free.

I'm not sure why you (and admin at spamcop dot net) have failed to understand my description of the problem. I'll try again:

!) mail stopped flowing into my spamcop inbox

2) the source of the missing mail was both popped from an external server AND addressed directly to my spamcop address

3) after the first few days of interruption, I stopped spamcop from popping from an external server and started getting that mail more directly. The external server mail spamcop popped remains misssing.

4) Nearly two weeks worth of mail has disappeared; I know not where. The mail includes many test messages addressed directly to my spamcop address. Since I can not intercept that mail before it reaches spamcop, mail continues to disappear.

In response to your suggestion: "just use your SpamCop email address", see 1) above. I have had no mail through spamcop in nearly two weeks.

Thanks for your response.

BTW, the beginning of my mail disruption coincided with a reported known spamcop IMAP problem. Though I haven't used IMAP.

[BobLLL]

It sounds almost like your spamcop email is being forwarded or popped to yet another address. Unlikely, I know but a couple of long shots to look at while you are waiting for a better answer:

1. On your spamcop email options-tools webpage, make sure there is nothing in the Forwarding Address box.

2. Change your spamcop password to prevent some malware or rogue email application from somehow popping your email OUT of your spamcop inbox.

Probably you will say you already tried these things, but since you didn't specifically mention them ... like I said, longshots.

[mckemie]

It sounds almost like your spamcop email is being forwarded or popped to yet another address. Unlikely, I know but a couple of long shots to look at while you are waiting for a better answer:

1. On your spamcop email options-tools webpage, make sure there is nothing in the Forwarding Address box.

2. Change your spamcop password to prevent some malware or rogue email application from somehow popping your email OUT of your spamcop inbox.

Probably you will say you already tried these things, but since you didn't specifically mention them ... like I said, longshots.

Good suggestions, thanks!

The forwarding address field is empty. If I don't hear anything from support at spamcop soon, I'll try forwarding to one of my gmail addresses. That's not likely to recover missing mail, though.

In the absence of any indication of external interference, I don't want to complicate things by changing my password.

[petzl]

Good suggestions, thanks!

The forwarding address field is empty. If I don't hear anything from support at spamcop soon, I'll try forwarding to one of my gmail addresses. That's not likely to recover missing mail, though.

In the absence of any indication of external interference, I don't want to complicate things by changing my password.

Thanks for update, don't understand why your email is not getting to SpamCop or disappearing? Yet gets to Gmail. SpamCop will only delete email if it contains/detects a virus You can set it to send a notification when it does this

Like you I've been using SpamCop email since well into last millennium. Without JT's eye it seems to be losing pace. With Countrywide filters still broken and file size needs increasing .

Grasping at straws make sure you do a FULL scan with your virus scanner, with it's latest update to make sure your computer has not been hijacked. Very hard now not to get a Trojan of some sort. Also make sure your firewall is on. Applies to MAC's as well

[mckemie]

The forwarding address field is empty. If I don't hear anything from support at spamcop soon, I'll try forwarding to one of my gmail addresses. That's not likely to recover missing mail, though.

I:

1) set spamcop to forward to my new gmai address which is popped every few minutes and is my spamcop replacement

2) sent a test message from my older gmail account to my spamcop address

Much to my surprise, the message was popped from my new gmail account! Header indicated spamcop had handled it. To: field was the spamcop address so the "forward" was a "bounce" in mutt-speak. I sure wish I had known to do this early on, before so much of my mail had been lost.

My spamcop subscription will expire in a few months. Of course I will not be renewing. Before that expiration, I am faced with the almost hopeless task of notifing everyone that has been using my spamcop address (for ~15 years) of my new gmail address.

I am just astonished at the lack of support from spamcop. I am unaware of the political/personel situation at spamcop. Early person (JT?) has left?

[mckemie]

Grasping at straws make sure you do a FULL scan with your virus scanner, with it's latest update to make sure your computer has not been hijacked. Very hard now not to get a Trojan of some sort. Also make sure your firewall is on. Applies to MAC's as well

Sounds like you're in the microsoft world. I don't believe my symptoms indicate something going wrong on my end. FWIW: I have been running an all Linux LAN for nearly 20 years and have never had any symptoms I could attribute to viruii, worms, or intrusions. I have only two users but leave 10-15 boxes running around the clock. Current firewall is the DD-WRT running in the router that is between my LAN and my ISP. I have had my hosted website hacked a couple of times, but I do not run internet accessible services on my LAN.

Thanks for your comments.

[BobLLL]

If the forwarding out of spamcop is working, you might consider keeping the subscription going for another year, in order to give people more time to learn your new address. I know it is annoying to pay another cent to a support failure, but my experience with changing email addresses is most people just don't get their address books updated in response to a notice of changed email. My wife still sometimes gets important email sent to an address she "closed" over a year ago, and has to remind some people several times before they purge her old address from their books. The problem is compounded by the usual lack of sync between desktop, laptop, and handheld address books that people use.

As to the underlying problem, it certainly is weird. More straws float by for grasping: Make sure there are no rules or filters in effect under "other options." Make sure the greylist is off. In fact, maybe turn off every blacklist and other option you can find, to get back to just plain email client.

[petzl]

I am just astonished at the lack of support from spamcop. I am unaware of the political/personel situation at spamcop. Early person (JT?) has left?

As "BobLLL" has mentioned if popping or forwarding make sure Greylisting is off (or make sure you have email somehow whitelisted). Not sure why Greylisting should affect this though, if indeed it does (may have been turned on by default after the email glitch we had a while back). Another possible cause is some idiot ISP's have added filtering to sent email and remove anything with spam mentioned.

This may not be a SpamCop email issue at all? Try to send a email to yourself (via POP'ped account) with greylisting turned off. By checking your SpamCop "poping" page and check if there are any "error counts" (should be blank). Also check the box "Leave on Server" (this will stop any possibility of SpamCop deleting any email.)

JT still owns SpamCop email AFAIK, but has not said "boo" for eons? I myself have had replies from support when I hit the problem button though (but the countrywide filters have not been fixed).

Did not know you were using Linux. Just bought a Android Tablet myself (Linux "poor mans Unix") which seem to becoming a norm, with Ipad running on Unix (ASAIK). I'm sure the "hackware" for these systems is increasing. Linux malware rates are increasing

so don't think you/Linux are immune from " hackware"

Still finding SpamCop email better than the rest. Gmail is good but they do read your email , they call it data mining (never gave them my real name or birthdate, but from "birthday" greetings from travel agents Gmail have determined this they now allocate women my own age "dating services" in ads on youtube etc) Gmail also delete program files from email you send. I use DropBox which gives 2 gig free storage for one to send large files through (last year they allowed a free upgrade to 4 gig so may do this again)

[BobLLL]

Greylisting: I had an email forwarding service that didn't like getting a lot of temporary rejections from the spamcop greylisting system. The forwarding system would just flag my spamcop account as "dead" and stop sending until I went in and restarted the forward. I also found that some other systems sending email to me didn't follow the standard retry times and would delay resending email by days instead of minutes or hours. So I gave it up.

Unlikely to be the sole cause of the problem here, but as a friend of mine says, "Two or more things can go wrong at the same time. And frequently do."

[mckemie]

As "BobLLL" has mentioned if popping or forwarding make sure Greylisting is off (or make sure you have email somehow whitelisted). Not sure why Greylisting should affect this though, if indeed it does (may have been turned on by default after the email glitch we had a while back. Another

,

Greylisting is a "bad thing"?. I thought it was a "good thing" <tm>. I've been using it for quite a while. It does slow delivery from strangers but many spammers will not re-send. Right now, I've got one message pending and 11 that were blocked in the last 72 hours. All the blocked ones look like spam. Three of the blocked ones are supposedly from my spamcop address with three different IPs.

I do have quite a long blacklist.

None of the blacklist, whitelist, or greylist parameters have been changed in months.

I regret loosing the spamcop filtering. Gmail seems ok but I imagine spamcop is better.

Legitimate mail addressed to my spamcop address is beginning to trickle in via the forward. Sure wish I could get all my missing mail.

[petzl]

,

Greylisting is a "bad thing"?.

Legitimate mail addressed to my spamcop address is beginning to trickle in via the forward. Sure wish I could get all my missing mail.

Greylisting is a good thing IMO (but just temporarily turning it off to test can't hurt.)

Have SpamCop POP your email and set to leave on server cant hurt either (just empty it via web occasionally)

So you are now forwarding not now using POP? Going to page and checking would tell you if there were errors? Nothing has changed on SpamCops side. You are the only one reporting problems?

Personally doubt if SpamCop was the cause of your troubles?

There are two places where problems arise! I found it commonplace for ISP's to lose email and say nothing (although the "new" SpamCop minder is not disclosing much info since "JT" disappeared if he does he is slow about it).

I find Gmail filtering as good as SpamCops but you need to use Webmail (not sure about forwarded email) with it for full benefit (particularly "reporting spam" which just Google use, no report is sent to ISP). Don't like all email sent and received being read (be it "electronically" first then if flagged actually read). Another plus is Gmail don't use Greylisting which means email is as quick as when you check it

[BobLLL]

I'm not saying greylisting is bad, just that I found some senders did not follow the standard resend parameters. And one forwarding service that just refused to forward any more email at all after getting several bounces back within a certain time period.

Troubleshooting often involves making one change after another to find the cause, or at least more clues as to the cause.

[mckemie]

I started this thread to see if my problem was common. And, if so, get some attention from adminspamcop. So, it appears I am the only one suffering. Or, maybe few spamcop subscribers check the forums.

Since my mail quit working suddenly and my configuration was long term stable, I don't see how the problem can possibly be on my end. Thanks to suggestions here, I've gotten some improvement (current mail forwarded). However, since I have no interest in continuing to use spamcop, I have no personal interest in trying to identify the problem.

The whole thing is sad since I've used spamcop for so long; it has given me "warm fuzzies" and made feel as if I were contributing to the spam battle. However, unreliable mail with zero suport is just insufferable.

Thanks to you both!

[petzl]

I started this thread to see if my problem was common. And, if so, get some attention from adminspamcop. So, it appears I am the only one suffering. Or, maybe few spamcop subscribers check the forums.

Since my mail quit working suddenly and my configuration was long term stable, I don't see how the problem can possibly be on my end. Thanks to suggestions here, I've gotten some improvement (current mail forwarded). However, since I have no interest in continuing to use spamcop, I have no personal interest in trying to identify the problem.

The whole thing is sad since I've used spamcop for so long; it has given me "warm fuzzies" and made feel as if I were contributing to the spam battle. However, unreliable mail with zero suport is just insufferable.

Thanks to you both!

My experience shows as soon as something happens to email this newsgroup gets very active.

Unfortunately the last nowadays, to read it seems to be "email support".

So this leads me to believe that even though you have had well over a decade of everything working it is your ISP that has "changed/failed". Not SpamCop emails fault

[BobLLL]

So this leads me to believe that even though you have had well over a decade of everything working it is your ISP that has "changed/failed". Not SpamCop emails fault

The evidence doesn't support the idea that there is something wrong with the ISP upstream. Once mckemie changed his spamcop account to forward to gmail, the problem disappeared. How could that correct a problem with the upstream ISP? Also, there is the fact that email sent directly to his spamcop address has disappeared. That seriously suggests a problem with spamcop.

It is a weird problem for sure, in that other accounts seem unaffected. Seems like something got corrupted in mckemie's account on or about the time there was a reported problem with the imap servers. But we cannot tell what, from where we sit.

The poor support is a another, ongoing problem. For this reason, I have never recommended spamcop email to friends or family. Eventually, like mckemie, I think I should look for email with better support.

[mckemie]

I too fail to see how my ISP could possibly be involved in my spamcop problem.

The poor support is a another, ongoing problem. For this reason, I have never recommended spamcop email to friends or family. Eventually, like mckemie, I think I should look for email with better support.

I regret that I have recommended spamcop in the past. Fortunately, I don't believe anyone followed my recommendations.

I haven't researched alternatives to gmail. When spamcop failed me, I needed an alternative right then and I had some experience with gmail; I had been using gmail webmail for people that were likely to send me objectionable attachments. So, might there be a better alternative out there? I didn't object to paying spamcop and don't object to paying in the future. But, I want my mail to work. I did get some valuable support on a gmail forum on how to get POP to work with gmail.

BTW, I sent my last message to support at spamcop Jan 4 and have received nothing since.

With this type of mail problem, I wonder if similar things might be happening in the spam reporting area.

[turetzsr]

...Another user reports not receiving e-mail at his spamcop e-mail address: Unable to receive emails from freshandeasy.com.

[turetzsr]

<snip>

Gmail is good but they do read your email , they call it data mining (never gave them my real name or birthdate, but from "birthday" greetings from travel agents Gmail have determined this they now allocate women my own age "dating services" in ads on youtube etc)

<snip>

..."Google revising privacy policies, data use"

...Google said Tuesday it is revising its privacy policies and changing how it collects and uses data from users of its services to provide more personalized search results and advertisements.

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/google-revising-priv...-021732982.html.