Mailhost configuration error: traversing more than one domain.

[Fred.Zwarts]

For a few years already I encounter a problem when trying to setup the mailhost configuration for my system after its configuration has changed.

My mail system is located within our university and, like many other universities, we use the virus and spam filter of Surfnet.

When the test messages of the mailhost configuration arrive in my inbox, I send them as an attachment to the address mentioned in the mail. A few minutes later I receive a mail with the first few lines as follows:

Hello SpamCop user,

Sorry, but SpamCop has encountered errors:

The email sample you submitted for *******@******
appears to traverse more than one domain.  
Please ensure that you configure each mailhost individually and in order.

Proceed here:
<https://www.spamcop.net/mcgi?mhc2=***********>

The first problem is that the link to proceed always results in:

500 Internal Server Error
Sorry, your request could not be processed.

Typically, this is the result of a temporary problem. Please re-try the operation which caused this error in a minute or two. You can even leave this error screen open and use your browser's "reload" button to re-try. Please do not press reload repeatedly though. Pressing the button more often does not resolve the problem faster. It just makes a bad situation worse.

If you believe this is a bug which occurs only under specific circumstances or have observed the problem frequently, please contact us with a full description of the problem.

Usually when I use the contact link and describe the problem, my mailhost is configured correctly within a few days. I am grateful that this works. But each time it is a clumsy way of getting the result and I feel guilty to disturb someone to do the configuration manually. Therefore, I wonder whether our situation is so exceptional, that this problem still exists after several years. Further I wonder why the broken links in the mail are not fixed after several years. Finally, I wonder why the broken link about the forums at the bottom of the mailhost page is not fixed. It is not difficult to find the forum, but such broken links look so unprofessional.

[gnarlymarley]

On 7/20/2022 at 3:23 AM, Fred.Zwarts said:

My mail system is located within our university and, like many other universities, we use the virus and spam filter of Surfnet.

When I setup mine, I need to include any forwarders.  I setup my mailbox first and then the forwarders.  If you do not have separate email addresses and email forwarders in the chain, then you might want to contact the deputies for help on this.  If so, send a email to deputies [AT]spamcop[DOT]net asking to fix.