Yet another forum doesn't send the registration email...

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Is it just me, or does his happen more-often-than-not?

I tried to register as "Ichinisan" and never received the registration email. This has probably happened with the last 3 forums I've tried to sign up for. Earlier today, I couldn't complete password recovery for Playstation Network until I tried an alternate (non-email) method.

I use an old Hotmail address for all of my forum registrations. The activation emails are not being sorted as spam and I don't have any mail sorting filters set up. These messages simply don't come through. It's more irritating than I can describe in words.

I work for a local cable ISP and diagnose email delivery issues all the time. I'd like to know, just once, what the hell happens in these situations.

[edit]
Just looked at a thread right below mine in which a similar issue is reported with forum notifications via email. Someone said to use Gmail because there seem to be problems with Hotmail.

The "Ichinisan" registration I attempted was a Hotmail address and the successful registration used a Gmail address. This almost confirms a problem with Hotmail. If an admin can get me a log or header with time-stamps, I'll see if Hotmail Support will fix the issue.

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at alien.wrongplanet.net.
I tried to deliver a bounce message to this address, but the bounce bounced!

<[email protected]>:
Sorry, no mailbox here by that name. (#5.1.1)

--- Below this line is the original bounce.

Return-Path: <>
Received: (qmail 11616 invoked for bounce); 29 May 2010 00:56:44 -0400
Date: 29 May 2010 00:56:44 -0400
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: failure notice

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at alien.wrongplanet.net.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

<[email protected]>:
Connected to 65.55.37.88 but sender was rejected.
Remote host said: 550 SC-001 Mail rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons. Reasons for rejection may be related to content with spam-like characteristics or IP/domain reputation problems. If you are not an email/network admin please contact your E-mail/Internet Service Provider for help. Email/network admins, please visit http://postmaster.live.com for email delivery information and support

--- Below this line is a copy of the message.

Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: (qmail 11610 invoked by uid 48); 29 May 2010 00:56:43 -0400
Date: 29 May 2010 00:56:43 -0400
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: New User Account Activation
X-PHP-Script: www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php for 122.107.248.154
From: [email protected]
X-Mailer: PHP/5.2.12

Welcome to Wrong Planet - Asperger and Autism Community!

You or someone else has used your email account ([email protected]) to register an account at Wrong Planet - Asperger and Autism Community.

To finish the registration process you should visit the following link in the next 24 hours to activate your user account, otherwise the information will be automaticaly deleted by the system and you should apply again:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... b193bd7124

<a href='http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=activate&username=concundrum&check_num=

--- End of message stripped.

From: http://postmaster.live.com/FightingJunk.aspx

(Ah well, Microsoft's grammar isn't up to much: "an Windows Live Hotmail users' inbox" - just two errors there.)

So... letting people register with mailinator addresses (because the wildcard doesn't work) probably triggers Symantec's honeytraps, somewhere along the way.

Then hotmail also does some rubbish "spam signature" detection - possibly specifically targeting messages recognised NOT to originate from official Microsoft server software.

Then again, people may well decide to report WP emails as spam - either maliciously or when they get tired of receiving bulk emails they do do seem able to stop.

So... WP gets flagged as a source of spam and ALL email from it gets blocked before it gets anywhere near a user.

Now... my last experience of this was the Comcast network, who were employing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IronPort. You can get your mail through there by paying them.

Oh... and PS... whose email is the one published above? It will likely now start receiving real spam.

Thanks Alex!
That's the kind of information I needed.
I thought that you would ignore my post about the hotmail issues, but I can see now that it's clearly out of your range.
I'm very sorry about that, I misunderstood you Alex, you are a good guy after all!

I would question whether exposing an individual's email address to the public and making it susceptible to increased spam and other issues qualifies as a 'good guy'... but for a change, there was at least a response.


M.