Email error code 554 MTA's Poor reputation

Tried sending an email yesterday and got the following error message:

SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection:
554-in.ip16nec.int.opaltelecom.net
554 Your access to this mail system has been rejected due to the sending MTA's poor reputation. If you believe that this failure is in error, please contact the intended recipient via alternate means.

Only happened on sending to one client who is on Talk Talk. Quite strange as there's an ongoing email conversation between us and now my relplies don't get through. I've had a google of it and it's as clear as mud!

Any of the Techy crew like to explain in actual English what this means and the course of action I need to take.

Thanks in advance

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Originally Posted by Spirits High

Any of the Techy crew like to explain in actual English what this means and the course of action I need to take.

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Have you tried switching it off, and on again? :whistle:

The chances of the technocrats actually conversing in terms understood by mere mortals are indeed slim. :(

A quick Google came up with THIS , hope it helps a bit

Daryll

The MTA in this is the 'Mail Transfer Agent', which is the program that lives on the server which sends & receives emails. The part about its reputation means that the receiving mail server doesn't trust the server which sent your email.

This can be down to several reasons, possibly:

1. Your email server is on a spam blacklist - spam or malware has been recorded as originating from your email server's IP address or domain name.

2. Your email server does not have a valid domain key set up (DKIM) - this is a way of a server which receives an email verifying the mail came from the domain the email headers says it comes from. In such a setup every email is 'signed' by a key unique to the sending server and a corresponding key is stored in the domain name record. The server which receives the email takes the key from the email header & checks it against the one in the domain record & thus verifies the place it came from. For example, if an email came from yoursite.com, your email server would sign it as such, then the receiving end would look up yoursite.com and examine the DKIM key.

Anyway, you need to contact whoever is in charge of your email service to get this resolved ASAP.

EDIT:

BTW folks, the error is about the Mail Transfer Agent which runs on the outgoing email server, NOT the email client running on his machine at home

Error 554 is often called the "catch all" error as it can occur for a number of reasons.

However, the clue in this case is the Opal Telecom/Talk Talk connection. The problem here is that Talk Talk is claiming your IP address has been blacklisted by the anti-spam organisation The Spamhaus Project. (https://www.spamhaus.org). Spamhaus compiles several lists of IP addresses that have been detected for sending high-volumes of email which, potentially, means it could be sending SPAM and is given a low "reputation rating". Email providers use this lists to block or reject emails from these IP addresses. Now, it's a bit unusual that Talk Talk/Opal Telecom (they are one and the same - Opal Telecom changed it's name to Talk Talk in 2011) are rejecting them but your email provider is not blocking them. Therefore, Talk Talk think they are spam but your email provider doesn't. This could simply be because Talk Talk are using a different list or have a much stricter email spam policy than your provider.

So, why is your IP address blocked in the first place? Have you been sending spam? Well, maybe. It's possible. You might have picked up some malware which is causing your machine to churn out spam. If your machine has been going a little slower recently then you should run a good anti-malware program to check for any little nasties. Actually, you should do this anyway regardless of whether there have been any signs of infection. Let your A/V or anti-malware software do it's job and remove anything it finds. This is very important because, when you get your IP address unblacklisted, if the infection is still there, you will be blocked again very soon after. Once this is gone, go to the Spamhaus site and follow the instructions for blacklist removal. It takes a little while but, hopefully, it will through ok. If not, repeat using different anti-malware and try again.

So, what if you aren't actually sending spam? Why would your IP address be blocked? Well, your IP address is more likely than not being assigned to you "dynamically". This means that it will change over time. If you reset your router or reboot your system for example. Or if your internet provider refreshes the IP addresses. This means that it's likely, in fact pretty much definitely, that you are using an IP address that someone else has had previously and it could be their machine that's caused the problems. In this case, and as long as your machine is clean, then follow the unblacklist instructions on Spamhaus and you should be fine.

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get on! :)

Actually, I've just realised something. When I had these issues, my provider was using the Spamhaus blacklists. It's possible that the individual email providers use their own lists. If you find you're not blacklisted by Spamhaus then you will need to contact Talk Talk and find out how to get taken off their lists.

Help from Talk Talk is here :> http://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/M...t/td-p/1110680

It's most likely not the sending machine's IP (i.e. not your IP address you're connected to the internet on) that's the problem. It's the IP associated with the domain, for example if it's spiritshigh.org.uk then the IP is probably 107.167.27.72, and going by http://whois.domaintools.com/spiritshigh.org.uk/ there are at least 444 other domain on that same IP, as it's obviously a shared hosting environment.

Any one of those domains could be responsible for sending out spam and getting the IP blacklisted for the other 443 sites on it.

Some server admins are very strict about who they let on a shared server and what they can do, and some aren't. If you're on one that doesn't care so much, this is the kind of thing that can happen. They don't police it (or not well enough) and it's easy for anyone on the server to get the IP blacklisted, either intentionally or not. It could be unintentional as DazzyD says, a virus or malware on yours or one of the other 443 customer's PC could sniff SMTP authentication details and then send spam through that domain. If the server isn't monitored for these kind of things then when this happens it's only a matter of time before the IP is blacklisted, and that affects everyone on the server...

As Justin says, you should contact the host involved ASAP as they'll have to get the blacklist removed. You should also setup DKIM and SPF records on the domain - which doesn't really help for what's probably caused this, but will help for spoofing (which is something totally different).

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

I do Malware sweeps on a regular basis as suggested but did another one anyway and there was a naughty little Trogan horse on there! This has now been removed so I'll do the blacklist removal thang and see how we get on.

I'll also be contacting my host to get them to sort anything they need to. As for contacting the email recipient.....I'll give them a call :D

Thanks for the help

Paul, from the error message you pasted in, I'd say this was an issue with Talk Talk's mail system as the incoming mail server rather than your own outgoing mail server. The error gives the incoming mail server details, after all. Have you had any issues sending mail to anyone else? If your own host is blocking your emails then none would go out. If it's only Talk Talk customers you can't email then it's their blacklist, or one of the Spamhaus lists that they make their decisions from, that is causing the problem.

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Originally Posted by DazzyD

Paul, from the error message you pasted in, I'd say this was an issue with Talk Talk's mail system as the incoming mail server rather than your own outgoing mail server. The error gives the incoming mail server details, after all. Have you had any issues sending mail to anyone else? If your own host is blocking your emails then none would go out. If it's only Talk Talk customers you can't email then it's their blacklist, or one of the Spamhaus lists that they make their decisions from, that is causing the problem.

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I'm sure it's a Talk Talk problem as everything else is sending fine. I've spoken to the client now so all is good.