Microsoft e-mail services blocking WinWorldPC
Just for everybody's information, it appears that Microsoft's e-mail services (hotmail, outlook.com) are blocking WinWorldPC again.
If you wish to sign up for a Winworld forum account, please use a different e-mail provider.
If you really need to use Microsoft's mail services, please contact them and have them remove their block.
If you wish to sign up for a Winworld forum account, please use a different e-mail provider.
If you really need to use Microsoft's mail services, please contact them and have them remove their block.
Comments
Although, I wonder when was the last time Microsoft did this... and how was that resolved before they did it again.
Anyway, they had been blocking Winworld a long time ago after Winworld changed servers, and the excuse was that the server IP address had previously been used by spammers. I was under the impression that a workaround had been put in place or it had been cleared up at some point. Perhaps not, but either way it is borked now and I don't know that there is much that can be done about it.
Anyway, just a reminder that any attempt to sign up for Winworld using a Microsoft e-mail address will fail. You will not receive a verification e-mail and will be unable to activate the account.
Also, do not attempt to contact the admin e-mail using a Microsoft e-mail address. We may get your e-mail but we can not respond. The response will bounce.
Well, I can't say it would surprise me if Microsoft was purposefully gimping their free email to try and get people on 365. But Gmail is still really decent and free.
If they tried to create a new account and failed to activate it, it is a little more complicated as the forum account is not actually created yet, but they can't create another account with the exact same user name. (In that case it may be simpler for the user to just to slightly change the desired user name and try again with a different e-mail address).
They can also contact us via the admin e-mail, however I don't check the admin e-mail every day, and I might be the only one who even looks at it. Also, again, we can NOT currently reply directly to e-mails from a Microsoft e-mail account. We may need some proof that the person owns the account. So either send an e-mail from the new AND old e-mail address, or at least include a properly typed non MS e-mail address for us to respond to.
Also BTW, admins can NOT change user names due to the way the databases are hooked up.
Either avoid using these services, and/or contact them to have them correct the problem.
Remember, if your provider blocks e-mail from us, we can't respond to your e-mails sent to the winworld admin e-mail.
Also, just a note, I think we may still be having problems with accounts that have spaces in the name (no recent newly signed up account have spaces in the name). When signing up to the forum, avoid spaces in your user name.
Another issue I probably need to re-test is that the that the recover password feature was not resetting the "recently sent" status after resetting the password or after one day as it says it will. Effectively that meant after someone has used it once, they can not use it again. There have been a number of support requests regarding that.
I think there had been a bit of work on the site recently, but they never tell me what was changed or fixed.
That's not really my department, but I seem to recall when the current servers were first set up a long time ago, there were known issues with the the IP address being on some blacklist. I believe Duff had tried to address that but had no luck, and the hope was that the blacklisting would eventually expire on its own.
Microsoft’s email services, such as Outlook and Hotmail, do not specifically block all emails from OVH-hosted servers. However, emails from certain OVH IP addresses or networks may be rejected if they are associated with spam activity or are listed on major blacklists (e.g., UCEPROTECT or other reputation services).
For example, UCEPROTECT Level 3 has previously blacklisted entire OVH ASN ranges due to reported abuse from some of their IP addresses, which can lead to email rejections by services like Hotmail. If an IP address from OVH is blocked, it usually results in a “550 5.7.1” error message with a note to contact the email service provider. This does not mean OVH as a whole is blocked, but rather specific IPs flagged for poor reputation.
Resolving the Issue
1. Check IP Reputation: Use tools like MXToolbox to confirm if your IP is blacklisted.
2. Contact OVH: Request a new IP address or work with OVH to address the blacklist issue. OVH provides steps for unblocking flagged IPs.
3. Set Up an External SMTP: If OVH’s IPs continue facing issues, you can configure an external SMTP server to handle outbound emails.
Proactively monitoring your server for spam activity and ensuring proper email configurations (e.g., SPF, DKIM, DMARC) can help reduce the chances of being blocked in the future.
Addressing point 3 on that list, I personally use Duo Circle (duocircle.com) for my email relays and so far, it's been decent. If you stay under 1,000 emails a month, it's free. And it's pretty easy to set up, but it does require proper SPF and DKIM/DMARC records, which it kind of walks you through setting up, so it's easy.