We have become aware of the fact that Yahoo is either delaying or, in come cases, outright refusing email from our primary mail server. This seems very odd, as our mail server’s IP address is not in any of the major anti-spam blacklists, and other major email providers (e.g., AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, Apple, etc.) are not blocking us.
We have been unsuccessful in trying to contact Yahoo about this as, like most massive companies, they put up massive barriers to communication from small companies or individuals.
An obvious exception to this that we have happily dealt with before to solve similar issues is AOL, who provide an excellent website where companies like NinerNet can look up the “reputation” of their mail servers’ IP addresses, and initiate communication with people who are willing and able to help address issues. Interestingly, this is AOL’s current report on the reputation of the mail server that Yahoo is blocking:
212.71.255.195 [nc027.ninernet.net] Reputation is Good
What does a good reputation mean?
The IP address has a good reputation. This means AOL has enough data to determine that the IP address is a known mail sender with a good reputation. You should not be experiencing bounce or reject errors when sending mail from this IP.
Reputation of NinerNet mail server IP address with AOL.
We will monitor this situation and make further attempts to contact Yahoo and have them explain or remove this block. In the meantime, this serves as yet another example of why using “free” email on monolithic systems run by massive companies is a bad idea.
