# Problems emailing somebody

## evoweiss

Hi,

This is a strange problem that has recently cropped up and it's isolated to one person I write often (my sister). Anyway, she's got some personal email address, i.e., name@blahblah.com. I run pine as my email client  :Smile:  and send my emails through gmail's smtp server. Anyway, every now and then I will send her an email and I get the following error:

```

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

     name@blahblah.com

Technical details of permanent failure:

PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 9): 550 5.0.0 <name@blahblah.com>...

RCPT TO:<name@blahblah.com> Relaying not allowed - please use SMTP

AUTH

```

So, if I go into .pinerc I have the following setting:

```

# List of SMTP servers for sending mail. If blank: Unix Pine uses sendmail.

smtp-server=smtp.gmail.com/tls/user=myname@gmail.com

#smtp-server=smtp.gmail.com/user=myname/ssl

```

The bizarre thing is that, if I comment out the first smtp-server specification and uncomment the second, the email goes through. However, I will then later try to email again and I get the same error. I again switch which of those lines is commented and which is uncommented and, bingo, it works again! 

Now, I've tried emailing her directly via the gmail web interface and I run into the same error.

The question therefore is how do I make it so I don't have to jump through hoops to email my sister?

Best,

Alex

----------

## di1bert

Hi Alex

Are we sure that the relaying denied error isn't coming from the Google servers ? Without a 

full message to look at it's a little hard to figure this out.

To start with you should also check the MX records for her domain using

```

dig mx blahblah.com

```

A fews times I've seen it where, if there is a second MX record for a domain, the second

MX doesn't relay mail for the domain in question, either because of "political" reasons

or just a simple technical error.

In short, check where the "relaying denied" error is coming from and check the MX records for

your sisters email address.

HTH

-m

----------

## evoweiss

Hey there,

Sorry for the delay in replying, but it wasn't until now that an email bounced back. This time I expanded the headers and see:

```

From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <mailer-daemon@googlemail.com>

```

Suggesting that you're right, i.e., it was gmail. However, this also has happened when I sent emails directly through their web client. Any idea?

Alex

----------

## di1bert

That is a strange one. Did you check the MX records for your sisters mail domain ?

That's the only other thing that I could think of that would be breaking things.

I highly doubt Gmail would be giving you the relaying denied error. 

Is there no way you can paste / mail / show us the full message headers ? 

I find that it's the best way to find out where the problem lies....

-m

----------

## evoweiss

Hi again,

Sure I can send the full headers. However, for now, gmail is blocking my mails and directed me towards a website claiming that I'm a bulk mailer! The thing is, my mail logs don't reflect this and I see no evidence of a break in, either. I have an SPI firewall set up and never had any trouble of this sort even when I had a fixed IP address (now I use dyndns).

Anyway, the email is now sadly gone, but here's what I get in my mail log.

```

May  8 19:16:36 [postfix/smtp] 8502F2734D1: to=<myemail@gmail.com>, relay=gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[66.249.93.114]:25, delay=4, delays=0/0/0.18/3.8, dsn=5.7..1, status=bounced (host gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[66.249.93.114] said: 550-5.7.1 [XX.X.XXX.XX] Our system has detected an unusual amount of unsolicited 550-5.7.1 mail originating from your IP address. To protect our 550-5.7.1 users from spam, mail sent from your IP address has been 550-5.7.1 rejected. Please visit 550-5.7.1 http://www.google.com/mail/help/bulk_mail.html to review 550 5.7.1 our Bulk Email Senders Guidelines. 28si1145318ugc (in reply to end of DATA command))

```

Alex

----------

## di1bert

Ouch, so it is Gmail that's blocking your mail. I assume you're on a dynamic IP which 

would be your reason for using DynDNS ?

Perhaps someone who used the IP you're currently using was the culprit ? 

I would say mail the Gmail Support guys to see what they can give you but I'm not

sure how much help they would be, especially if you're experiencing similar 

problems when using the Webmail interface....

-m

----------

## evoweiss

Hi,

Yeah, apparently that's the case. I wish I had checked that earlier. I'm on a dynamic IP address, yes and I have to use DynDNS. Is there some way to reset my IP address to something new?

I emailed gmail and hope they reply. It's really damn annoying.

Alex

 *di1bert wrote:*   

> Ouch, so it is Gmail that's blocking your mail. I assume you're on a dynamic IP which 
> 
> would be your reason for using DynDNS ?
> 
> Perhaps someone who used the IP you're currently using was the culprit ? 
> ...

 

----------

## evoweiss

Hi,

Well, resetting my IP didn't change matters any at all. Sigh...

Alex

----------

## evoweiss

Hi,

I just tried sending another email via gmail's web thing and it didn't work. Here's the message with the full headers. If you could help me resolve this annoying problem, I'd really appreciate it. The thing is that I WAS using smtp auth (I am pretty sure I pasted my pine lines up earlier).

Alex

```

Return-Path: <>

X-Original-To: me@localhost

Delivered-To: me@localhost.localdomain

Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1])

    by domain (Postfix) with ESMTP id B61B7272DC3

    for <aweiss@localhost>; Tue,  8 May 2007 20:13:55 +0100 (BST)

Delivered-To: me@gmail.com

Received: from gmail-pop.l.google.com [66.249.93.109]

    by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-6.3.8)

    for <me@localhost> (single-drop); Tue,

    08 May 2007 20:13:55 +0100 (BST)

Received: by 10.100.168.7 with SMTP id q7cs809369ane;

        Tue, 8 May 2007 12:12:19 -0700 (PDT)

Received: by 10.101.68.18 with SMTP id v18mr3516671ank.1178651430954;

        Tue, 08 May 2007 12:10:30 -0700 (PDT)

Received: by 10.101.68.18 with SMTP id v18mr5243642ank;

        Tue, 08 May 2007 12:10:30 -0700 (PDT)

Message-ID: <16368e1c03042ffa2bdb25b222f77@googlemail.com>

From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <mailer-daemon@googlemail.com>

To: me@gmail.com

Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 12:10:30 -0700 (PDT)

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

     my@sister.com

Technical details of permanent failure:

PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 9): 550 5.0.0 <my@sister.com>...

RCPT TO:<my@sister.com> Relaying not allowed - please use SMTP

AUTH   ----- Original message -----

Received: by 10.101.68.18 with SMTP id v18mr3516604ank.1178651426213;

        Tue, 08 May 2007 12:10:26 -0700 (PDT)

Received: by 10.100.168.7 with HTTP; Tue, 8 May 2007 12:10:26 -0700 (PDT)

Message-ID: <70d357aa0705081210g76711dddmc143312cdf5ef59c@mail.gmail.com>

Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 20:10:26 +0100

From: "Evoweiss" <me@gmail.com>

To: my@sister.com

Subject: Re: By the way

In-Reply-To: <70d357aa0705081122g246dcb00g9f6cf7ae26ff7f2@mail.gmail.com>

MIME-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Content-Disposition: inline

References: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0705081400500.7497@localhost>

         <463B7A6A00000432@mta11.wss.scd.yahoo.com>

         <70d357aa0705081122g246dcb00g9f6cf7ae26ff7f2@mail.gmail.com>

```

----------

