30 replies to this topic

[Desert_Diver]

I've dug though everything I can find, and it appears that AOL is blocking the PM notifications from SD. Direct e-mails sourced from the SingleDivers e-mail client are still getting through, but not the PM notifications. It's working fine with destination mailboxes other than AOL, so the board's not broken. I've checked, and we don't have any in-bound or out-bound filtering installed. AOL says it's not on their end, either, but I haven't heard of anyone else missing their PM notifications.

I'll continue to research the board code, but I haven't found anything specific to AOL yet. My best guess is that the PM notifications are being tagged as SPAM and are being blocked somewhere along the way.

The 'subscribed thread' notifications ARE broken, however, and that's something I'm still looking into.

[Walter]

Spam still gets through, it just goes into a spam folder. I'm not getting the notifications in the spam folder either. If I were, I could fix it through aol.

[Travelnsj]

I spend 1/2 hour on the phone with AOL.....they said the mail has to go somewhere.....we could not find it! I cleared every address I had blocked in my Spam folder....still does not work....I am getting PM's from 3 other boards I am associated with but not SD and have not for about 3 months.

Edited by Travelnsj, 23 May 2006 - 05:11 PM.

[Desert_Diver]

It's possible it's a glitch with one of the updates, but nothing's showing on the support forums for *this* board software. I haven't forgotten you folks!

There's no IP blocks for AOL, no domain blocks, nothing. The code is convoluted enough that it's a real joy to browse... I'm not going to give up, but there's a couple of hot issues I gotta get locked down first, then I'll get back to it. Since the system doesn't log notifications, I have NO way to see if they're even leaving here. I suspect they are, but that's just a guess 'cos folks with other ISPs aren't having the same issue. I hate guesses.

If ANYONE is missing their PM notifications and you're not on AOL, *please* let me know! I'll take it as a given that none of our AOL members are getting them.

[Terri]

Hey Stan...you must have fixed something....I got an e-mail notice of a PM in my AOL inbox this afternoon....

Just thought I'd let you know

[Desert_Diver]

Nope, wasn't anything *we* did. I was suspecting it was on AOL's end 'cos they were the only ISP effected. The last change I did trying to fix it was Friday?, and I don't think George installed any new patches since the upgrade to 2.1.6 a week or so ago. As of Saturday it was still broken.

Maybe the e-mail fairy smiled on us?

[Walter]

Mine's working.

[Travelnsj]

Stan it is now working for me I had about 10 notifications today when I checked my e-mails.....Last week I spoke with a super in AOL tech support....He spent about 30 minutes with me on the problem as we could not find the e-mails anywhere and he was going to do more research...Glad it is fixed

[Desert_Diver]

Stan it is now working for me I had about 10 notifications today when I checked my e-mails.....Last week I spoke with a super in AOL tech support....He spent about 30 minutes with me on the problem as we could not find the e-mails anywhere and he was going to do more research...Glad it is fixed

Cool!

On a totally unrelated search yesterday, I came across a note from another forum owner that was getting messages to AOL dropped. AOL's system is set to reject any messages that have an invalid return address! The ones from our system have a return address of 'nobody@esc73.midphase.com', and the ones the other guy was having grief with had a return address of 'nobody@nobody.com'. I think that's why the direct e-mails were working, but notifications weren't ('cos the return address is different). I don't have any way to control the outbound return e-mail address on notifications. Grrrr.

It's a good idea as a method of eliminating some of the spam, but it filters out perfectly good messages as a side-effect! Oops. Maybe they whitelisted us, as a shortcut to getting around the junk filter without removing it entirely.

------------------------------

As a society, I STILL wonder why we allow 1/100th of 1% of the Internet users to cause SO much grief for the other 99.99% of us! I mean, REALLY! We ought to just crucify 'em and be done with it. We have the power, we're just afraid to use it. It'd put a bit more load on system administrators, so the only question is: are we willing to pay a few cents more each month so that we STOP getting Viagra, Cialis, Hoodia, 'Refinance your home!' and all the other junk?

Since we're a society, we can set our own rules. If we decided to make a rule that spam, phishing and hacking were illegal, punishable by total loss of Internet access, we could enforce it. It's simple to do, but we'd have to pay for the extra labor involved, AND be willing to put up with the enforcement.

If a member does something that we consider to be worth an Internet ban, then we require their sysadmin to cut their account. If the admin refuses to comply in a reasonable amount of time, then we escalate it to their service supplier, who has the power to shut down a network node. If the supplier doesn't comply, then the routers *around* them stop routing packets to/from that network segment. If we can't get compliance from an entire COUNTRY, then we block the country at their major access points into the rest of the network. Due to the loss of revenue and e-commerce across the effected areas, they'd comply pretty darned quick! We'd only have to do it a few times before folks started playing by the rules of the society.

In the grand scheme of things, it'd save money all around if we just decided to 'terminate with prejudice' the spammers, phishers and hackers from OUR network. Think of how many millions or billions of dollars have been lost or wasted dealing with viruses, stolen identity, and time wasted with junk e-mail in the last 10 years. It's probably more total cash than the results of a natural disaster!

Just something to consider... I've been spouting the same line for several years. One of these days, folks will decide they've had enough, and stand up on their hind legs to DO something about it. I keep praying!

[Walter]

Mine has stopped working again.

[Travelnsj]

I am with Walter...not working again.

[Desert_Diver]

I've asked George to submit a trouble ticket with Invision. I've looked in the source code that I have access to, and can't find a way to change the return address from 'nobody' to something valid. Dollars to donuts that's what AOL is filtering on, whether they admit it or not.

[WreckWench]

Hey guys...we are STILL working on this and yes we are trying to get the giant to pay attention to us. Since they haven't responded so far here is a work around:

For all AOL users not receiving pm notifications or topic/thread notifications:

Set up a yahoo or hotmail account and change your email in the SD system to that email. These accounts are free and they do not block emails from SD like AOL does. That way you'll get your notices that someone has posted in a thread you are following...or that you've gotten a pm from someone etc.

And know that we will keep working on this until its resolved...no matter how long it takes.

[Travelnsj]

And know that we will keep working on this until its resolved...no matter how long it takes.

Yeah but I'm not getting any younger

[WreckWench]

And know that we will keep working on this until its resolved...no matter how long it takes.

Yeah but I'm not getting any younger

That is true...none of us are...and you were the reason we got some access the last time...AOL listens to its customers...well for a short period of time. They certainly aren't listening to us!

Please try the work around in the meantime...it will enable you to get the info!