Maxbulk say email sent when it really wasn't

[Silox]

I've noticed that Maxbulk sometimes reports an email as sent when it really wasn't sent. (Which is a huge problem for me as I didn't realize this until now which means people on my mailing list weren't getting their emails.)

For example, if I have a list of recipients and I'm sending to them, invariably there's always at least one in each batch (I'm sending singly - Maxbulk Mailer 8.3.1) that gets reported incorrectly as sent when it wasn't.

Let's say I have 700 recipients and I'm sending in batches of 100 -- I'll usually get 14 errors. Seven of these errors will be emails that are marked as sent, but actually when looking in the log it says it was marked with "250 Accepted" and those were not really sent. The other seven will be errors connected with a recipient which Maxbulk has marked in such a way that it will resend it -- so those aren't the big problem -- however those that had a code of "Accepted" are a problem, because they're checked off as sent when they're not.

The mail which really does get sent is marked with 250 followed by an email ID, whereas the "250 Accepted" result has no email ID next to it.

Often with the "250 Accepted" problem (when sending with more than one stream) there will also be another email error underneath it with the name of the first person in my list with "Administrative Prohibition" listed as a result.

In other words, if I get 7 errors in my campaign (with the 250 Accepted error) then there'll usually be seven instances of the first recipients email listed as trying to be sent with an "Administrative Prohibition" result.

It seems like Maxbulk in those cases is trying to send the appropriate recipeint's email but somehow tries to do it through the first recipient on my list thus causing this "Administrative Prohibition" error...

I'm dealing with this by keeping an eye on my logs and resending manually the ones I know need to be resent... however, an update to Maxbulk fixing this would be greatly welcomed.

Thanks.

 

[stanbusk]

The '250 Accepted' message is sent by your server to tell MaxBulk Mailer that the message was accepted for delivery to that address. This process is explained here.

Now, you should *NEVER* get errors. I mean, if you get errors you have to find out the reason and fix it. Errors are either authentication errors or related to a given delivery limitation per hour or per day as explained here.

 

[Silox]

Just to clarify:

The MLM report generates two files: One is a "Sent" list, the other is an "Errors" list (if there were errors).

When I go through the "Sent" list, I can see the majority of emails listed with a "250 ok" message under the "Result" category, followed by an individual email ID. But when I get down to certain emails (the ones which weren't actually sent), it says "250 accepted" next to these, but is not followed by any specific email ID. These are the emails which actually did NOT get sent even though it is listed next to the "250 accepted" and even though it's contained in the SENT list. I suppose it doesn't have a specific email ID next to it because it never got one, somehow, for some reason. (Thus the problem). Yet, because it did receive a "250 accepted" message Maxbulk ticks it off as Sent, when it really wasn't. Somehow, right after receiving that 250 accepted message and before the message gets sent, something happens to mess it up -- and Maxbulk Mailer doesn't realize this.

In the "Errors" file, I can see always a "503 Sender not yet given" message next to half of the emails, and next to the other half says, "Administrative Prohibition" -- as if there's a connection between the two.

Also, the email marked as "Administrative Prohibition" is always the SAME email address,. It may be listed there 7 times -- same email address each time, same "Administrative Prohibition" error.

In another batch of sending, it will be a different email address, yet the same one repeated next to each "Administrative Prohibition"

The MLM report generates that there's "xx" errors and exactly half that number as failed -- each time. So if it's 14 errors, 7 are marked as unsent. The problem is not that some are marked as unsent (as those will be marked for resending), but the ones that are in the sent list (yet received no individual email id) ARE marked as sent when they really weren't sent.

It seems to me that the emails marked as sent with a "250 accepted" (not followed by an email ID) message -- what happens is that it gets ready to be sent, it's accepted by the email system, but then Maxbulk Mailer tries to send the message to a different email address (perhaps the ones which have the "503 sender not yet given" message next to it) -- and the email system doesn't like that ... and somehow this same, repeating email address which has "Administrative Prohibition" has something to do with it as well...

Any thoughts?

 

[stanbusk]

Did you read the pages I gave you links of? When you write 'MLM' I guess you mean 'MBM', right? The "503 Sender not yet given" is not the first error you get, you have to go up on the connection log to see what the real error is. Sometimes an error can cause other errors like these.

Anyway and sorry to do that but I will repeat a sentence I wrote in my previous message, you should *NEVER* get errors, if you get errors you have to find out the reason and fix it. Errors are either authentication errors or related to a given delivery limitation per hour. I would even write NEVER 3 or 4 times to make it clear. If you are 100% sure the authentication is all right (all the time) and you are sending the message slowly enough to avoid limitations then you will have to talk to your server and explain the problem to them.

 

[Silox]

Yes, I read your links, thank-you. I'm operating within the parameters per hour, per group, as far as my hosting is concerned. No problem there.

I actually just had a long chat with my hosting provider -- going through the emails / logs / etc...

I verified the authentication settings I'm using -- they're fine.

They determined that the emails in question (which Maxbulk Mailer is reporting that they were sent (the ones with a 250 Accepted next to it (with no further, individual ID unlike all the other successfully sent ones which do have an individual ID next to them)) are NOT reaching their servers and they have no record of those email addresses which are in question here. They're emphatically stating there's no issue on their server-side of things, and it's pointing to the software I'm using -- hence I'm back here posting this - because those emails are marked as sent within Maxbulk. These are their words, "I would tell the developer this: the mail server of my host has no record in the exim_taillogs of these emails ever reaching the server."

As a short recap, when this problem comes in to play (about once per 100 emails sent): it seems that Maxbulk Mailer for some reason associates the email address it's trying to send to to another email address (the first one in my list). It generates a problem (Administrative Prohibition then another 503 error). Those errors aren't the big problem because Maxbulk recognizes them and will mark them to be resent.. The problem is that just before the 503 error, an email address gets marked with the "250 Accepted" message (no connected ID) but it's NOT sent. No record of them at the hosting servers...

Anyone reading this I highly recommend you searching your logs for a "250 Accepted" email address with no connected individual ID next to it. Those emails are NOT receiving the messages.

UPDATE: For what it's worth, I changed my "grouping" to send ALL the emails at once (rather than splitting deliveries in to smaller batches) and I don't have this problem anymore. So I can avoid my particular problem, but it does seem strange why it would generate errors when sending in smaller batches...

 

[cailyn]

Sorry Stan! I am having the same trouble. Our Max Bulk setup had not changed. We called Network Solutions to see if any mail was sitting in a queue or if there were any reported troubles. None, so all of the mail went out of Network Solutions just fine.

We sent the email to our own email addresses (our bulk mail domain, our me.com and gmail accounts) where in each case the email was sent successfully according to Max Bulk Mailer delivery report. I went to the logs, saw a similar 250 Accepted issue described here. Changed our settings in Max Bulk Mailer to send all at once.

Still I get successful Max Bulk Mailer Delivery reports but never receive the email. Check with ISP - no firewall so no blockage there. I sent it to our personal mail server, again, I built the settings so I know I am not blocking anything.

The mail simply never arrives at the destination.

What do I look at next?
Thanks!

 

[stanbusk]

The "250 Accepted" response is sent by the server and it is simply added to the transcript as is. This string doesn't come from MaxBulk Mailer but from the server!!!!!!!! This is explained here and here.

The "250 Accepted" server response means 'Your message has been accepted for delivery'. So MaxBulk Mailer is successful here, it has delivered successfully the message to the server. It is now the responsibility of the server to deliver that message. It can ***NEVER*** be MaxBulk Mailer responsibility since the server said "250 Accepted" that means 'Your message has been accepted for delivery'!!!!! If the server says everything is ok, accepts the message and tells MaxBulk Mailer it accepts the message, if the message is not delivered it is 100% because of the server. It is how the emailing system works.

Imagine you go the the post office to send an important document and you get a receipt that the post office received the envelope. Ten days later the recipient still haven't received the important envelope, you said it was delivered and fax the receipt as a proof. Now imagine the recipient ignoring the proof and saying you never delivered the envelope to the post office. The "250 Accepted" message is the proof here, if you call your server and then say the culprit is MaxBulk Mailer just imagine how much they know about their own system and the emailing system.

 

[Silox]

Sorry - I feel like a ping pong ball between you and my hosting people. I don't want to fix blame, I just want things working. I'm pursuing higher levels of support with the hosting provider - waiting for a reply. In the meanwhile, here's the exact log of a recent send. I sent only one message, which got through fine, but the email notification send-log (from Maxbulk mailer) which was supposed to get sent back to me didn't make it through. It had this error and here's the log:

Could you tell me if this simply confirms what you're saying? If so, I'll send that info back to the hosting people. Thank-you for your time.

***************

12:23:08 235 Authentication succeeded
12:23:08 > MAIL FROM:<[email protected]>
12:23:08 503 already authenticated
12:23:08 > RCPT TO:<[email protected]> [1/1]
12:23:08 250 OK
12:23:08 > DATA
12:23:08 250 Accepted
12:23:08 ~ Stage 3 dispatch done
12:23:08 > QUIT
12:23:09 354 Enter message, ending with "." on a line by itself
12:23:09 ~ Sending message
12:23:09 ~ with ID <[email protected]>
12:23:09 ~ To [email protected]
12:23:10 550 Administrative prohibition
12:23:10 ~ Stage 1 dispatch done [A:2/1]
12:23:10 > QUIT
12:23:10 221 boxabc.hosting.com closing connection
12:23:10 ~ Stage 4 dispatch done
12:23:10 ~ [-]
12:23:10 ~ Finishing...
12:23:10 ~ Finished.

hosting people said it looks like from their logs that:
"rejected after DATA: there is no valid sender in any header line"

"Sounds like the problem is with the software, It wasn't able to see any valid sender; I'm guessing meaning it wasn't able to find out where it should be sending too."

*******

It looks to my uneducated eyes that first: a "503 already authenticated" message appears. Later the "250 Accepted", then AFTER that (seems like to link is closed then? After which time Maxbulk Mailer tries sending the message?) there's a "550 Administrative Prohibition" error.

Does this log confirm what you're saying? It seems Maxbulk Mailer tries to send the message AFTER the "accepted" message from the server? Perhaps what you're saying is the way it SHOULD be working, but could it be Maxbulk Mailer isn't flowing like it should in this case -- as per the log? Or is it indeed the server misbehaving somehow?

 

[Silox]

UPDATE from the server people (higher level support). They said (after looking at the same log):

"At any time if the proper authentication is not sent or the proper headers are not used the server will generate this error."

"The standard for accepting a message is 250 OK id=1Qf8DH-0007m6-4d this signifies that it received the message and has attached a message ID to it for delivery. the 250 accepted is just the acknowledgment of the information that was put in. As we said, for a message to be received or sent from our server it needs to have a valid header setup."

So, it seems Maxbulk Mailer isn't sending proper headers at times -- as per what the previous support guy said when he mentioned:

"rejected after DATA: there is no valid sender in any header line"

Seems like Maxbulk mailer is getting confused sometimes, as indicated also by the fact that I just had this happen, and noticed Maxbulk Mailer throws up a red exclamation point (indicating a send error) on the first contact in my mailing list after this situation, even if I hadn't selected that person for sending. Maxbulk mailer is confusing who the email gets sent to and messing up the header information somehow, thus generating this weird scenario. I've gone through a couple higher levels of hosting support and they're all saying the same thing.

** I also noticed when right clicking on a contact in the mailing list and choosing "get info" I can see a list of the 'sent' messages to that person. The ones that only have the "250 accepted" with no ID they also don't have ANY information in the subject line either... Scary to look back and see who hasn't been getting our mailings...

 

[stanbusk]

Please open a support ticket and add ****the full connection log****, including the connection numbers on the left so I can see why you get a '503 already authenticated' error in the first place, you should not. That means there is an error before that.

In my opinion, the possibility the problem is with your server is around 100%. I say that per experience. MaxBulk Mailer is used by lots of users, I have responded to thousands of support tickets and I wrote MaxBulk Mailer. The software shows you the connection log in purpose, so you can detect server errors. As you can see, sending a message is simple, you send the sender address, the recipient address and the message plain text, that's all!

About the Administrative Prohibition error:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Administrative_Prohibition
http://www.webuser.co.uk/help-and-advice/problems-solved/email/386264/550-administrative-prohibition

As you can see aaaaaaallllllll server errors.

 

[cailyn]

Hi Silox,
Just an update on my situation. I kept re-reading Stan's rant about MBM sent the data to my mail server, from there it's out of our hands. The multiple exclamation points he used made me think what a typical, stuck-in-the-mud Developer Stan has become. But then I pondered even more on WHY he would get so frustrated so I pushed HARDER on my mail provider Network Solutions. STAN was RIGHT!!!!!!!!

I called them at 11pm Pacific when I knew the shift from India was on and requested a Case Supervisor (they don't work during that time shift) so I was given a 24 hour call back ticket number. The next morning I called at 9am when I knew the USA team shift was working, gave my ticket number and got an American tech. She was great and really dug through our logs. Lo and Behold, Network Solutions virus protector and spam protect had flagged 3 of our domains for incoming mail as spam! Um, we were sending the mail OUT of those servers to each other's address to check our blasts before sending them to everyone.

Long story short, no problems with the MBM delivery. Best of Luck!

PS And Stan - the next time I see a post with more than one exclamation point from you, I will research further before questioning you again

 

[stanbusk]

Thanks for the update! The use of so many exclamations was to emphasize my statement. And believe me, however I know MaxBulk Mailer is not the culprit in such situations I am always worried.