550 Permfail destination not valid within DNS

[Guest]

I've been having problems for months trying to send eMail through my Comcast
account to a specific domain in Europe. I get a Your message did not reach
some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: RE:
Sent: 11/25/2005 11:25 AM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

... on 11/25/2005 11:25 AM
550 [PERMFAIL] destination not valid within DNS

error. Here is part of an Outlook log entry for a failed send:
2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): [tx] MAIL FROM: <*****>
2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): <rx> 250 ok
2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): [tx] RCPT TO: <*****>
2005.11.13 21:47:50 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): <rx> 550 [PERMFAIL] destination
not valid within DNS
2005.11.13 21:47:51 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): End execution
2005.11.13 21:47:51 ComcastOnline: ReportStatus: RSF_COMPLETED, hr =
0x00000000
2005.11.13 21:47:51 ComcastOnline: Synch operation completed
2005.11.13 21:48:11 ComcastOnline: Synch operation started (flags = 00000001)
2005.11.13 21:48:11 ComcastOnline: UploadItems: 1 messages to send

Nobody seems to be able to help or at least tell me if this problem is with
MY ISP or on the recipient's side. Any help is greatly appreciated. PS, the
eMail usually goes through after I open it from the Sent Items folder and
forward it to the same address, usually on the 3rd or 4th attempt.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Sounds like Perfmail doesn't like Comcast - not unusual. Comcast is on a
lot of RBLs as it is one of the biggest spam relay services around. Plus,
it only allows dynamic dns which is a no-no for some mail servers if you run
your own inhouse.

Does the failure message also include a URL to examine the problem? Have
you tried contacting them to see if it is a configuration problem on your
side or theirs?


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Claus asked:

| I've been having problems for months trying to send eMail through my
| Comcast account to a specific domain in Europe. I get a Your message
| did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.
|
| Subject: RE:
| Sent: 11/25/2005 11:25 AM
|
| The following recipient(s) could not be reached:
|
| ... on 11/25/2005 11:25 AM
| 550 [PERMFAIL] destination not valid within DNS
|
| error. Here is part of an Outlook log entry for a failed send:
| 2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): [tx] MAIL FROM: <*****>
| 2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): <rx> 250 ok
| 2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): [tx] RCPT TO: <*****>
| 2005.11.13 21:47:50 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): <rx> 550 [PERMFAIL]
| destination not valid within DNS
| 2005.11.13 21:47:51 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): End execution
| 2005.11.13 21:47:51 ComcastOnline: ReportStatus: RSF_COMPLETED, hr =
| 0x00000000
| 2005.11.13 21:47:51 ComcastOnline: Synch operation completed
| 2005.11.13 21:48:11 ComcastOnline: Synch operation started (flags =
| 00000001) 2005.11.13 21:48:11 ComcastOnline: UploadItems: 1 messages
| to send
|
| Nobody seems to be able to help or at least tell me if this problem
| is with MY ISP or on the recipient's side. Any help is greatly
| appreciated. PS, the eMail usually goes through after I open it from
| the Sent Items folder and forward it to the same address, usually on
| the 3rd or 4th attempt.

 

[Guest]

Thank you very much for your reply. There is no URL listed in the failure
message. May I ask - what is "Perfmail" and "RBL"? I've been opening ticket
after ticket with Comcast, but they don't seem to feel the need to do
something. The last thing they told me today was that they don't filter
outgoing messages at all.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

ERm - sorry, been a bit under the weather. That message PERMFAIL not
PERFMAIL, my bad.

What is the recipient's domain to which you are trying to send mail? Have
you queried them as to why they are denying your mail?


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Claus asked:

| Thank you very much for your reply. There is no URL listed in the
| failure message. May I ask - what is "Perfmail" and "RBL"? I've been
| opening ticket after ticket with Comcast, but they don't seem to feel
| the need to do something. The last thing they told me today was that
| they don't filter outgoing messages at all.
|
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:
|
|| Sounds like Perfmail doesn't like Comcast - not unusual. Comcast is
|| on a lot of RBLs as it is one of the biggest spam relay services
|| around. Plus, it only allows dynamic dns which is a no-no for some
|| mail servers if you run your own inhouse.
||
|| Does the failure message also include a URL to examine the problem?
|| Have you tried contacting them to see if it is a configuration
|| problem on your side or theirs?
||
||
|| --Â
|| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
|| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
|| reading.
||
|| After furious head scratching, Claus asked:
||
||| I've been having problems for months trying to send eMail through my
||| Comcast account to a specific domain in Europe. I get a Your message
||| did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.
|||
||| Subject: RE:
||| Sent: 11/25/2005 11:25 AM
|||
||| The following recipient(s) could not be reached:
|||
||| ... on 11/25/2005 11:25 AM
||| 550 [PERMFAIL] destination not valid within DNS
|||
||| error. Here is part of an Outlook log entry for a failed send:
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): [tx] MAIL FROM: <*****>
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): <rx> 250 ok
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): [tx] RCPT TO: <*****>
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:50 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): <rx> 550 [PERMFAIL]
||| destination not valid within DNS
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:51 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): End execution
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:51 ComcastOnline: ReportStatus: RSF_COMPLETED, hr =
||| 0x00000000
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:51 ComcastOnline: Synch operation completed
||| 2005.11.13 21:48:11 ComcastOnline: Synch operation started (flags =
||| 00000001) 2005.11.13 21:48:11 ComcastOnline: UploadItems: 1 messages
||| to send
|||
||| Nobody seems to be able to help or at least tell me if this problem
||| is with MY ISP or on the recipient's side. Any help is greatly
||| appreciated. PS, the eMail usually goes through after I open it from
||| the Sent Items folder and forward it to the same address, usually on
||| the 3rd or 4th attempt.

 

[Guest]

Aha - so it is definitely on the recipient's end where the mail bounces back?
That is very important information. I always thought that maybe the eMail
doesn't even leave the Comcast server. The domain is oettli.com. I've asked
them to look into it, but they don't seem to make much progress, and in the
meantime, I have to send each mail 3-4 times. ARGGGHH...

ERm - sorry, been a bit under the weather. That message PERMFAIL not
PERFMAIL, my bad.

What is the recipient's domain to which you are trying to send mail? Have
you queried them as to why they are denying your mail?


--Â
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Claus asked:

| Thank you very much for your reply. There is no URL listed in the
| failure message. May I ask - what is "Perfmail" and "RBL"? I've been
| opening ticket after ticket with Comcast, but they don't seem to feel
| the need to do something. The last thing they told me today was that
| they don't filter outgoing messages at all.
|
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:
|
|| Sounds like Perfmail doesn't like Comcast - not unusual. Comcast is
|| on a lot of RBLs as it is one of the biggest spam relay services
|| around. Plus, it only allows dynamic dns which is a no-no for some
|| mail servers if you run your own inhouse.
||
|| Does the failure message also include a URL to examine the problem?
|| Have you tried contacting them to see if it is a configuration
|| problem on your side or theirs?
||
||
|| --ÂÂ
|| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
|| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
|| reading.
||
|| After furious head scratching, Claus asked:
||
||| I've been having problems for months trying to send eMail through my
||| Comcast account to a specific domain in Europe. I get a Your message
||| did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.
|||
||| Subject: RE:
||| Sent: 11/25/2005 11:25 AM
|||
||| The following recipient(s) could not be reached:
|||
||| ... on 11/25/2005 11:25 AM
||| 550 [PERMFAIL] destination not valid within DNS
|||
||| error. Here is part of an Outlook log entry for a failed send:
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): [tx] MAIL FROM: <*****>
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): <rx> 250 ok
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): [tx] RCPT TO: <*****>
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:50 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): <rx> 550 [PERMFAIL]
||| destination not valid within DNS
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:51 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): End execution
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:51 ComcastOnline: ReportStatus: RSF_COMPLETED, hr =
||| 0x00000000
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:51 ComcastOnline: Synch operation completed
||| 2005.11.13 21:48:11 ComcastOnline: Synch operation started (flags =
||| 00000001) 2005.11.13 21:48:11 ComcastOnline: UploadItems: 1 messages
||| to send
|||
||| Nobody seems to be able to help or at least tell me if this problem
||| is with MY ISP or on the recipient's side. Any help is greatly
||| appreciated. PS, the eMail usually goes through after I open it from
||| the Sent Items folder and forward it to the same address, usually on
||| the 3rd or 4th attempt.

 

[Peter Deacon]

Aha - so it is definitely on the recipient's end where the mail
bounces back? That is very important information. I always thought
that maybe the eMail doesn't even leave the Comcast server. The domain
is oettli.com. I've asked them to look into it, but they don't seem to
make much progress, and in the meantime, I have to send each mail 3-4
times. ARGGGHH...

No the problem is definately Comcast and their mail system. I've been
seeing this problem for years sending messages to many many people in
Europe, Australia and the Middle East. I've been trying for quite some
time to report this problem to someone at Comcast who:

A. Cares
B. Has enough knowledge to understand what is happening.

Its really sad the responses I get from their customer service department
who even after sending the complete error message generated by *their*
server and explaining the nature of the problem in detail only want to
talk to me about my misconfigured mail client.

They also have the audacity to claim that noone else has ever reported
this problem which a quick search of google leads me to believe
otherwise.

With all the RBLs...etc nowadays we have no choice but to use our
providers (Comcast) SMTP server for relay.

The problem is caused by two problems with Comcasts SMTP server. First
they have their DNS timeouts for resolving domain names of receipients
set too low so when you send a message off to some distant country and
the network links are a bit congested the response from the remote DNS
server does not make it back to comcast in time for comcasts impatient
SMTP server. Now the second time you try and re-send the message it goes
through. This is because by then the DNS response finally arrives and
has already been cached by comcasts local name servers. When this
happens their mail servers need only talk to their local DNS server to
get the address information rather than going half way around the world
for it.

The second and most serious problem is that a DNS timeout is not a 550
(permanent error class) error. It is a temporary 4xx class error. Their
server are generating the wrong error response which causes all mail
clients and SMTP servers to take the wrong stance on handling of this
error.

I'm hoping that if enough (or the right people with lots of expensive
business services) complain this will eventually get fixed. So please
help me and help yourself by complaining

~Peter

||| error. Here is part of an Outlook log entry for a failed send:
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): [tx] MAIL FROM:
||| <*****> 2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): <rx> 250 ok
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:45 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): [tx] RCPT TO:
||| <*****> 2005.11.13 21:47:50 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): <rx> 550
||| [PERMFAIL] destination not valid within DNS
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:51 SMTP (smtp.comcast.net): End execution
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:51 ComcastOnline: ReportStatus: RSF_COMPLETED,
||| hr = 0x00000000
||| 2005.11.13 21:47:51 ComcastOnline: Synch operation completed
||| 2005.11.13 21:48:11 ComcastOnline: Synch operation started (flags
||| = 00000001) 2005.11.13 21:48:11 ComcastOnline: UploadItems: 1
||| messages to send
||| Nobody seems to be able to help or at least tell me if this
||| problem is with MY ISP or on the recipient's side. Any help is
||| greatly appreciated. PS, the eMail usually goes through after I
||| open it from the Sent Items folder and forward it to the same
||| address, usually on the 3rd or 4th attempt.