Okay folks, do any of you personally use Earthlink? At first I thought it was just a coincidence, but now I am absolutely certain that there is something wrong with either WWWThreads, Earthlink itself, or something else. But there IS some sort of problem here.

Over the last several months I have had people writing to me asking why the password email they received from our forums is blank and has an attachment. In fact, they often would ask, what application was required to read their passwords. Confused, I at first assumed user error and suggested they try requesting the password again.

Well, I have received over 40 emails now and after going over our server email configuration at legth, I see nothing wrong on our end. So either something is being generated improperly by W3T when it generates and sends out the password emails or Earthlink has a problem reading the emails generated by W3T.

I get the feeling that an improper MIME type is being used and Earthlink is balking at it. The ONLY other email service I've ever received complaints like this for is MSN. But not recently.

Scream (or anyone) do you have any suggestions about this? Thanks!

Jhariden (aka Strategist)
Stratics Forums

Boy, I'm not sure about that one. The mailings don't have any specific mime type set on them so I don't know what would need to be changed. I've got 49 users here that have registered with an earthlink email address and about 30 of them have logged in to post.

If there are any earthlink customers reading this that have not been able to register I would like to hear from you though. If you can't post, email me at [][email protected][/]

Yeah, it is really odd. I've come close to signing up for Earthlink, just to test it. ;)

Jhariden (aka Strategist)
Stratics Forums

I use earthlink/mindsprings smtp server to send the new user reg emails and haven't had one problem. Can't use sendmail because mindspring blocks port 25. haven't had any complaints like you describe. Only problem I have is people forget their password and don't seem to know what the lost password link is for and mail me to reset it for them. My only choice was to use mindsprings smtp server or change isps. Don't want to do the latter because I would be without broadband for a couple weeks during the changeover.

In an attempt to fight spam, Earthlink has filtered out domains that have "unsecured open relays". For example, my domain is currently blocked, and I can't email earthlink customers. I've told my isp about it and they keep saying it is fixed, but the problem persists. It gives this error:

The original message was received at Wed, 25 Jul 2001 08:37:01 -0700
from [xx.xxx.xx.xxx]

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<[email protected]>

----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to mx00.earthlink.net.:
>>> MAIL From:<[email protected]> SIZE=405
<<< 550-EarthLink's inbound mail servers do not allow mail from your site.
<<< 550-Please contact your ISP to find out how to send e-mail using a
<<< 550-proper mail server. If you are an EarthLink customer, and need
<<< 550-assistance configuring your e-mail software, please contact
<<< 550-EarthLink's technical support department at 1-800-EARTHLINK.
<<< 550-Server administrators that feel they are being blocked in error
<<< 550 may send e-mail to [email protected] for assistance.
554 <[email protected]>... Service unavailable