Blocked E-mail

[gordie]

Hi Folks,
In the last 3 weeks I have been unable to contact a fellow researcher by email. My contact turned out to be my third cousin and over the last two years we have been assisting each other and sharing information on our searches and we have since become good friends.
My contact is an AOL subscriber and I am an Orange (formerly Wanadoo) subsciber and both of us are using Windows XP Home.
When I am notified that my mail has been blocked I am given an error message "554 con:b1" and instructed to contact "http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554conb1.html", and on making this contact I am given an explanation which says, " The IP address you are sending from has been blocked due to unfavourable e-mail statistics ". I have also sent a message to the Orange helpline outlining the problem but as yet have had no reply. Has anybody else had this or a similar problem?, any advice or solution would be gratefully received.
The problem may be at my contact's end but my contact is not computer "savvy" and wouldn't know where to look for a fix.
This may be a coincidence but the problem has only arisen since Orange took over Wanadoo.
All the Best,
Gordie

[emanday]

Hi Gordie,

Only a stab in the dark, mind you, but do you have your email set up to delete stuff on the server when you delete it on your PC?

I inadvertently changed this setting to "Never" and suddenly found my outgoing emails and incoming were being blocked.

This was back when I was with Wanadoo. Only difference is that they did email me with a warning that my server space (for emails) was full and needed to be purged.

Just a thought

[AndrewP]

Hi Gordie,

I am also a Freeserve / Wanadoo / Orange e-mail subscriber. I have had a number of e-mails refused recently. I think Orange must be having problems with their servers being misused for sending spam (e-mail junk mail) and they have been blacklisted by some of the other e-mail companies.

I have had none returned for about a week now, so I am assuming the matter has been resolved.

All the best,

AndrewP

[JayPee]

I am also a Freeserve / Wanadoo / Orange e-mail subscriber. I have had a number of e-mails refused recently. I think Orange must be having problems with their servers being misused for sending spam (e-mail junk mail) and they have been blacklisted by some of the other e-mail companies.
...
All the best,

AndrewP

As a "postmaster" (among other hats I wear at work), I've seen more spam coming through from "Orange" sites since they took over (or whatever the appropriate terminology ... I haven't really been paying much attention) from wanadoo. The orange site (all or portions thereof) might have been added to black-list databases that are used by many sites around the world in an attempt to minimise the quantity of spam arriving at our mailservers.
- JayPee

[gordie]

Hi Folks,
Many thanks to all for your help and advice.
It definitely looks like the problem lies at my contacts end as I've since been able to contact other AOL users.
Regards,
Gordie