Xmail to Hotmail issues, Can't get email out to Hotmail

ok, so I have been working with Hotmail support to get all my DNS, SPF records, etc... in order just the way the want it, but I am actually having a problem sending to them.

I have noticed that when I get on my email server and do "telnet mx1.hotmail.com 25" or any of their mail servers it takes 30 to 60 seconds to actually connect to their server. I do not have this problem with other email providers. So, it is beginning to seem like to me like my connection is timing out before the connection is ever made. Here is a bit of one of my SLOGs.

[PeekTime] 1162857787 : Mon, 6 Nov 2006 18:03:07 -0600
<<
ErrCode = -5
ErrString = Timeout error
SMAIL SMTP-Send MX = "mx4.hotmail.com." SMTP = "interactivetwist.com" From = "mmarsicek@ecologicalhomeideas.com" To = "t_littrel@hotmail.com" Failed !
SMTP-Error = "417 Temporary delivery error"
SMTP-Server = "mx4.hotmail.com."
>>
<<
ErrCode = -5
ErrString = Timeout error
SMAIL SMTP-Send MX = "mx1.hotmail.com." SMTP = "interactivetwist.com" From = "mmarsicek@ecologicalhomeideas.com" To = "t_littrel@hotmail.com" Failed !
SMTP-Error = "417 Temporary delivery error"
SMTP-Server = "mx1.hotmail.com."
>>
<<
ErrCode = -5
ErrString = Timeout error
SMAIL SMTP-Send MX = "mx2.hotmail.com." SMTP = "interactivetwist.com" From = "mmarsicek@ecologicalhomeideas.com" To = "t_littrel@hotmail.com" Failed !
SMTP-Error = "417 Temporary delivery error"
SMTP-Server = "mx2.hotmail.com."
>>


Anyway, it just continues with this error till it eventually freezes. I do believe I have a legitimate blocking issue with Hotmail, but I can't test that until I get an email sent out to "randomtestacct@hotmail.com", which is apparently an account they leave wide open for anyone to send to for testing purposes. I have tried to send 4 emails there now and they have all frozen in my queue with the same error message as above.

I thank you in advance for you help, this is a great community.

If huge delay with telnet indicates either a DNS issue or a bad route to the remote server. There are 2 things you can do:

- Add parameter -St 120 to your XMail command line parameters.
- Use another DNS server's IP in the dnsroots file.

You where able to contact them and really get a response from them about this!? Where did you find contact information about this?

And... can you give some guidelines about what they expect from DNS and SPF settings etc?

I would like to start off by saying Thank You Harald. You are always a great help. I used the -St option to fix the issue for the moment. I will contact my ISP to figure out what is up with the DNS and traceroute to mx1.hotmail.com to see what I get.

ok, bim, trust me. Getting in touch with Hotmail/Microsoft was not easy. They bury their support very well. Their main support link for ISP and mail providers is here:

http://postmaster.msn.com/

and their guidelines are here:

http://postmaster.msn.com/Guidelines.aspx

I found the link to their support email on this page:

http://postmaster.msn.com/Troubleshooting.aspx

email: nocmail@microsoft.com

It was hidden at the bottom of the page in a paragraph of text that makes it hard to notice.


At the end of the day it comes down to 4 main things they would like you to have setup and done.

1. Setup SPF Records with your DNS

2. Register your Domains that have SPF records with SenderID@Microsoft.com. To accomplish this you just attach a text file with each domain on a seperate line in the text file to an email and send it to the address. No subject was specified to me as needed, but I just put "spf record domains" and it seemed to work since I got an auto-response saying it did.

3. Make sure your domain report clears here and that you do not have any failures http://dnsreport.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?do...=YourDomain.com
Make sure you replace 'YourDomain.com' with your actual domain.

4. Make sure a reverse DNS lookup works on your domain addresses and make sure the name resolved is matched to an 'A' record and not to something like a 'CNAME'.

Those are the basic tips I've gotten so far. If anything else comes of my emails with Microsoft I will be glad to post them.

Thanks again, this is a great community.

Thanks for your valuable input!

I'm trying to solve problem with hotmail guidelines...I will post my experience...

Thx
Andrea