AOL BLUES
(Thursday) When we first moved to Turlock eight years ago the only Internet Service Provider with a local number was AOL. However, within a year I found another way in and canceled AOL. They were too expensive and too quirky.

Things haven't changed much. Today I got email from AOL telling me that they can no longer deliver email from my server or domain to their customers because they think I'm a spammer.
<<< 554-(RLY:B1) The information presently available to AOL indicates this
<<< 554-server is generating high volumes of member complaints from AOL's
<<< 554-member base. Based on AOL's Unsolicited Bulk E-mail policy at
<<< 554-http://www.aol.com/info/bulkemail.html AOL may not accept further
<<< 554-e-mail transactions from this server or domain. For more information,
<<< 554 please visit http://postmaster.info.aol.com.

Perhaps someone has been putting my address in the return slot of out going spam. I've suspected that for months. But there is nothing you can really do about that. It happens to thousands of people a day.

I can understand AOL's desire to block incoming email from spammers but to put a blanket block on a domain is overzealous. Can you imagine if all other ISPs blocked all incoming AOL email because someone had used an AOL address as a return in spam? Can you imagine if I blocked all incoming AOL email because of the 50 spams I received every day purporting to be from AOL addresses?

I'll see if I can straighten things out. But based on what I've heard from others who have had this probelm I'm not optimistic. (Suggestions?) In other words, if you're an AOL customer and you don't hear from me again, it's not because I don't like you.