[rfc-i] AOL rejecting mail with valid URLs

[falk at ISI.EDU (Aaron Falk)]

Folks-

AOL has been bouncing incoming mail which contains URLs that have
trailing forward slashes.  The bounce message says simply that the
email has a non-compliant URL (not true) and directs the poor user to
the RFC Editor site for more information.  Naturally, they don't
understand what there is at our site that can help them get mail
through to an AOL subscriber.  Our policy is to reply with the note
attached and this seems successful at making them go away, although it
does nothing to address the source of the problem.  We're now getting
around two messages per week, like the one attached, from folks
looking for help.  I think it would a Good Thing if someone could
contact AOL and let them know that they appear to have policy which
rejects valid email (and is not clearly documented).   Anybody have a
contact? 

--aaron
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Subject: AOL blocking email FAQ --resend--
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From: "Lucho" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Error 554 HVU:NR
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 23:34:14 -0500
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From duerst at w3.org  Fri Dec  3 08:38:17 2004
From: duerst at w3.org (Martin Duerst)
Date: Fri Dec  3 08:41:57 2004
Subject: [rfc-i] AOL rejecting mail with valid URLs
In-Reply-To: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]>
Message-ID: <6.0.0.20.2.20041204013538.08067db0@localhost>

At 15:34 04/12/03, Aaron Falk wrote:
>Folks-
>
>AOL has been bouncing incoming mail which contains URLs that have
>trailing forward slashes.

Are you are saying that they would let through a mail with
http://www.ietf.org, but not with http://www.ietf.org/ ?
I just sent two test mails to an aol address, and both came
through without problems.

Regards,    Martin.



>The bounce message says simply that the
>email has a non-compliant URL (not true) and directs the poor user to
>the RFC Editor site for more information.  Naturally, they don't
>understand what there is at our site that can help them get mail
>through to an AOL subscriber.  Our policy is to reply with the note
>attached and this seems successful at making them go away, although it
>does nothing to address the source of the problem.  We're now getting
>around two messages per week, like the one attached, from folks
>looking for help.  I think it would a Good Thing if someone could
>contact AOL and let them know that they appear to have policy which
>rejects valid email (and is not clearly documented).   Anybody have a
>contact?
>
>--aaron
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>Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 11:46:11 -0800
>From: Aaron Falk <[e-mail]>
>To: RFC Editor <[e-mail]>
>Subject: AOL blocking email FAQ --resend--
>Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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> >From time to time the RFC Editor receives queries from email users who
>are having mail blocked by America Online's spam filters.
>Specifically, [1] indicates that a user's email does not meet certain,
>unspecified RFCs and directs the reader to the RFC Editor website [2]
>for more information.  We have received additional information in the
>past that (one of) the actual objection(s) by AOL was that the message
>contained a trailing forward slash ('/') on a URL, as shown in here:
>
>   http://www.rfc-editor.org/
>
>The RFC Editor would like to point out that Section 3.3. of RFC2396
>[3] states that terminating a URL with a forward slash is, in fact,
>permitted.  If this is the reason that AOL is choosing to reject
>correctly formatted email, we feel it is unfortunate that they are
>incorrectly citing IETF standards to justify their behavior.  It makes
>matters worse that they are providing little information to the sender
>and pointing them, with no guidance, to read over 3000 RFCs for
>additional information.
>
>Sadly, there is little the RFC Editor can do about this other than to
>encourage email users to send citations to correct standard to the AOL
>spam filter maintainers.
>
>--The RFC Editor
>
>
>[1] http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554hvunr.html
>[2] http://www.rfc-editor.org
>[3] ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2396.txt
>
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>Reply-To: <[e-mail]>
>From: "Lucho" <[e-mail]>
>To: <[e-mail]>
>Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 23:34:14 -0500
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>Subject: Error 554 HVU:NR
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>
>dear editor:
>
>this is a request for clarification from someone who is computer-literate 
>but not high-tech.
>
>for about nine months now i have been sending a nightly (except weekends) 
>special-interest newsletter to a list of voluntary subscribers.  the 
>service is free, and opt-out--seldom requested--is immediately honored. 
>the newsletter is essentially a compendium of news items from major news 
>services.  i work as a volunteer for a 501(c)(3) organization.
>
>two days ago, AOL began to refuse delivery to its members, returning a 
>notification of Error 554 HVU:NR:
>
>SMTP error from remote mailer after end of data:
>host mailin-01.mx.aol.com [64.12.137.89]: 554-:
>(HVU:NR) 
><http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554hvunr.html>http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554hvunr.html
>554 TRANSACTION FAILED
>this means that 55 of our subscribers have not been receiving our mail 
>(our mailings are not commercial-scale mass mailings).
>
>as my ISP is earthlink.net, i was stymied in calling AOL by the robot 
>that demands my member identification before it passes me to a human 
>being.  i found the information below, indicating that 554 has to do with 
>adherence to RFC guidelines. i can't say that i intuitively understand the 
>information. i tried searching your RFC database using several variations 
>of "Error 554" and settings on the right side of the menu, and got "zero 
>matches."  i note that for months now i have been using the exact same 
>list of addresses (save for an occasional addition or substraction), which 
>is embedded as a group in an Outlook form; i.e., human intervention is 
>minimal except for the editing of the daily content.  in addition, no 
>other ISP except AOL has returned mail for failure to comply with RFC 
>standards, nor did AOL itself begin to do this until two days ago.
>
>can you suggest what URL problem may be at issue here, how to resolve it, 
>or who at AOL may be willing to take a call from me to handle on its side? 
>why does this guideline affect AOL only?
>
>btw, i tried sending a cc: to 
><http://postmaster.info.aol.com/contact/>http://postmaster.info.aol.com/contact/, 
>and a Check Names dialog box told me "No matches found" and did not send 
>out message until i removed the address from the cc: box.
>
>thank you.
>
>sincerely,
>
>luis rumbaut
>washington, d.c.
>
>
>
>
>
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>You are here: <http://postmaster.info.aol.com/>Home>> 
><http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/>List of Errors>> 554 HVU:NR
>
>Error 554 HVU:NR
>    * 554 HVU:NR
>    * http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554hvunr.html
>
>EXPLANATION:
>
>AOL requires that all URLs contained in email comply with the RFCs 
>guidelines pertaining to URL and domain name formatting.
>
>SOLUTION:
>
>Please make sure that all URLs in your email are RFC compliant and try 
>your mail again. You may refer to http://www.rfc-editor.org for a complete 
>list of guidelines.
>
>If you need additional information please 
><http://postmaster.info.aol.com/contact/>Contact Us.
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