Mail: Mail delayed when sending to Aol.com

We had a new customer contact us recently concerning issues with outgoing mail. Not too surprisingly, we found that their mail server (running Exchange 5.5) was being used as a relay. After cleaning that up, and submitting removal requests to RBLs, we received a follow-up call that they couldn’t send messages to AOL.com.

Apparently, whatever processes that AOL uses to detect and block IP addresses that are generating spam/uce traffic, doesn’t include an automated request for removal process.

So the first thing I did was a whois on aol.com, and found the technical contact phone number, and gave them a call. Thankfully it’s a support number for Sys/Mail admins to call when dealing with mail issues and aol.com. After holding for a reasonable amount of time (10 – 15 minutes), the person I spoke with was able to help address the issue.

They asked me for the static IP of the mail server in question, and then had me submit an email from a mailbox on my customer’s server to the address “ipconfirm@mailtest.mx.aol.com”, which automatically responded with my customer’s static IP to confirm. After that, they just looked-up the IP address, and confirmed my suspicions that the IP was automatically blocked during the spam-incident.