TOPIC:

Hi, 

I raised a question some weeks ago (support.toastmastersclubs.org/2011-10-23...ed-to-talk-to-me-421) and Brian said that "Your email processor does not like you sending email to yourself THROUGH the FTH mail list. This is not unusual this is spam protection that your email services uses." 

Whenever I email a list (members or officers) the email bounces after several hours. I went back to my hosting company who has my emails and after checking they say that everything is set up correctly and I should go back to FTH. 

I'm unclear how I resolve this issue. When I send an email to myself that's okay, it's only when using FTH member or officer lists that I get a bounce back. 

Any suggestions?
Do I have to blind copy all the members when I want to send out an email to all members? 

Thanks,
Karen  

Copy of latest bounce back:
Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to SenderThis is the mail system at host relay.mailchannels.net.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.: host
mail.toastmastersclubs.org[50.19.253.65] refused to talk to me: 421
Downstream server error
  Reporting-MTA: dns; relay.mailchannels.net
X-Postfix-Queue-ID: 2E6E9164DE5
X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Arrival-Date: Mon, 19 May 2025 04:30:36 +0000 (UTC)

Final-Recipient: rfc822; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Original-Recipient: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Action: failed
Status: 4.0.0
Remote-MTA: dns; mail.toastmastersclubs.org
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 421 Downstream server error
Then a copy of the forwarded message is attached to the email. 

 

KarenLeslie wrote:

When I send an email to myself that's okay, it's only when using FTH member or officer lists that I get a bounce back. 

 

Send email to yourself; meaning that you can select your name in membership Membership Management and 'Send Basic Email'? If so, this is a different scenario. FTH is simply kicking out an email from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to your email address.

When sending from your email address to officers-3395@ or members-3395@ the email comes from your host, is being processed by the FTH forwarder then distributed to outside addresses including your original sending address.

The email security Brian mentioned on the previous thread sees email being sent from your host, processed through some random 3rd party (FTH), then being sent back to your host. In other words; it's impossible to send email to yourself from the same address but this is exactly what happens via the FTH email forwarder. Ergo, some email security software sees suspicious behavior, thinks SPAM and blocks the process.

The FTH email logs show successful sends from other people (Mark & Paula) to members-3395@.

Your host is correct in saying that everything is set up correctly (with your email send/receive parameters?) but this isn't the actual issue.

None of that helps with resolving your issue but hopefully it sheds light on why your email host and Brian are both right.   Unfortunately FTH is unable to do much with this due to how countless email host services and their security strategies might behave.

*** As a diagnostic step; make a new Custom Group with all of your officers except you. You don't actually need to receive these types of emails from FTH, they will be in your sent folder. Does an email sent to this group succeed?

support.toastmastersclubs.org/doc/item/custom-groups

I meant sending an email to myself through my usual service provider. However, I did send myself a basic email and that was okay but that comes from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. rather than from my email address.

I'll set up a custom group that I'm not in and send an email to that to see if that works. Thanks for the suggestion.   

I set up a custom group as suggested without my email address in it and it bounced after several hours with the error 421 refused to talk to me. This means it isn't an issue of sending an email to myself.
It seems to be an issue of sending from my email address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

======================================== 

Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to SenderThis is the mail system at host relay.mailchannels.net.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.: host
mail.toastmastersclubs.org[50.19.253.65] refused to talk to me: 421
Downstream server error
  Reporting-MTA: dns; relay.mailchannels.net
X-Postfix-Queue-ID: E7ED1783081
X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Arrival-Date: Wed, 21 May 2025 04:37:01 +0000 (UTC)

Final-Recipient: rfc822; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Original-Recipient: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Action: failed
Status: 4.0.0
Remote-MTA: dns; mail.toastmastersclubs.org
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 421 Downstream server error
===============================

  I think that unless anyone has other suggestions, I'll have to set up address lists in my email provider and email the members that way.