Forwarding to AOL and Comcast emails

#1

I’m new to DH and I’m setting up my account before I switch DNS.

Part of what I’m doing is forwarding email addresses to people in my organization. Some of these people have aol.com and comcast.net email addresses. But when I try to forward to them, DH comes back and says DH doesn’t forward to these domains.

Does anyone know why this is?

And if I set up a list, will I be unable to add people who have aol.com and comcast.net addresses?

Solutions or workarounds appreciated. Thanks in advance.
-steve

#2

There is some historical information about this on the DreamHost Status Blog:

http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2006/08/22/aol-forwards-to-be-disabled/

http://www.dreamhoststatus.com/2006/08/30/comcast-forwards-to-be-disabled-and-aol-update/

Yes, but as with any email service, adding them to the list doesn’t necessarily mean the email will be accepted. Welcome to the email world left to us by spammers! :confused:

–rlparker
–DreamHost Tech Support

#3

Thank you for that information.

These have issues occurred over 3 years ago. Since then there have been many changes to detection and handling of email spam. Is there any possibility that DH will re-visit this?

Email forwarding and list management is an important part of our need for hosting. Many of our members have aol and comcast addresses thus our need to forward to them and others. Because of this policy we have either: not to include those members (not an option), or to tell our users to change their email provider, or to consider other alternatives including alternative hosting options. It is also not easy for a member who has been using aol or comcast for many years to switch to another email provider, and to stay in business we cannot place this requirement on them.

Other hosting providers do not place a limit on forwarding, contact me off-list to discuss.

Because I like the services that DH offers and would prefer to continue my relationship here, I urge DH to re-visit these decisions.

Does anyone else on the list have any comments?
Thank you.

#4

Sure! But the only real changes to detection and handling of email spam at those two providers is that they have gotten worse at it. :wink:

If you want to have a discussion with DreamHost staff about this “off list” , you can do so by submitting a support request via the “Contact Support” section of your account control panel.

These decisions are the result of the behavior of AOL and Comcast, and that’s where the subject needs to be re-visited. We are happy to send mail anywhere other than where it is not wanted.

Your users have other choices that do not involve terminating their AOL or Comcast email accounts (such as a free Gmail account, for one). Neither I, nor DreamHost, can force these providers to handle received email properly, and until they do we will either abide by their wishes regarding forwarding (as in the case of AOL), or take whatever posture we need to take to keep our mail servers from being placed on blacklists inappropriately (as in the case of Comcast).

I’m sorry that you see this as a potential “deal breaker” with regard to your DreamHost hosting, but this is not a problem that is unique to DreamHost, and you will see similar, if not identical, problems at most web hosting companies - or you will find their email servers routinely blocked all over the internet because of their mail sending practices.

–rlparker
–DreamHost Tech Support

#5

Mr. Parker’s links explained the problem, which has plagued me, too. A .org user of mine received spam forwarded through his .org address and he clicked Spam at AOL and got us blacklisted.

There are a few alternatives:

  1. They can check their mail here in addition to AOL/Comcast. Either via webmail or a regular mail client.

  2. Some mail providers, such as Gmail, lets you pull mail from another mailbox, which is like a PULL version of forwarding.

  3. Use the Announce or Discussion list if mail distribution is your intent. These are not forwarders and AOL/Comcast users can subscribe to them.

-Scott

#6

I have been forwarding my emails thru Yahoo and then on to Comcast for several years without a problem.

For the last few days, I have not been receiving most of my email. I changed it today to forward thru Hotmail and then on to Comcast. I seem to be receiving all emails but I am not sure.

Is anyone else having an issue this week?