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Mailman on cPanel not able to send to external domains?

Jeff Scroggs

I've been using Mailman on cPanel for years without issue, but it has suddenly quit working. Emails are no longer able to be delivered to external domains. However the strangest part is that there are no bounced messages and they are not ending up in any spam or quarantine folder. They just vanish without a trace and I don't have access to the mailman logs to see what is going on. However, in getting help through support, this is what I am being told:

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The emails sent via Mailman use the IP address 127.0.0.1, which is the default IP address of the server. Unfortunately, when emails from this address are dropped due to mailing list restrictions, it becomes challenging to lift these restrictions, thereby preventing us from resolving the Mailman-related issues effectively.   
   
Currently when the emails are sent from mailing lists, then those emails will be marked as spam, even though the user didn’t send large volume of emails from the server.  
 
We have observed similar issues from other customers using MailMan for bulk emailing. I am afraid, there is currently no workaround for this issue when using MailMan. Given these challenges, I kindly request you to consider an alternative solution, such as phpList over Mailman, for bulk email management. 
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I found this tread that indicates others are having similar problems, but aren't sure where to go for help as well.
https://mail.python.org/archives/list/mailman-users@python.org/thread/A4GU7YM4LG5FDRQGARPFIJNIF4FCQL2I/

I'll work on getting the Mailman logs from JustHost (a suborganization of BlueHost), but would appreciate any guidance you can provide on how I can troubleshoot this.

**ALSO** Based on other posts, this could be an issue where the hosting provider is blocking port 25, so I am asking them about that as well. Does Mailman default to port 25 and is there a way to change this? I normally use Port 587 for SMTP through the server. Is there a way to see what port Mailman is using or potentially change that?

Thank you greatly for any help!

Comments

2 comments

Date Votes
  • Jeff Scroggs

    JustHost has so far been unwilling to send me log files nor provide me access so I can retrieve them. This is what was sent most recently:

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    We are writing to inform you of a currently known issue impacting Mailman. Bulk emails sent via Mailman are being rejected by our outbound filter.

    We understand this can be disruptive, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Unfortunately, there is no temporary workaround available at this time.

    Our team is actively working on a solution to resolve this issue. While we cannot provide an estimated time of arrival (ETA) for a fix, we are diligently monitoring the situation and will update you as soon as we have more information.

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    For the record, "bulk emails" which are blocked consist of 1 recipient... So they are blocking full Mailman functionality. So it doesn't seem like this is a Mailman issue, but a hosting issue. My apologies for taking up the communities time. Feel free to close this one out.

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  • mtindor

    The key is "our outbound filter".   Apparently that company is forcing all outbound mail through a third-party delivery service (maybe to scan outbound email for spam/viruses).   Sounds like one of the companies that does NOT allow direct outbound SMTP 25 traffic.

    And unfortunately for you, SMTP 25 is what email delivery is built upon.  When somebody blocks that there are bound to be problems.   In a roundabout way they are saying they are aware of the problem, the problem is with their third-party outbound mail filtering company, and they may not be able to do (or may not be willing to try) and get the situation resolved by talking to their third party outbound filter provider.

    So yes, mailman by default is going to want to send out on TCP 25, and if the hosting company blocks outbound emails directly from servers and forces every server's outbound mail to go through their outbound filter solution, then the only place they can turn to when outbound emails are being blocked is to their outbound filter provider.

    This whole thing (companies establishing policies to force all outbound mail through their preferred outbound filter provider) is becoming ever more popular.  I think GoDaddy does it.  I think NetSol probably does it.   And there are others.

     

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