Microsoft spent much of last week rejecting legitimate emails sent to Outlook.com, Live, and Hotmail accounts due to overly aggressive IP spoofing or faulty blocklist rules.
Many senders were seeing 550 errors claiming that their networks were blocked, preventing the delivery of invoices, notifications, and authentication emails.
A block list is a great thing. It helps limit the flow of spam from networks or IP addresses associated with spam. However, Microsoft seems to have taken it too far. There were many problems with no apparent cause. Microsoft's Smart Network Data Service (SNDS) did not show any problems with the IP.
The problem worsened in February. On Microsoft's support forums , users began complaining about similar issues as the IP block was presumably expanded.
Someone mentioned:
“We are currently experiencing a critical and recurring email delivery issue affecting recipients at outlook.com, live.com, hotmail.com, and msn.com,” and posted a copy of an error that indicated the mail server has been “temporarily throttled due to poor IP reputation.”
A large number of users, from the administrator of a server that sends automated notifications on behalf of the Estonian Public Libraries to an email provider for healthcare professionals, confirmed that they too were experiencing delivery issues and that Microsoft support was not helping.
Anything that reduces the amount of spam filling our inboxes is commendable, however, if a service provider makes a mistake, customers need a quick and transparent process for resolving it.
Any failed invoice or receipt delivery can undermine a business's reputation, through no fault of the owner.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
