"Is
Your Email Address "Blacklisted?"
- by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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A lady emailed me yesterday
very upset over the fact that her friend's Internet Service
Provider (ISP) wasn't delivering important email messages (or
any of her messages for that matter).
It seems her friend's ISP was filtering her emails, but there
didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why some messages
got through and others didn't.
This lack of delivery caused a real problem for the two of
them with ruined plans, missed appointments, and just plain
inconvenience.
If you don't use email much, this might not sound like a "big
deal," but for others it's having a profoundly negative impact
on their lives.
This problem of non-delivery has dramatically affected the way
businesses use email for about the last year, but
it's now about to reach epidemic proportions
for consumers using email.
To put things into perspective, imagine if every time you
dialed a friend's phone number you had no idea whether it
would ring or not. Sometimes you got through, other times you
couldn't... with seemingly no reason for it happening either
way.
Now imagine the hair-pulling frustration you'd feel over time
if your friend's phone number hadn't changed, but you kept
dialing the number and it never EVER rang for you... but
others could get through with seemingly no problem.
That's exactly how you'll feel when your personal emails
start getting blocked for no apparent reason.
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The problem of
legitimate email messages not getting through stems from
the uncontrolled and unstoppable onslaught of spam that
currently grips the Internet with seemingly no end in
sight. |
The fact that viruses can now
"spoof" email addresses and make it look like someone sent
a virus to thousands of people doesn't help matters either.
In an effort to cut down on spam, ISP's implemented a number
of counter-measures, including: text filters, spam databases,
sender blacklists, and IP blocking.
If your email message doesn't get delivered, most of the time
it means you inadvertently got caught in an ISP's "defense
system."
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See SIDE BAR Comments by Jim Edwards |
If you ever find your email messages don't get through, or
if
you'd like to head off problems before they
occur, the
following tips should help:
The first and best tip is to encourage all your email contacts
to "white list" your email address in their email program.
Just like you can say which email addresses you don't want to
get messages from, you can also specify a list of email
addresses you always DO WANT to accept.
In Yahoo or Hotmail you can set up your filters to accept
email messages from a certain source, regardless of the
subject line or content of the message. Your friends and
subscribers can do the exact same thing with your email
address by adding you to their "whitelist" so you don't miss
each other's emails.
It takes a little patience to set up, but it pays big
dividends by not losing important messages.
If you use Eudora, Outlook, Outlook Express, MailWasher, or
just about any other email "client" program, you can set up
rules to always accept messages from certain senders (just
check the help file).
If you send messages to people who use AOL, try this
technique. Get them to add you to their address book "safelist"
or "approved senders."
This helps AOL identify that the message recipient "knows" you
and has a higher likelihood of actually wanting to receive
your message.
Email AOL tech support for help on this if you encounter a
problem.
If filtering and "white" listing don't work
and your email
messages are still getting blocked, then your friend needs to
contact their ISP to sort out the problem.
Their ISP can certainly figure out why messages don't get
through, but it may take some concerted encouragement to get
the ISP's customer service to take the time to investigate the
cause. (In other words, they may have to do some serious
complaining to get the ISP to get up off their butts and do
anything about the problem, but you must encourage them to do
it!)
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-- Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist
(http://www.TheNetReporter.com) and is the author of
several best-selling ebooks, information products and
software
programs. Here's another popular ebook that Jim wrote:
"How to Write and Publish Your
Own eBook...in as little as 7 days"
(even if you can't write, can't type and failed High
School English Class)
Use this link for your own copy:
http://www.RichardPresents.com/7daybook
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