Unable to buy WXSim

Due to issues with aol, I am unable to communicate with Tom, and therefore unable to purchase the customization for WXSim. This is very frustrating! I gave up using an aol dialup account years ago here in the UK because of their restrictions and over zealous controls.

They won’t let my emails go through from my weather site address, because they claim one of their users has made a complaint, and so my email’s IP address has been blocked. This is very odd, because my weather domain that I have only just started using in the last 2 weeks has been parked on my server, unused since 2003, on the IP that has also been unused (appart from parking the domain on).

The point of my frustrated post is that, 1) is there an alternative way to contact Tom? 2) Tom’s more than likely losing business through his aol email address from people who may be unable to communicate with him like me!

If you are on the Internet already, why not just set up a web based account such as Gmail which are free…then use that to contact Tom etc

Failing that, i can set you up an email account on my server FOC :slight_smile:

Thanks, and yes I know I’m having a mone here. I dislike aol in a big way. :smiley: I don’t see why I should have to create a hotmail email account just because aol doesn’t like my private email domain. You can’t get a gmail account unless you are invited. I have other email accounts (too many), but I wanted to use this new one as it isn’t plagued by spam, so I know I won’t lose any reply in my spam filter. I have just moved my domain to another IP on my server, so I’ll see if that works. Still, what is aol playing at?

I have never used AOL but also never liked it, dont know why though, but then from what your saying
i now know why lol

It’s strange that your emails are being blocked from your new domain. Normally the problem is with the server you are using to send the email so unless you run your own mail server it should not have been blocked that quickly, if it is a hosting company or ISP whose server you are using to send mail then contact them and let them argue with AOL.

I’ve never had a problem emailing Tom. You cold try sending him a message via this board and see if he gets that.

Stuart

Googlemail (gmail for UK) no longer requires an invitation.

Have you used the AOL unblocking process?

It’s my own web server that my email account is on. I have about 14 IPs on this server that I know to be clean, but I have had problems like this with aol before from other private email addresses, not just aol, but mostly aol, and I know a lot of others who have these sort of problems with contacting aol users too, and aol users not being able to subscribe or register for things, because they can’t receive the confirmation emails!

I understand that aol are trying to protect their users from spam, but no spam blocking system is 100% right all the time, and aol are just depriving their users of the right to filter their own mail, and catch miss-tagged mail that they do actually want to receive. Most aol users probably have no idea that they are not receiving all their emails, or why they may not get replies and confirmation emails that they were expecting!

Sorry to bang on about this. I will use an alternative method to contact Tom, but for selling what seems to be a great product, I think he should be aware of the possible problems with using an aol email account, when a private email address like “something [at] wxsim.com” would be far better, and cost no extra (as he already has that domain), and allow people genuinely interested in his product to contact him trouble free. He could use a web form with a capcha image to block spam - I’ll even volunteer to install one for him for free, to prevent anyone else from having to suffer the indignity and frustration of aol’s messy system! I hope Tom doesn’t turn out to be a share holder in aol after all this!!! :smiley:

Thanks niko, I didn’t know they had changed it. Still I have email addresses coming out of my ears! :frowning:

Have you used the AOL [unblocking process](http://postmaster.aol.com/waters/sa_form.html)?
No, but I have changed the IP for now. I'll wait for that to propagated around the web, then try again, and if I still have the problem, then I'll try and get them to unblock it.

Hi 35 mm,

Well, at least you’re in touch with me now! :slight_smile:

I had no idea AOL was doing this, and I don’t know why it would. I wonder if there’s a way for me to unblock it? Also, I wonder if I can send email to you. Do you mind sharing your email address here? If not, try a private message through this forum. I’ve gotten a number of those, and they don’t come from your domain name, so they ought to work. Maybe I can even call AOL to ask what the problem is.

Oh, and of course - thanks for your interest in my program! :slight_smile:

We’ll get this straightened out somehow.

BTW, I don’t exactly love AOL, either, it’s just that there are probably a thousand people out there that no my email, and I’m reluctant to send all those address change notice emails out (I know there are quick ways - this is mostly a matter of inertia!).

Again, try the private message option through this forum. It’s almost certain to work.

Tom

AOL is very strict in someways and you need to jump through their hoops to smooth out some of the issues.

Email Administrator’s can setup an account to be notified when their mail server(s) (Not Domain Related, they ONLY look at the IP’s of the servers sending them the email) are tagged as having sent “spam”.

Many times it is a user that got the email that hit the this is spam button.

We have had issues with people getting invoices that mark them as spam, which then show up in an AOL spam report… fun to deal with and I have actually cut off a vendor who had an employee who didn’t like invoice notifications… in our business, the fuel bills are required to be electronic due to the volume of them…

If you need the AOL contact stuff, I will look it up in the morning… I get about 10 reports a week from them for items that are clearly not spam and deal with it… keeps them happy and all those vendors which for some reason use AOL as an email source.

This would be only of interest to a Mail Server Administrator…

Tom maybe you could just publish an alternate email address on your website for contacting you so those who can use AOL will still do so and those who cannot will try the alternate one.

Stuart

Tom, thanks for responding. I jumped through aol’s hoop to get the IP unblocked (not for the first time), but that could take days, if ever. So I will get in touch through the board’s message system later today. As far as aol goes, you can simply set up an email address through your own domain, and keep your aol email going too - no need for change of address notices. I have about 20 odd email accounts setup in outlook on my works computer, directed to various inbox folders for different departments. Any email client can manage that, and it’s no hassle to setup. Just don’t display your email address on any web pages, as that’s how the spam bots find it! I can setup a spam blocking contact form for you if that’s of interest. You can then just put a contact link on your web page, and know that you’ll receive the message every time, which you can then reply to from your email client as usual. Any way, I’ll be in touch about wxsim later today after I’ve got some boring tasks out of the way!

Perhaps Tom was helped with an email from broadstairs - but I know he was on here tonight anyway - well done Tom! Yes a great product and very comprehensive, and soon to be divided into two versions - an easy to use auto version and the original comprehensive version. Thread here below/above :wink:

Man gets 30 months in prison for spamming AOL. He was also ordered to pay $180,000 to AOL in restitution.

So, here’s the lazy, long way to do it. :slight_smile:

Set up a new @wxsim.com email account and start using it and publicizing it. Then just leave the AOL account intact. Put a forward there to the new account, and an autoresponder that tells people the new address. In a year or two, you can stop using the AOL account.