VerizonWireless blocking TXT messages from Runbox

[carverrn]

I use the Runbox "Sent as Alert" feature to send a TXT message to my VerizonWireless cell phone when I get important messages at my Runbox mailbox.

Within the last month these messages quit coming through to my phone. Upon investigation it turns out that messages sent to the the VerizonWireless vtext.com address from Runbox are being bounced back with a "connection refused" error. In other words, the VerizonWireless vtext.com servers are blocking messages sent from Runbox.

I've contacted VerizonWireless Customer Support and talked to someone supposedly from IT but the best they could do is submit my problem report and apologize for the inconvenience.

They said they weren't sure exactly why Runbox was being blocked but it may have be an action taken in response to a lot of TXT spam sent to VerizonWireless customers lately.

Runbox has tried contacting VerizonWireless about the issue but the message they got back was that they had to submit the issue in writing to the VerizonWireless legal department, which Liz has done.

Other Verizon email servers, such as verizon.net, do not block Runbox email. It's only the vtext.com servers blocking Runbox.

If more VerizonWireless customers are complaining that their messages from Runbox users are not getting through it might move the process along a little faster (certainly can't hurt).

VerizonWireless said that the issue should be reported using their online form because they respond to all issues submitted through the forms:

http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/contact/index.jsp

* you may have to click [Support] then [Contact Us] to get the form


Regards,
Rich

[carverrn]

VerizonWireless VTEXT.COM seems to be finally accepting messages from Runbox again.

Regards,
Rich

[carverrn]

Well that was short. They are blocking Runbox again.

If you use VerizonWireless please complain to that that their VTEXT.COM servers are blocking messages from Runbox servers.

Maybe if they get enough complaints they will fix it right.

Regards,
Rich

[Geir]

We're working with Norwegian telecom operator Telenor to provide text messages to mobile phones in the US (and other countries), so hopefully there will soon be a way around this block by Verizon.

- Geir

[uberstein]

I noticed this as well. xxxxxxxxx@vtext.com addressed messages worked fine from my virtual smtp server here at work up until about...well the last one I have seen successfully delivered to my phone is dated 1/11/08. Now they appear to be getting blocked.

The only thing I see in the smtp server logs is 554, which is "transaction failed." Not very informative, but I'll bet it's the same issue. Sending emails to other domains (embarqmail.com, comcast.net etc.) still works fine with our MS virtual smtp server, so I don't believe it's a config issue with the server, since the config hasn't been touched.

This is now just as annoying as it was cool when I first discovered I could send email messages as SMS messages to my cellphone this way.

[ahTXT]

It's not just RunBox. I use DNSMadeEasy's SMTP service and those messages aren't getting through. Unfortunately, I don't have access to their logs (I'm requesting a copy now) to see what the error is.. and they're not bouncing the error messages BACK to the sender, which is a pain, because at LEAST I could see what the problem is (seeing that I don't have access to their SMTP server logs easily, in this case).

With my other SMTP servers, or even a straight telnet into the MX for vtext.com, no problems at all.. message flows through.. however, I also have the DNS TXT SPF record set properly for the IP address I was telnetting from (which also happens to be the same server/IP of the SMTP server that worked).

And its not intermittent.. throughout the day today, our service sent 7 messages to a client, and they didn't receive a single one.

[emebrs]

Have the problems with VerizonWireless been resolved?