How to find SMTP server admin contact

Question

For some reason at&t's smtp server, atlsmtp.cingularme.net is dropping messages coming from our SMTP server.

I would like to contact their sysadmin to see why that is happening. However, I can't find any information on their site on how to contact the right person.

Can anyone help me out?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Technically the account postmaster@domain.tld should get you the email admin. Although now that account gets so much spam it may not even be aliased to a real person.

I would try calling their technical support. Just stay calm, it's going to take some talking through Tier-1 techs, but you'll eventually get to the right place. Concisely explain what is going on, and if you are not a customer make that clear to them from the beginning.

I would start here: http://localization.att.com/loc/controller?ltype=contactus&cdvn=landinglocalization&pid=1080

Either business or enterprise options would probably give you the best chance of getting through.

Answer 2

I would make sure that you have examined your situation first:

• Check the black lists
• Make sure you have a correct ptr record for your mx servers.
• Have the subject, exact time, sender's email and receiver's email handy.

Even if you get through the person will probably want to know you have gone through the proper efforts to make sure your email does not look like spam.

Answer 3

Postmaster@email is required to exist by RFC so it would be the natural choice. However, nobody is guaranteed to answer because since the account is required to exist it's usually spammed to no end. Trying a whois on the domain might also help,

Answer 4

postmaster@domain is supposed to be the point of contact, according to RFC 2821

Also, you probably should check well known RBLs (like http://spamhause.org) for your IP addresses.

Answer 5

Try emailing postmaster@theirdomain.com, but no guarantees it will work.

Answer 6

You can also query the Start of Authority (SOA) DNS record to get the email of a sysadmin:

dig SOA example.com

returns

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.com.        172800  IN  SOA dns1.icann.org. hostmaster.icann.org. 2009100600 7200 3600 1209600 86400

The email address is the second field in the answer: hostmaster@icann.org.

As others has said, you should make sure you are not black-listed. Also add SPF records to your DNS tables if you do not have them.