Still not getting Orchid

missed out on the first few (as well as subsequent) installments
of this thread - by now it's probably unraveled - my orchid digest
has repeatedly been side-tracked by some unknown grinch-like editor
with serious mental problems - frequently all i get is: 
[The message and any attached files have been turned into a ZIP
attachment. Once downloaded and unzipped, open it with a word
processor or text editor for reading.] 
(the problem is not with orchid - but has anyone ever gotten AOL
to solve an AOL caused problem 

Can’t help you with the AOL bit (which sounds really odd…) but I
am getting just as frustrated with Earthlink. Their servers
apparently have some sort of overly aggressive spam filters that
keep deciding some how that Ganoksin is spamming, and they block the
entire domain. On my end it means suddenly no mail from Orchid gets
through at all, till I or Hanuman or someone else manages to jump
through a bunch of hoops getting them to remove the block.

This wouldn’t be so bad if their servers remembered the fact that
users have told them that Ganoksin is indeed sending wanted non-spam
messages, but they don’t seem able to do this. In the last year
the’ve done this at least three times, each time shutting me off
from Orchid for at leaust a week before things get fixed. I’m
thinking of switching ISP’s to Comcast, whose cable is already
supplying the connection for Earthlink. Has anyone else noticed this
annoying fluke with Earthlink, and has anyone had similar trouble
with Comcast? Will I regret changing away from Earthlink?

Peter

peter, you did add the orchid address to your address book? that’s
what i have been told to do when i have problems with addresses being
id’d as junk.

jean adkins

I have AOL and I turned off the spam link. I called AOL and told
them to NEVER interfere with any of my mail. I will decide what is
spam or wanted mail. Since that time I haven’t had any problems.
Veva

I’ve had that with Earthlink before also, but thankfully not
lately!!! Can’t speak to other providers… I’m still with Earthlink
as overall I’m very pleased with them over others I have tried.

Beth Wicker

I had the same problem with my ISP up here in Canuk land. I finally
gave up and got a Gmail account for all my mailing lists.

The problem is that the large ISPs tend to use a centralized list
like spamhaus.org, spamcop.net and many others. And in some cases all
it takes is one idiot reporting to their ISP that an email is spam,
at which point some underpaid and very much under qualified shmuck at
the ISP sends it to the central list as a “confirmed spam source” and
orchid is blocked until you jump through the hoops

Kay

Is it possible that your firewall-antivirus system is conflicting
with whatever your internet provider is supplying in the way of
security and you are ending up with the short end of the stick?

I have EarthLink and have not had any problems with getting
Ganoksin. Not sure what is going on but I’ve had no interruption. I
always watch for the digest, usually shows up during the night and
it’s one of the first messages I open.

Love all the wonderful everyone shares. Thanks,
everyone.

Pat Gebes

and has anyone had similar trouble with Comcast? Will I regret
changing away from Earthlink? 

I use Comcast as my ISP but I totally bypass their mail and use a
hosting company for my domains and email. This is the one I use:
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/1ln I can make unlimited email
addresses and hold an unlimited amount of data. (I get the
individual mail from Orchid and never throw any of it away!) Y’all
use that link so I get a kickback, ok?

Paf

Is it possible that your firewall-antivirus system is conflicting
with whatever your internet provider is supplying in the way of
security and you are ending up with the short end of the stick? 

Nope. It’s Earthlink’s mail servers all on their own. Messages never
get to me to conflict with my own settings. Fixing the problems
(each time) means sending a request to their blocking server to
remove the block. Doing that with any assurance of success requires
including a copy of the “Blocked” message that is sent back to the
sender (Orchid). But I gather that an unblock request coming from
that sender has less chance of immediate success, especially when
from an overseas location, than when the request comes from the
Earthlink subscriber. but Hanuman first has to notice the bounce
back, and either try to fix it (like he’s got time to fool around
with such crap) or send me a copy of that notice, which then only
works if he sends it from another domain, such as his GMail address.
This of course can work, but it’s a big annoyance all around, messes
up Orchid for me for at least several days, and frankly, just is not
acceptable in my view, as something Earthlink does and cannot seem
to properly fix. However, it’s been suggested that I need not
actually swich ISP’s, but can simply get my own GMail or MSN mail
address, and use that for recieving Orchid posts. On the to-do list
for when I get home from the holidays.

(sent from my hard to type on, and spellcheck-missing, Ipad, from Los
Angeles, where today was gloriously warm and sunny until an hour ago,
when a fog bank moved in, and i can’t now see much past a few feet in
front of my nose…)

Peter W. Rowe

peter, you did add the orchid address to your address book? that's
what i have been told to do when i have problems with addresses
being id'd as junk. 

Yes, of course. Actually, I’ve turned off spam filtering on that
account, so my address book entries don’t figure in. The blocking
occurs when messages first get to the Earthlink servers, long before
(well, several nano-seconds at least…) they might have gotten to
my account and it’s settings.

Peter

Oddly enough, Kay Davis’ email ended up in my spam box. How it got
there is beyond me - I have never had a problem before this. Maybe
gmail looks for special words in the body? But from one canuck to
another, believe me, I did not report this as spam. And the rest of
the emails from Orchid came through just fine.

Barbara on a windy cold island!

Oddly enough, Kay Davis' email ended up in my spam box. How it got
there is beyond me - I have never had a problem before this. Maybe
gmail looks for special words in the body? But from one canuck to
another, believe me, I did not report this as spam. And the rest
of the emails from Orchid came through just fine. 

Oddly enough, this happened for me as well!

On a parallel note, I had a previous internet provider (WorldSpice?
Earthlink? RoadRunner? I have used all of these) get very verbally
upset when I complained to one of their telephone technicians.
According to him, “they” were watching my mail closely because I got
so much email from out-of-country sources; from foreign places like
Thailand and West Virginia!! Yes, they specifically included West
Virginia. “They” thought it was in Canada! Could it be that some of
the internet providers need education that some of us exist in a
legitimate world community? And that community embraces ALL of the
United States? Could it be that they are being pressured by our
government, and that “they” are too badly in need of this education
to even interpret “homeland security” properly?

After 9/11 I had to get a yahoo mail account - one of the government
agencies (unspecified) shut down earthlink e-mail between the US and
some overseas accounts, including my sister in England (who is an
internationally known business person). very odd!

On the geographical knowledge, I remember when the Olympics were in
Atlanta folks in Delaware were told they had to buy tickets from the
“international” division - lol! So unfortunately we do have a lot of
citizens in the US who seem unaware of all of the states. quite sad!

Beth Wicker