Thread

I am using ExpressionEngine v 1.6.2.
My Email configuration is set to use PHP Mail, which uses the local SMTP server.

I’ve tried both Plain Text and HTML emails…both are returned by AOL mail servers with this error:

=============================================================================
Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: Test Email—Plain Text 2
Sent: 2/15/2008 4:32 PM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

  .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 2/15/2008 4:32 PM
  The message contains a content type that is not supported
  <server.name #5.6.1 smtp;554 5.6.1 Body type not supported by Remote Host>
=============================================================================

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Thanks,
Aaron Simmons

Hey, Aaron - have you tested this with both HTML and Plain Text emails?  Are both getting returned like this, or only one sort?

My questions are:

1) Does this only happen with aol.com addresses?
2) Are you running a Windows server for your
  -  a) web server
  -  b) email server

I ask because that is I believe an Exchange server error, and this might be relevant: =http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];Q262168

I’ve tested with both HTML and Plain Text emails—they all get bounced by AOL.

We have EE running on a Mac server…but I believe there is a Windows SMTP server involved somewhere—I’ll look over the Microsoft support article and update this thread with any findings.

Anyone else experience this problem / know a solution?

-Aaron

Sorry, forgot to mention that Yes, this only happens with aol.com email addresses.

-Aaron

I wouldn’t think that the bounce would be happening from AOL, as to the best of my knowledge they are not using Exchange servers, but that is weird that you would only have that triggered for those addresses, so perhaps that is the case.  Googling on that error message (Body type not supported by Remote Host) should give you some additional info.

Well that’s a good point…that email that I get back (see original post), I always assumed that was the AOL mail server rejecting the email.  Are you suggesting that maybe the SMTP server / Exchange server from the sending side is simply not delivering it?

-Aaron

Some additional searching shows that it’s common with AOL and Earthlink, so I’m guessing they are indeed using older versions of Exchange server, what do you know?  In any case, the solution is indeed in that article linked above.  You’ll need your Windows SMTP server configured to not advertise 8BITMIME.

edit add:

Well that’s a good point…that email that I get back (see original post), I always assumed that was the AOL mail server rejecting the email.  Are you suggesting that maybe the SMTP server / Exchange server from the sending side is simply not delivering it?

No, you’re right, Exchange is receiving it, and certain versions do not work with an SMTP sender server advertising 8BITMIME.  So the problem is on both sides of the pond, so to speak, but since you can’t change AOL’s servers, the recourse is to change the SMTP sending server.

I wanted to follow up and let everyone know that things are working now.

My sys admin did not want to mess with our production SMTP server / Exchange server.  So he didn’t apply the suggested patch from Microsoft [ http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];Q262168 ].

But we changed the PHP Mail settings on our Mac server to use sendmail instead of routing through the SMTP server.  And that fixed it!

So the problem WAS definitely in the SMTP server.  So if anyone else is experiencing this problem, try avoiding IIS’s SMTP and use sendmail.

Thanks for the great support on these forums!

-Aaron

Thanks for the follow up, Aaron, and glad you’re up and running!

Housekeeping.