> > > You can clearly tell from the message what the problem is. > > The format of these failure responses dates back a long ways, long before Gmail existed. They are clearly not the most user-friendly messages, but as Andy indicated, they do tell you (in great detail) what happened, and why. The key for most users is the "550" line(s) - really, any 5xx code. The "550" is a precise error code from the mail server which rejected the message, and is generally the most common code. It means the recipient email address in the original message doesn't exist on the receiving server. By placing the code first, it allows software at the receiving end to simply snip off the code and deal with it, as appropriate. The rest of the line is a message for any user who might happen to read the response.
Here's a web page with all the SMTP message codes: http://www.serversmtp.com/en/smtp-error As end users, you will never see most of them. 550 is the exception. Also, server software doesn't always get all the details exactly right. Further up this thread, someone noted this message: > The error that the other server returned was: > 550 High probability of spam The code should probably have been 541... Skip -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Gmail-Users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/gmail-users. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
