Email rejected from old ISP?

[unbwogable]

I'm not 100% sure where to post this, but I think I've found the right spot. I have a bit of a pickle. First, a little history:
My parents live overseas as missionaries. They come home every 2-3 years for a 'refuel' (supplies, etc.). During 2005, they had a local (Kenya, east Africa-based) ISP named 'Multitechweb'. They also had an email address, for privacy reasons, we'll call it 'missionaries@multitechweb.com'.
They canceled this service when they came back to the US, then they went back and got a completely different service (Multitechweb closed its doors due to lack of customers).

Here's the problem: When I (or any member of my family or any friends) send an email to their Yahoo address (let's call this 'parents@yahoo.com'), I get a standard email rejection message from Multitechweb, stating that the email couldn't be sent. How is this possible? I've also sent messages to their other address (let's call this one 'companyemail@biomissions.org'), with the same result.

The Multitechweb email server doesn't even exist anymore, they brought a new computer back with them, a PC that has never touched, felt, or breathed on Multitechweb. The only thing that is the same is the telephone line, but that shouldn't be an issue, considering that the email is rejected before it reaches their PC.

I would be forever indebted to anyone that could help!!


Bryan Childers

[unbwogable]

I've just tested another message, here is the rejection (the original message was sent to 'parents@yahoo.com'

This is the Postfix program at host mx.multitechweb.com.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that the message returned
below could not be delivered to one or more destinations.

For further assistance, please send mail to <postmaster>

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the message returned below.

The Postfix program

<missionaries@multitechweb.com>: unknown user: "missionaries"

[johnwill]

I suspect that the message is being forwarded by Yahoo to the multitechweb.com address, that's where I'd start looking.

[unbwogable]

I sent an SMS to my father, and he checked both accounts (@biomissions.org and @yahoo.com) and neither one has a forwarding rule set up. Any other ideas?

[johnwill]

It has to be getting forwarded somehow.

I'd have to have the actual email addresses and try sending something to see the rejection totally to have any shot at figuring out what's happening.

[johnwill]

I send a test email to each of the two addresses, let's see if I get a bounce and what it contains. :)

Let me know if they actually arrive and don't get bounced.

[johnwill]

I got a bounce for the one to the domain biomissions.org, and it seems that somehow the mail is being forwarded as you say. I didn't get a bounce for the yahoo.com address. I did a WHOIS on the two domains, multitechweb.com and biomissions.org, they seem to be totally different entities. At this point, the only thing that makes sense is to check the email account at biomissions.org and see if there is some sort of error in the configuration that's forwarding the email. It has to be getting the previous address from somewhere.

[unbwogable]

Apparently, the problem has been solved. My dad didn't change anything, he said he just started getting emails yesterday afternoon. If we figure out what the problem was, I'll post it here. Thanks to everyone!

It sure makes it easier when my parents are 10,000 miles away to be able to communicate via email!!

[johnwill]

I think something really odd with the servers was working. Does he get emails on the biomissions.org email address? That's the one that bounced for me.