Question : The connection was dropped by the remote host

Hello,
All of a sudden, e-mail being sent to a domain are "delayed".  I see the domain and messages in the "Queues" section of Exchange System Manager (Excahnge 2003) with the message of, "The connection was dropped by the remote host."

I'm also having issues telneting to the Mail exchanger.  When I try to Telnet I just get a blank DOS window (no banner) and as soon as I touch a key, it kicks me back to a prompt.

I've tried some things on my side, restarted Exchange, flushed the DNS cache on the Exchange box and both DC's.

I called the destination ISP in question and the don't have me listed on a block.  It appears the ISP has really does not care.

I've come to the concusion that we are some sort of blacklist.  I checked on dnsstuff.com if I were on major blacklists no no dice, I'm not there.  One thing that disturbs me is that the ISP has outsourced all there e-mail hosting to Hotmail/MSN and they have no support help at all (am I correct?).

Bottom line, where else in terms of web sites could I see that I am on blacklist or are there tools (software) that could geive me some insight as to where the message is getting dropped.

Thanks,

Willis

Answer : The connection was dropped by the remote host

enter the domain you are having trouble with here; http://www.zmailer.org/mxverify.html

if it works, then it must be you, if not, then it is them

-red