Exim’s 550 “administrative prohibition” issue is caused when a recipient server notices that our service hasn’t received authorization to send an email on behalf of the sender domain. At Bobcares, with our Server Management Services, we can handle your server-related issues.

550 “administrative prohibition” error in Exim

When a recipient server notices that our service hasn’t received authorization to send an email on behalf of the sending domain, which is seen as suspicious and therefore prohibited, the 550 “administrative prohibition” error in Exim is generated. The error can also mean any of the following:

1. SMTP server’s domain is listed on real-time blacklists.

2. Recipient using a domain that is blacklisted in real-time.

3. Dynamic IP address of the server.

Reason behind 550 “administrative prohibition” error in Exim

Let’s look into some of the following reasons that lead to the 550 administrative prohibition error.

• There is no such email address as that of the recipient.
• The hosting server for the recipient is down.
• The recipient’s mail server has blocked the email because it believes the email address has been compromised.
• A firewall function on the internet gateway wrongly detected and blocked the email as spam.
• The email client is being used from a different IP address.
• The domain name is either prohibited or invalid.
• The email address was not recognized by the recipient’s mail server.

Solutions for 550 “administrative prohibition” error in Exim

• Make contact with the recipient using a different channel and check to see whether the sending domain or address is not listed on a sender block list. Ask the recipient to remove the sending domain or address from the Block list if it’s there.
• Verify the SPF record is accurate in order to send messages.

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Conclusion

When a recipient server notices that our service hasn’t received authorization to send an email on behalf of the sender domain, then we may see Exim’s 550 issues. The article provides two simple solutions that we can take to fix the issue.