Railmaster support email bouncing back

[Ludlowlad]

First time poster so apologies if this has been covered before:

I am trying to get my Railmaster software re activated on a new PC following a CPU burnout on my old laptop. I have read on this forum that I need to email support@rail-master.com to request deactivation of my Key. So far all emails sent to this address are bouncing back. I have tried manual typing the address and using links from this forum but to no avail.

Is this support address now defunct and if so how can I get my software reinstalled?

Is buying another licence the easier option!

[RB51]

Hi Ludlowlad. Welcome to the forum.

 

I have just tried the address you gave and it is fine. Are you sure you put the hyphen in? What error message are you getting?

 

R-

[Ludlowlad]

Hi RogerB, thanks for the super fast response!

"Mail delivery failed", I forwarded the email to Hornby customer support and that went fine! All hyphens were present and correct. Going to try from my work email to see if that makes a difference.

[96RAF]

I have had various emails declare ‘failed to send‘ before and upon checking in my sent mail folder for that account I find they have gone in any case.

 

I have also found that if reporting from within RM it is best not to fiddle with anything during the auto-sending operation else that also can fall over. If so a retry usually works.

 

It may just be a case your mail server is busy and  retry will be successfull.

 

Recently I have also had the odd event where upon replying to an email it sends it to me rather than the addressee. All very odd.

 

Rob

[Chrissaf]

I sent a 'Test Message' to support@rail-master.com at 09:54, so far no 'Mail Delivery Error' returned. Will keep this post open in edit mode and update it if anything changes.

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EDIT: 10:40 still no mail delivery error......support@rail-master.com mail address seems all OK to me.

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Final EDIT: 14:30 and still no mail delivery error message. Thus my mail client and server can not replicate your issue.

[RB51]

My 09:38 test has not produced any reported faults. There has been no response from HRMS. R-

[Ludlowlad]

Thanks for all the replies, couldn’t thank earlier due to two post limit! Email sent from work account did not give a problem. Tried a test email from home account today on both pc and iPad and both returned failed to deliver. Looks like an ISP problem to me. Took the plunge and bought another licence for less than £18 as a backup position, need to get on, time’s precious etc.

Cheers to all

[Fishmanoz]

£18, cancel it!  Hattons has it for £4. 

[Chrissaf]

Hatton's price is £5 plus £2 delivery (£7 total) to be more accurate, but yes a better deal than £18. This Hatton's RailMaster deal has been posted many times on this forum.

http://www.hattons.co.uk/36087/Hornby_R8144_RailMaster_PC_Model_Railway_Control_System_CD_Rom/StockDetail.aspx

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PS - Whichever product you eventually use, your ordered £18 one or the Hatton's £7 one. Do not load the software from the CD, it will be an older version. Download the latest version from the forum link and only use the authentication key on the CD packaging.

[96RAF]

It beats me why people are still selling disks, when an online key purchase is all that is required. Many other software packages use this methodology, download and try, then buy a key to release the full package.

Hattons could flog the key by email and bin the disk having registered that key against your customer data.

Rob

[Ludlowlad]

Thanks again, order cancelled, Hattons here I come.

[Fishmanoz]

Chris, before replying yesterday I checked Hattons price and it showed as £4 not £5?  Didn’t check delivery. 

 

And AC has been insistent you may need the disk for initial installation on some systems, pulled me up on it last time I said bin the disk.   Never experienced that myself incl on last moving laptops, and just as well as no drive in mine, haven’t had one for years now. 

[Augustus Caesar]

Correct re disk. I have had TWO occasions where the newer install files would not work and nor previous versions when installing RM. Using the disk worked.

The downloaded files were not corrupt either as I tested them on other machines. This situation is quite rare though but I have kept the install CD purely as a matter of caution.

 

As far as the e-mail coming back is concerned... this is rarely due to your ISP having faults but is more likely either a security issue with your mail being sent without authentication OR the mail settings on your PC/laptop are not correct i.e. POP3 or SMTP (the latter is for sending).

 

To help solve this I would need to know if you use webmail or a PC/laptop based client program like Outlook. The error will NOT be Hornby systems or their host. This will be 95% down to the computer or web based client program.

[Ludlowlad]

Thanks AC,  it is a confusing issue. I rarely use webmail and didn’t in this case. My PC used Windows live mail on Windows 10. The really confusing bit is that it also didn’t work on an iPad running Apple OS (same ISP). It did work on my work PC (different ISP) running Outlook on Windows 10. I have rarely had this problem with other email addresses and when I have it has always been my spelling at fault which is not the case this time! So far all other emails to other addresses have been sent successfully which is why I consider my ISP server to be prime candidate, for some reason it doesn’t like support@rail-master.com. It never crossed my mind that the Hornby server might be at fault and I agree that it won’t be the case. One of the suggested reasons supplied by the rejection email is blacklisting of the address by my mail server, but I see no reason why this should be the case either.

To be honest this is the first time I have tried to contact Railmaster support, I am hoping there will never be another, it has cost me a few quid to get another license but it looks like the best way to get round the problem quickly for the moment.

[Chrissaf]

Just as a point of clarity.

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The "rail-master.com" server is not a Hornby server. Hornby have outsourced all aspects of RailMaster and support to a third party software house called "Invicto Systems Ltd". The 'rail-master.com' server belongs to Invicto Systems Ltd not Hornby. Invicto Systems Ltd are known on this forum as HRMS (Hornby RailMaster Support).

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www.rail-master.com

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Below is an extract from this old press release:

http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/rail-programming

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[Augustus Caesar]

@ludlowlad

 

If you think your ISP or your email address is being blacked then use this tool to find out:

https://mxtoolbox.com/

 

Simply put the URI (or URL) domain name (e.g. domain.co.uk) into the first text box and click MX Lookup.

 

From there it will give results for the domain and then just simply click the text link 'Blacklist check'.

 

Some results may time out but just check again or ignore.

Other tests can be performed here as well and if you were to own a domain name this is where you would keep your host provider on their toes with the results of each test basically telling where faults may occur.

It's quite technical in parts but you don't need to pay for this service... it's free. Paid for areas are for the more involved techs.

 

This should give a clue to any blacklisting or, if they are all clear, then of course this possible cause for your email bouncing is elimated.

 

Even some big companies (ISP's) have email addresses that are blocked. They issue them in blocks to clients or customers and every time you reset or turn off and on your router your IP address is changed, therefore occasionally clearing your blocked address. It depends upon which block of IP's your ISP has been allocated.

Usually these addresses are blocked because the address is used for heavy spamming traffic. It is simple to have the domain cleared but if you don't own the domain you need to ask your ISP to apply for that block of addresses to be cleared by the spam house blocking it. Trouble is when you do reset your router the address changes so you could get another blocked IP. These addresses are dynamic.

My own is static and all clear. Hope this helps to track down a little more where the fault is. Let us know.

[Augustus Caesar]

@chrissaf

 

Maybe I should have taken more time and stated Invicto owned the RM license etc. and not pointed to Hornby.

 

@anyone

 

Either way it is extremely unlikely that either of their servers would be to blame as mail is always rejected at source or the domain user's ISP server.

Most of the time it is down to authentication or some setting not quite being set correctly at the end user PC where POP3 or SMTP is concerned. If these settings are correct then the ISP is asking for authentication as the next step in validating the sender's credentials.

If these don't match up to what is expected the mail is rejected.

Remember all computers can mostly only give a best guess scenario to tell you what is going wrong. Just because an error message says something is wrong with one thing it doesn't always get it right and there may be more than one fault too. They are only as intuitive as the builder...

[Chrissaf]

Something else to try. Click the www.rail-master.com link in my previous reply. If that too doesn't work, then the DNS your ISP uses may have a corrupt entry.

.

There was a previous forum thread, where an Australian forum user just could not access that particular server, yet all his other Internet services and web sites worked perfectly OK. After much back and forth dialogue with his ISP it was proved to be a DNS issue (DNS - Domain Name Services). If I recall, his issue was resolved when his ISP's DNS had a maintenance SW upgrade several weeks later.

[Augustus Caesar]

Good example to point out Chris... I was going to mention it but couldn't remember, off the top of my head, where the guy lived and his exact situation. It was a DNS issue which was sorted as you say...

Extremely rare though this is it may help solve an issue that could drag on.

[Ludlowlad]

Gosh Guys, loads to have a look at. Thanks again. As the level of acronyms increase so does my inability to comprend a path forward!! I have tried the mxtoolbox thingy and no issues have been found for the domains I put in. I haven't been able to try out Chris's interesting example as I am at work and not at home so I will try when I get home. On the other hand I will also have a bright and shiney new Railmaster licence waiting for me to try out, it's also my eldest daughters birthday! I feel a priority paradox coming on!

[Chrissaf]

Just to advise an update:

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In my previous post on 25th May at 10:09 I said I had sent a 'test email message' to HRMS to check if I too was seeing any mail server communications errors (which I didn't).

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Just to advise that now that the Bank Holiday weekend is over, I have just received a HRMS (manual human) acknowledgement that they have seen and read my test mail message.

[Ludlowlad]

Latest update:

Have tried clicking the link from Chrissaf previous email and that worked fine, ever hopeful I immediately sent a test email to support@rail-master.com and it bounced back straight away. I also received a human reply from HRMS from the email I successfully sent from my work email last week advising me to install railmaster and when I get the licence already active message I need to fill out the form to reactivate from within Railmaster. I will do that when I have reinstalled the software which won't be tonight, maybe tomorrow, birthday parties permitting!

[Augustus Caesar]

@ludlowlad

 

Can you tell me who your ISP is and more to the point what the domain name is after the @ on your email?

Drop me an email via the link on the RailMaster Help Site (sticky post at the top of this sub forum).

I'll then look into it further and see if I can pinpoint your issue.

If you're happy to leave it then that is fine but other mail could end up bouncing back later if not sorted.

I will leave it with you.

[Ludlowlad]

@AC

Thanks for your very kind offer, I will take you up on it and will email you very soon but it may not be today. Please bear with me, I do want to sort this but, as ever, I am juggling priorities at the moment.

[Augustus Caesar]

@ludlowlad

No problem.

Will carry out some checks and see what I come up with. Chances are that the error may just be a glitch with the ISP or a particular security setting. There are other possibilities as you run your own hosting package as I do. I'll go through those as well... watch your inbox.

As you said you were using Outlook I assume with some info you gave me privately that you have correctly set the authentication settings for your email provider... anyway, I'll check those and get back to you privately and we can post results when relevant so others can see how things went... if it is to be solved or not.