The error message "421 4.7.0 REJECT Policy reject; Exceeding quota, max or 1000 messages per 86400 seconds for sasl_username 'example@vps.transip.email'" is an error message that only occurs on our VPS platform when combination with usage of the VPS mail service.
The error message means that you send more emails per 24 hours from your VPS than your account allows. In this article, we explain how to solve this problem.
Do you not use the VPS mail service? Then this article does not apply.
The limit per 24 hours
For each TransIP account, a total limit for sending emails via the VPS email service of 1000 emails per 24 hours per VPS, up to a maximum of 10000 emails per account per 24 hours applies.
These numbers can be freely distributed: for example, if you have five VPSs, the limit is 5000 emails per 24 hours. The limit is freely distributable, and you can therefore choose to send 5000 emails per 24 hours via one VPS and not to send any emails through the other VPSs.
The reason behind this limit is that if a VPS gets infected by malware and sends spam, it has a negative impact on the IP reputation of our mail servers.
By applying a limit, we prevent the impact of any spam. If we do not, all our customers would experience problems, because our mail servers would be regarded as unreliable by receiving parties. This is also the reason why we apply a spam filter to outgoing mail.
The solution
Solving the problem mainly depends on your situation: are you legitimately trying to send more than 1000 emails per day, or does your VPS send spam (for example, through an unsafe website)?
Deliberately send more than 1000 emails per day
If you have to send more than 1000 emails per day, for example for a newsletter, there are two possible solutions:
- You can add extra VPSs to increase the limit for your entire account. An X1 is already sufficient to increase the limit by 1000 (to a limit of 10000 per account).
- The other option is not to use the VPS mail service. At the moment, we do not support larger amounts of mail via our mail servers than the limit of 1000 per day up to a maximum of 10000 with 10 VPSs.
In most cases, the error message is the result of unknowingly sending spam from your VPS. This does not necessarily mean that your VPS has been infected but does require some action. You can check the following items to correct the problem.
- Are you hosting a website with a contact form? In that case, always use a 'Captcha'. If you don't do this, bots can send spam via your form, which counts for the daily limit. This does not necessarily mean that bots have access to your underlying VPS, but we do recommend that you secure your VPS.
- Are you not hosting a website or are you already using a Captcha, but you do not know what caused 1000 emails in a day? Then, your VPS is probably infected with malware. In that case, use a virus scanner to scan your VPS (e.g. ClamAV in Linux) and check the security of your VPS. Are you hosting a WordPress website? Then, consult our article about securing WordPress websites.
Should you have any questions left regarding this article, do not hesitate to contact our support department. You can reach them via the ‘Contact Us’ button at the bottom of this page.