Could also have to do with a particular recipient, and the SMTP server trying to look up its MX record -- all during Aqua Mail's trying to submit the message.
It could've been, but I don't think it is the case here. I checked the MX records for the destination address. They have nothing to do with the IP in the error message:
>nslookup -query=mx aig.com ns1.aig.com
Server: ns1.aig.com
Address: 167.247.15.89#53
aig.com mail exchanger = 5 fmx31.aig.com.
aig.com mail exchanger = 5 fmx34.aig.com.
aig.com mail exchanger = 5 fmx36.aig.com.
aig.com mail exchanger = 5 lmx31.aig.com.
aig.com mail exchanger = 5 fmx35.aig.com.
aig.com mail exchanger = 5 lmx35.aig.com.
aig.com mail exchanger = 5 lmx36.aig.com.
aig.com mail exchanger = 5 lmx34.aig.com.
aig.com mail exchanger = 5 fmx33.aig.com.
aig.com mail exchanger = 5 lmx32.aig.com.
aig.com mail exchanger = 5 lmx33.aig.com.
aig.com mail exchanger = 5 fmx32.aig.com.
All those mx hosts are in 167.247 and 167.230 subnets.
Whois for the IP in the error messages shows:
% Information related to '178.96.0.0/12AS29328'
route: 178.96.0.0/12
descr: T-Mobile UK
I suspect, this is the device's IP. That's why I concluded the attempt of connection was from a mobile network.
Actually, - I suspect the SMTP server might be unhappy because the sender's IP does not have a valid reverse DNS record (
PTR). Moreover, the DNS servers for that network are configured to deny responses for any 102.178.in-addr.arpa (or 96.178.in-addr.arpa). That's a weird decision for that ISP.