Blocked Emails are driving me insane!

suesheboy · #1 (**permalink**) 10-01-2006, 05:54 PM

Hi everyone,

While I post on this board, I usually don’t post in this section but I am at my wits end and figured this was a more appropriate section than I normally post in.

I have a few dozen sites spread across 2 IPs (virtual hosting) with a host I have been using for years with virtually no problems.

My business is growing and I have assigned all of my salespersons their own email account under my domain. Though I have had some of these domains for almost 5 years, I never sent out any commercial email let alone spam.

My mail and my salespersons mail keeps getting blocked by ISPs such as AOL, services such as Yahoo and Hotmail, and Spam cop software. Comcast has blocked me for weeks and my host says that they are working on it.

My normal ISP is Bellsouth but my sales personas are using many different ISPs all with the same problem.

What do I need to do to stop this? Do I have to get of virtual hosting? This can not go on.

Thanks

ManagedLinks · #2 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 12:19 AM

Reasons for mail being blocked can be hard to track down, I have had a problem with hotmail which not even hotmail staff cannot resolve which of course doesnt say much for hotmail staff. Yahoo on the other hand fixed it in minutes.

Having said that it sounds as though you are getting listed on various blocklists these can block entire ip ranges so even though you do not send any spam someone in a nearby ip may be doing so and causing your problems. your server may also have been compromised and though you don't send spam a hacker uses your server to do so.

You mention your isp but do you send mail through your isp? or are you like me and just use them to connect to the web and send mail via your own website?

If your sales staff do the same then they are also sending using your ip and may be being blocked for that reason.

It would require intimate detail of your mail system to determine where the errors are.

For example the ip 216.130.169.178 (meancash.com) has no reverse DNS this alone can have you blocked if you are sending email from it.

suesheboy · #3 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 07:26 AM

Thanks ManagedLinks for the response and you bring up very good points.

If someone near my IP is doing this, I guess the easiest thing to do is move hosts, but this can happen again. I have to hope my server has not been hacked and of course I have no way to check this.

I POP my mail but use my host as my incoming and outgoing mail server. My sales people who are POPing are doing the same.

You say that meancash.com has no reverse DNS. How do I go about changing this? In all the years in the biz this has never come up for me so enlighten me.

ManagedLinks · #4 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 10:29 AM

Hi

Send a simple email to yourself then copy the entire email including the headers

paste that into a pm to me and I'll take a look.

Meancash not having a reverse DNS may not be the issue it depends on which domain is being used to send the mail and whether it has a reverse DNS if it doesn't your host will have to fix it for you

to work that out I need to see the headers from an email sent from your server

computergenius · #5 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suesheboy

I have to hope my server has not been hacked and of course I have no way to check this.

I can't see anyone suggesting this, but it was suggested that you might be on a spam blocklist.

Have you tried checking that with something like this:
spam-block-list-checker

alienzhavelanded · #6 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 07:46 PM

AOL will block incoming mail servers that don't have a reverse DNS (PTR) record. This is stated on their website (http://postmaster.aol.com/info/rdns.html).

Many ISPs and mail providers also use a method of blocking shared mail servers. I've seen Spamhaus blocklist such servers. The thinking is that if the server is sending mail from multiple domains, it's possible that it's being used for spam.

Spamcop gathers evidence from a variety of methods including traps and users reporting mail they think is spam. This shouldn't affect you unless Spamcop has actually blocklisted the site. Many mail providers will rely on such blocklists from Spamcop and others to stop spam from reaching their users. You should check to make sure your mail server isn't on one of these lists.

Your mail provider should be the point of contact for any problems you may be having with blocked mail. Ultimately they're responsible for the mail server itself from being blocklisted, and for making sure PTR records are in place. If they are uncooperative, consider using a different provider.

mauinick · #7 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 08:04 PM

Go to dnsstuff.com

You can check for reverse dns, blacklisted ips, and whole lot more.

eCOMpal - a shopping cart on steroids

wpriley · #8 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 08:56 PM

By checking DNSstuff (as was suggested above), I see neither of your IP address (209.200.55.195 or 216.130.169.178) are listed as currently blocked on any of the roughly 200 blacklist sites they query. This doesn't mean they weren't listed a few hours ago though as many blocks are for a short duration.

I also see (as was pointed out earlier) that neither of your IP addresses has a reverse DNS entry.

All this said, I'd change all your E-mail accounts outgoing mail server from your servers to your ISP's outgoing mail server (ie: from smtp.mydomain.com to smtp.isp.net). This will eliminate your E-mails from being "relayed" (a contributor to the point system many anti-SPAM programs use). More importantly, if your ISP is of any size (mine is Comcast which never seems to get blocked), it's unlikely their IP address will get blocked and if it does, they'll be the one to expend the time to get it unlisted.

Good luck.

suesheboy · #9 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wpriley

All this said, I'd change all your E-mail accounts outgoing mail server from your servers to your ISP's outgoing mail server (ie: from smtp.mydomain.com to smtp.isp.net).

This looks like the solution or at least a very easy start!

siaovira · #10 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 11:21 PM

I have used many different hosts over the years including a virtual server with Verio and nothing compares to www.Modwest.com. Switching to Modwest would solve your spam email issue and provide unlimited bandwidth on a shared server. I personally have used their reseller plan for about two years and couldn't be happier. All their techs speak english, know what they are doing, their uptime is phenomenal, their FAQ is unparalleled and their prices are awesome. Probably not what you were looking for but hopefully this helps you or someone else.

colr · #11 (**permalink**) 10-03-2006, 04:17 AM

Get your IP address and test it with spamcop to chech that it is blocking it: http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml.

Do you know what mailserver you're using? Our host provides us with hMailServer (its a dediacted server) which ises spamcopy by defaukt. After a while I had to just disable it as it was causing problems for some of our clients.

If you are on spamcops list, then I would suggest you are known by at least a few people (aol, yahoo, other spam filters) for having a suspect IP address. Why this is the case - you'd have to ask your ISP, they might be reusing an IP address from a previous spamming user.

I'd suggest asking your ISP to change the server you're on, so that your IP address changes. If they cant do this, or this doesnt solve the problem, you'll need to find a new host.

**wige** · #12 (**permalink**) 10-03-2006, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suesheboy

You say that meancash.com has no reverse DNS. How do I go about changing this? In all the years in the biz this has never come up for me so enlighten me.

This is getting more and more common. Whoever manages the DNS server on the network where your server is located should be able to set this up for you. If you have shared, dedicated or colocated servers, contact the support department and they should be able to take care of this.

Note: it's not that meancash.com doesn't have a reverse DNS (meancash.com -> your.ip is normal DNS). The DNS server on your host network has to have an entry that reverses that, mapping the IP address of the server to the domain name. Every domain name can only have one DNS entry, and every IP address can only have one reverse DNS entry.

fbnewtz · #13 (**permalink**) 10-03-2006, 10:33 AM

Reverse DNS is most likely the issue. Especially with Hotmail and AOL. I am surprised Yahoo could solve the problem, but anything is possible. SPF or Sender Policy Framework is also becoming popular with certain carriers.

If you do use your ISP's outgoing mail servers, be sure to change your reply to address. I would also change my email address, but I don't know if that will cause problems or not.

nlbakos · #14 (**permalink**) 10-12-2006, 09:12 PM

Both Hotmail and Comcast are using Symantec's Brightmail AntiSpam software. The members of these ISP are unaware that they are not getting their email. The email doesn't even go into their bulkmail folders. Symantec’s software decides what email goes through to these users. Who appointed them to make decisions for the users beats me. What is spam for one person could be an opportunity for someone else. AND then again not everything that is SPAM is really SPAM or junk. Unless the Homail and Comcast users complain to their ISP that they are subscribed to certain list and are not getting their email, there is little anyone can do except email Symantec a sample of the email that is getting blocked and wait for their decision. Thanks to Symantec making choices for everyone, email has become very unreliable. Now everyone has to follow an email with a phone call “did you get my email?”