Mail Being Blocked Sometimes

[qualtrough]

From time to time I have found that some of my e-mail messages have bounced back with a failure notice that includes something like the following:

Connected to 207.158.3.254 but sender was rejected.

Remote host said: 550 5.7.1 This system is configured to reject mail from 64.202.189.199 (Host blacklisted in bl.spamcop.net)

I am not spamming so I assume it must be related to the activities of others using the same mail server.

This is a bummer because when I reply to someone I now have to worry that they won't get my message.

So my questions:

Is there anything I can do about it?

Are there alternatives sending methods or ?? that I can use to avoid this happening?

[PMK]

The problem is not the mail server IP but the IP you get from the ISP. A previous user did something to get on the blacklist. The only sure way around it is to get a fixed IP or perhaps change ISP to another that will be more on top of monitoring for spammers and thus avoid you getting an IP that is blocked.

If the message you need to send is urgent you could check yourself at http://www.spamcop.net or http://www.internetfrog.com to see if your current IP is blocked or not. If you are using a router, then it's configuration page will show you your current IP or you can use a service like http://www.dnsstuff.com/ to show it. If it is blocked, you could try disconnecting for a few minutes and try again.

Peter

From time to time I have found that some of my e-mail messages have bounced back with a failure notice that includes something like the following:

Connected to 207.158.3.254 but sender was rejected.

Remote host said: 550 5.7.1 This system is configured to reject mail from 64.202.189.199 (Host blacklisted in bl.spamcop.net)

I am not spamming so I assume it must be related to the activities of others using the same mail server.

This is a bummer because when I reply to someone I now have to worry that they won't get my message.

So my questions:

Is there anything I can do about it?

Are there alternatives sending methods or ?? that I can use to avoid this happening?

[lopburi3]

You could also use another mail server. Either a paid server or Hotmail/Gmail/Yahoo type places.

[higgy88]

Let me tell you about my experience about a year ago. Out of the blue my emails to my mother got blacklisted by her ISP, which was AT&T dial up, and the bounceback message I received said that my IP address was blacklisted. I asked her to call them to get me unblacklisted, and she entered their voice mail hel_l system exactly as it is described in this link.

Does It Get Any Worse Than This?

Needless to say, she gave up and hung up. I had two email addresses with lycos mail, which I could use either as web mail or as pop 3 mail where I could use oulook express. I also had two dial up ISPs, Internet Thailand and T-Net by CAT. My perference was connecting with T-Net and using outlook express for my emails, and the other email address was for my wife. I contacted lycos, who said it was my ISP, and I contacted T-Net, who said it was my email server. Typical buck passing. I did some experiments to find a work around, and I found that the only time my email would be blacklisted was if I used my lycos address, not my wife's, outlook express to write it, and was connected with T-Net. Any other combination was not blocked. In one experiment, I used my address and wrote an email sending it by outlook express and web mail at the same time. The OE mail was blocked and the web mail was not. I assume I was using the same lycos email server and the same IP address issued by T-Net, I was just using two different ways to send them.

The work around was easy, and I showed my mother this link and convinced her to change her ISP to a better one at half the price, so my problem was solved. And I was paying lycos for their premium pop 3 service, which I cancelled when the annual fee was due.

You also may want to do some investigating to see if there is any pattern to exactly when your emails are being blacklisted and to whom you are sending them to.

[qualtrough]

Thanks everyone for your help!

Peter--Everytime I log onto my provider's service I am assigned a new IP, is that correct? How would I go about getting a fixed IP?

[OldAsiaHand]

It is becoming more common to find that you cannot send mail from a Thai ISP to some mail servers at all, at least as far as the US goes.

Recently I've had hellish problems with a Hawaiian ISP and the Chase Manhattan IT department. Both block everything from any Thai IP address (and, I'm sure, from some other countries, too). In both cases the people who wanted to receive my email attempted to prevent the blockage, but were told that Thailand was the source of so much spam that the policy would be strictly enforced.

The only way I could get email to either of the people I was trying to reach after that was to use a Yahoo account. And, as we all know, spammers NEVER use Yahoo, so that mail went right through with no problem.

What a joke.

Edited July 26, 2006 by OldAsiaHand

[PMK]

I think my response had some inaccurate information that only applies if you were running your own email server. Let me rethink it with a clear mind and get back to you.

Peter

quote name='qualtrough' date='2006-07-26 11:53:16' post='824912']

Thanks everyone for your help!

Peter--Everytime I log onto my provider's service I am assigned a new IP, is that correct? How would I go about getting a fixed IP?

[PMK]

qualtrough,

For now just ignore my other post because indeed it is not fully accurate for your situation, but where are you located? The IP number you listed in your original post Remote host said: 550 5.7.1 This system is configured to reject mail from 64.202.189.199 (Host blacklisted in bl.spamcop.net) is in Scottsdale, Arizona. http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/ipall.ch?domain=64.202.189.199

Peter

Thanks everyone for your help!

Peter--Everytime I log onto my provider's service I am assigned a new IP, is that correct? How would I go about getting a fixed IP?

[peterjackson]

Hey

You could get a new email address from www.hushmail.com and as an added benefit, you also get PGP protection built-in. A great service and they offer a basic service for free.

Kind regards

Peter

[qualtrough]

qualtrough,

For now just ignore my other post because indeed it is not fully accurate for your situation, but where are you located? The IP number you listed in your original post Remote host said: 550 5.7.1 This system is configured to reject mail from 64.202.189.199 (Host blacklisted in bl.spamcop.net) is in Scottsdale, Arizona. http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/ipall.ch?domain=64.202.189.199

Peter

I was using an e-mail address hosted by GoDaddy, and they are based in Scottsdale, so that makes sense.

[PMK]

Is this a web-based account? If so, there is nothing you can do. Some gmail users including one on this forum a while back have the same problem. I've never heard of it with Yahoo or Hotmail.

To Peter Jackson, I'd suggest that hushmail.com is not his best choice unless he wants the encryption feature. I do have an account there myself so am familiar with it. With the for the free account you have to check in at least every three weeks; using it at a public location can be a PITA; and features and storage are very limited compared to say Yahoo. But if you want privacy and are commuicating with other hushmail users or PGP users, then it is great.

I was using an e-mail address hosted by GoDaddy, and they are based in Scottsdale, so that makes sense.

[Axel]

About 3 years ago I had a fight with the spamcops, as they like to name themselves. They blocked my mail from BKK sent through my server in Taipei to a recipient in Bangkok.

Turned out, that my Taipei - ISP in peak times used another server which previously was used for spam-mail.

[higgy88]

Actually qualtrough I really don't think there is much you can do about getting blacklisted whether it is a web based email account or not. There is an ongoing war between the spammers and the spam killers, with the email providers pretty much caught in the middle. And they all have their own agendas. Here is a pretty good example of that between spamcop and gmail, which I use.

Gmail vs. Spamcop

All you can really do is have multiple email accounts with multiple email providers so when one gets blocked you have others you can fall back on. What you really need to do is get yourself off of their blacklist, and I think the only one who can do that is the person you are trying to send the emails to. He/she is the one who is using spamblock so he is the one who has to complain, or it would be even better if spamcop offers a way where he can just click on something to get you unblocked.

Personally I don't like services like spamcop because I feel I am the one who should decide what is junk and what is not. I like the way gmail does it with a spam box seperate from my inbox. Anything they think is junk mail goes in there, and periodically I go through it to see if there is anything I want delivered to my inbox, and all I have to do is click.

And as far as your other question about getting a fixed IP address. I use Maxnet, and all of their services only offer dynamic IP addresses that are assigned every time you log in. The only service they have that offers a static IP address is their Maxnet 4 biz service, which is more than 10 times what I am paying for my home service. And I really don't think that is going to solve your problem.

[PMK]

[snip] He/she is the one who is using spamblock so he is the one who has to complain, or it would be even better if spamcop offers a way where he can just click on something to get you unblocked.

Spamcop delists after 24 hours of no spam. If it was as easy as clicking somewhere spammers would too!

Personally I don't like services like spamcop because I feel I am the one who should decide what is junk and what is not.

But probably you don't have to deal with 1,500-2,000 spam/malware emails a day, like I do at our domain. I don't think there have been more than a couple of false positives from Spamcop here in the last few years. That would be out of around 1,000,000 caught. That's a pretty good record. I think until systems that actually verifies or authenticates the sender address like Domain Keys catches on we have to use less than pefect tools like this.

I like the way gmail does it with a spam box seperate from my inbox. Anything they think is junk mail goes in there, and periodically I go through it to see if there is anything I want delivered to my inbox, and all I have to do is click.

Spamcop is not incompatible with that system, and that is exactly what I do for my email users. If Spamcop or the spam filter thinks it is spam, it is marked so in the subject and Outlook rules move it to a separate folder. The problem is that many users, and I have been guilty of this on my Yahoo account, don't check the Spam folder regularly enough.

[higgy88]

Obviously PMK your needs are very much different than mine. I don't have to deal with thousands of spam each day, and I sympathise with you. But that is why there are different vendors with different ways of handling this problem, and different people with different needs use different methods. I only offered what I personally like and don't like to the original poster, whose needs may be completely different than both of ours and he can take both of our opinions any way he likes. But the fact is, no way is perfect and sometimes junk mail will get through and non junk mail will get blocked. My point is that if email from my 82 year old mother gets blocked and, and this is the most important, "I do not have a means for easily unblocking her", then I will simply not use that service. That is my personal opinion. Because of the massive amount of spam you and your email clients get you may accept the occassional blocked nonspam, but I do not and I do not have to. With Gmail, as well as with my two other email providers that I use, I can easliy unblock her by just clicking "unblock this sender" and that is what I meant when I said it would be better if spamcop offers a way to easily unblock a sender. Since I have never used spamcop I don't know how they do thing or how often they update their lists. But if a spammer was easily able to get into my email accounts and click "unblock this sender" for their spam, then I think I would be in very big trouble and just getting some additional spam in my inbox would be the least of my problems.

The original poster's question was how could he get himself off of spamcop's blacklist. I gave him my opinion by saying that there is probably nothing he could do about it as it would probably have to be done by the person whom he is sending mail to and whom is using spamcop. Since you appear to be a spamcop user, would you have any additional knowledge you could share with the poster about how he could do that?

[higgy88]

Here is a very good paper from Stanford University on email spam and blacklists.

Email Blacklists

Overview

Dealing with email spam is a difficult process. Sometimes the cure can be worse than the problem. Email blacklists provide an example.