Blacklisted? Problems with eMails being bounced.

[2Btoo]

Hi, I have a frustrating problem and don't know how to diagnose it. It concerns eMails being bounced with the error message

email Bounced Back said:

"The response from the remote server was: 550 5.7.1 x47LNK8m014888 This message has been blocked for containing SPAM-like characteristics."

However it specifically only happens when sending from one particular domain to another particular domain.

I own the domain d-g.co.uk. (The actual name is disguised.) My father owns the domain p-b.co.uk. ANY eMail from any address in the d-g.co.uk domain to ANY address in the p-b.co.uk domain is bounced with the error message.

eMails from the p-b.co.uk domain can be sent to the d-g.co.uk domain without problems. eMails from other people to addresses in the p-b.co.uk domain seem to be received fine. Online email test services seem to work fine when asked to test the p-b.co.uk domain.

It seems that eMails can be sent from the d-g.co.uk domain to anyone else without problems too (i.e. I have yet to have this failure with an eMail I have sent to anyone else.)

This problem seems to have started in the last day or two.

My father's domain was purchased from easily.co.uk and he simply has an alias set up which sends everything through to a gMail address. He uses this gMail account to receive and send eMails. However there is also another alias set up in there, which directs everything sent to [e-mail] to my gMail account. Anything that I send from <something>@d-g.co.uk to [e-mail] is also rejected with the same error message. This suggests to me that there is something associated with the p-b.co.uk domain that doesn't like anything sent from the d-g.co.uk domain. There is a 'Spam Filter' in Easily but this is turned off.

I don't understand enough about eMail systems to know what could be causing this but a bit of googling suggests that I may have been blacklisted somewhere. Exactly how or what has been blacklisted (my domain? My eMail address? The IP address of my computer?) is unclear and I don't quite know how to proceed from here.

If anyone had any suggestions I'd love to hear them - thanks!

Edited by 2Btoo on Wednesday 8th May 11:35

[anonymous-user]

Adds OP to ignore list.

[2Btoo]

garyhun said:

Adds OP to ignore list.

I know enough to understand why this is both funny and unhelpful in equal measure ...

[anonymous-user]

2Btoo said:

garyhun said:

Adds OP to ignore list.

I know enough to understand why this is both funny and unhelpful in equal measure ...

I’m glad you take it in good spirit. If I could help, I would. Hope you get a better reply from someone else.

[2Btoo]

garyhun said:

2Btoo said:

garyhun said:

Adds OP to ignore list.

I know enough to understand why this is both funny and unhelpful in equal measure ...

I’m glad you take it in good spirit. If I could help, I would. Hope you get a better reply from someone else.

Ppppffttt - so you trample all across my thread to have a giggle at my expense and then don't offer any help?

<AddsGaryhunToEveryIgnoreListICanPossiblyFind>

[Ransoman]

Try this:

https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

[Bikerjon]

I've slightly skimmed it, but the problem is more likely with your own domain than your fathers. Who hosts your domain? Run the Mxtoolbox blacklist check. Does your email have lots of links and other rubbish in the signature?

[Mr Pointy]

You'll get useful reponses if you post the domains as without this information everyone is just guessing.

[anonymous-user]

2Btoo said:

garyhun said:

2Btoo said:

garyhun said:

Adds OP to ignore list.

I know enough to understand why this is both funny and unhelpful in equal measure ...

I’m glad you take it in good spirit. If I could help, I would. Hope you get a better reply from someone else.

Ppppffttt - so you trample all across my thread to have a giggle at my expense and then don't offer any help?

<AddsGaryhunToEveryIgnoreListICanPossiblyFind>

touché

[2Btoo]

Ransoman said:

Try this:

https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

Thanks - that's helpful. It wouldn't check my domain by name (it took me to another screen where it asked my eMail address but then hung) but it DID tell me that my home IP is on the Spamhaus Zen blacklist. No further information and no idea of how I got on it but I'll do some more googling.

Bikerjon said:

I've slightly skimmed it, but the problem is more likely with your own domain than your fathers. Who hosts your domain? Run the Mxtoolbox blacklist check. Does your email have lots of links and other rubbish in the signature?

I agree - I suspect that the problem is indeed with my domain. My domain is hosted by Firstserv (whom I wouldn't recommend to anyone).

Mr Pointy said:

You'll get useful reponses if you post the domains as without this information everyone is just guessing.

Fair enough, you all look like a marvellously trustworthy bunch ....

The two domains are deep-green.co.uk (me) and pale-blue.co.uk (my father).

Thanks for your help.

[2Btoo]

Update: it seems that the Spamhaus Zen list details are here:

https://www.spamhaus.org/pbl/query/PBL1668765

Is there any reason why I shouldn't press the button that they say will automatically remove (suppress) my static IP address from the PBL database?

[Mr Pointy]

It seems to think you're not using the Plusnet outbound mail server. Is that the case?

[2Btoo]

Mr Pointy said:

It seems to think you're not using the Plusnet outbound mail server. Is that the case?

I'm not aware that I am sending anything via Plusnet. eMails from my domain are done through GMail using Google Apps, so I presume they are being sent through the google servers.

[2Btoo]

Further to this .... clicking on the button to remove an IP from PBL on the Spamhaus page takes me to another page, here:

https://www.spamhaus.org/pbl/removal/

And I don't understand what it's saying. It's telling me that I need to turn on SMTP authentication for my mail server, but I use gMail as webmail in a browser and I don't run an eMail server of my own. I've googled 'Turn on SMTP for gMail' and it seems that I need to enable IMAP, which is already enabled. And yet the problem persists.

In short, should I go ahead with the request to remove my IP from the Spamhaus SBL?

(I am aware that I am seeking favours on a free forum. If there are suggestions as to whom I should call then I'll happily drop them a line, however there are no 'phone numbers on the Spamhaus website.)

Thanks for your help!

[gizard]

Sorry doesn't resolve you issue but - I assume yo are getting a dynamic IP from PlusNet and perhaps in the past when someone else had it they may well have been spamming hence why the IP is blacklisted.

[2Btoo]

gizard said:

Sorry doesn't resolve you issue but - I assume yo are getting a dynamic IP from PlusNet and perhaps in the past when someone else had it they may well have been spamming hence why the IP is blacklisted.

Thanks for the suggestion. As it is, the problem seems to have resolved itself this morning although I remain on the Spamhaus Zen blacklist (I've just checked). This suggests that the Blacklist wasn't the problem but whatever the problem was has been solved.

All told, this is quite annoying as I don't know what was wrong, I don't know what was done to fix it and I don't know what to do if it happens again. Bah!

Thanks for your help though!