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IP Blocked Email Issues

rhi_page
Joining in

I changed job back in November and work from home, since then my new business email address has been plagued with issues. Getting to the bottom of this it seems my IP address has been blocked by Spamhaus ZEN. I recently changed my broadband package (both old and new packages with VM) and the issue has re-occurred. 

I've tried to follow all the FAQ's on the Virgin Media site and have done everything (ie secuirty checkes/firewall etc) that they've recommended but the block will not shift. I'm am very un savvy when it comes to technology so really don't know what to do now. 

Can anyone please help me get this removed permanently as it's causing me huge issues with my new job. 😞 

thank you! 

8 REPLIES 8

用心棒
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Which specific Spamhaus lists

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is your IP Address listed under: SBL, CSS, XBL, PBL?

 

Hello, seems to be listed on PBL. 

 

用心棒
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person


The Spamhaus PBL is a DNSBL database of end-user IP address ranges which should not be delivering unauthenticated SMTP email to any Internet mail server except those provided for specifically by an ISP for that customer's use. The PBL helps networks enforce their Acceptable Use Policy for dynamic and non-MTA customer IP ranges.


[Source: The Spamhaus Project - PBL]

If your email client is set to use your authentication credential to sign into the mail server then being on PBL will not affect you.

Is there a chance your IP Address was listed on CSS at any time?

thanks for the reply. I don't think so as we've just changed our package and router so should be a new IP address as per my understanding? 

I'm afraid the rest of what you've mentioned and quoted means nothing to me - I'm not tech savy at all. 

 

Do you have any advice on what action I should take now? 

 

Thank you for talking the time to reply! 🙂

用心棒
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

If Spamhaus are just reporting your IP Address listing on PBL then would it be correct to state you are not having any issues with sending emails at present?

i've had the spamhaus block removed i think but i'm still receiving send/receive errors when connected to my wifi. I'm at a loss to understand where the problem is when i log onto mxtoolbox and check my blacklisting everything is clear except 'timeout' on IBM DNS Blacklist. COuld this be causing the issue? this hasn't shown up in the mxtoolbox list with any issues previously. 

coenoby
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@rhi_page 

The lines in red are quotes from your earlier posts

The lines in blue are from Spamhaus' explanatory notes  https://www.spamhaus.org/zen/ and https://www.spamhaus.org/pbl/ 

 

Apologies in advance for the length of this post but just to try and hopefully clarify a few things:

"it seems my IP address has been blocked by Spamhaus ZEN"

Here's what Spamhaus say on the ZEN blocklist:

"ZEN is the combination of all Spamhaus IP-based DNSBLs into one single powerful and comprehensive blocklist to make querying faster and simpler. It contains the SBL, SBLCSS, XBL and PBL blocklists"

"Hello, seems to be listed on PBL."

So if your IP address is not on the SBL, CSS, XBL blocklists it is only on Spamhaus ZEN because of the PBL entry.

"The Spamhaus PBL is a DNSBL database of end-user IP address ranges which should not be delivering unauthenticated SMTP email to any Internet mail server except those provided for specifically by an ISP for that customer’s use."

So as @用心棒  has already said, If your email client is set to use your authentication credential to sign into the mail server then being on PBL will not affect your ability to send emails.

In fact Spamhaus also give this advice to Internet Service Providers on how to use the ZEN blocklist:

"Because ZEN includes the XBL and PBL lists, do not use ZEN on smarthosts or SMTP AUTH outbound servers for your own customers (or you risk blocking your own customers)."

"i'm still receiving send/receive errors when connected to my wifi"

So bearing all that in mind, if you are currently seeing any email issues check your IP address on Spamhaus' own search page https://check.spamhaus.org/ 

If you are only seeing your IP address listed on the PBL it seems something-else other than IP blocking is going on here.

To troubleshoot that further I would suggest using the curl command to see what error the VM SMTP server is reporting:

1) Copy the following line of command text and then paste it into a MS Word document (or which ever text editor you prefer) so that you can edit it.

curl -v smtps://smtp.virginmedia.com -u username:password

 2) Once you have pasted it into Word, replace username with your full Virgin Media email address, and password with your email password. So that part should now say something like richardbranson@virginmedia.com:sdfxyz1234 It is important to keep the colon : and the space before and after that piece of text exactly as per the original line of text in step 1.


3) Type cmd into the Windows 10 / 11search bar, press Enter and then Open the Command Prompt app.


4) Copy the full line of text that you just amended in step 2 from the Word document and paste it where the curser is blinking in the Command Prompt. Then press Enter.


After a second or two you should then see a string of output that possibly ends with a line which says something like

< 535 5.7.8 Authentication Credentials Invalid (VM300)
It is that line, particularly the VMxxx code that we need you to give us please. (Do not post the full output from the curl command.)

Sorry to go on at such length but that VMXXX error code would be very useful. to know where to go from here.

Coenoby

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media.

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Hi @rhi_page thanks for your reply here, sorry you're still having issues.

If you could follow @coenoby's tips if you can go from there and report back, we'll be able to try and assist further.

Many thanks

Tom_W