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Re: Cannot send email - error message: Blacklisted IP address

mushr00m
Tuning in

I've had the exact same problem for the last 6 weeks and it's still not resolved. I was told by the customer service team that my IP would be automatically changed on the 13th August . That deadline has come and gone and still still got the same IP address. I've restarted the wifi box a few ties and it still churns out the same IP. I've been on mx toolbox and it says the same. Blocked by SORBS DUHL and Spamhaus ZEN.  I've run wireshark for days on end with nothing showing in the log for rogue spam being sent from port 110.

What do you have to do to get assigned a new IP address ?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Molly_G
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hey @mushr00m

 

Thanks for getting back to me via pm. I'm very happy that our Internet Security team have lifted the blacklist and that things are working for you now.

 

Please don't hesitate to drop back to the forums if there's anything we can assist with in the future.

 

Kind regards,

Molly_G
Forum Team



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33 REPLIES 33

Alex_32768
Tuning in

If you are a residential customer you will have a dynamic IP address. There are some ‘rules’ for when a new IP might be assigned but it there are no guaranteed timescales. Example: you can turn off your internet connection for an extended period (hours, days) but that won’t guarantee a new IP is dynamically assigned on reconnection.

Being on SORBS DUHL and other such lists is unlikely to be your issue. I spoke extensively with a technical support person at SORBS and they routinely list dynamic IP addresses without having a downstream impact on your email.

In short, I don’t think VM can give you a new IP. As far as I understand it they have an internal blacklist for spam email IP addresses and that is what you should request to be removed from.

Finally, I am not expert in this. I am passing along what I discovered during my search to solve my issue.

Alex

ravenstar68
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@ModTeam 

Can someone please tell the customer service team that Virgin Media IP addresses rarely change.  When I was with Virgin Media, I had the same IP address for well over a year.

DHCP mmeans the ability to dynamically configure itself according to the network it finds itself on, not that the address will change.

@mushr00m 

All Virgin Media IP addresses SHOULD be on SORBS DUHL and Spamhaus PBL, simply because they are allocated using DHCP.

Spamhaus Zen is the master zone representing all Spamhaus Zones.  So if you are on the PBL you will be on Spamhaus Zen.  You can check which particular zone you are in here:

https://check.spamhaus.org/

However being on EITHER the DUHL or the PBL won't stop you sending emails.

Finally - mail is not sent over port 110, it is received from a POP3 server over port 110.  You want to look for connections on port 25 TCP.

Tim

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

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Sorry I meant port 25 not 110

Still can't send mail through windows live mail , thunderbird or outlook as I get the same message

An unknown error has occurred.

Subject 'Re: Test Email'
Server Error: 421
Server Response: 421 csmtp3.tb.ukmail.iss.as9143.net cmsmtp Sorry your IP 86.xx.xx.xxx is active in our local abuse blacklist. Contact Virgin Media abusedesk for delisting requests.
Server: 'smtp.ntlworld.com'
Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC67
Protocol: SMTP
Port: 25
Secure(SSL): No

 

ravenstar68
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

You need to wait for Virgin Media's forum team to get to the thread.  They will be able to escaate this to security.

Edit - I should add however that Port 25 MUST NOT be used by email clients in this day and age.  This is because it is insecure, as is POP3 over port 110 with no SSL

You need to update your email settings to the current settings.  Also, stop using Windows Live Mail.  It's received no security updates for a number of years now.

Tim

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

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A little backstory;

In the fairly recent past, there were a spate of people posting that they were unable to send emails for no obvious reason, the email client would often just return a fairly generic 'password is wrong' message. Oddly enough (or so it appeared to them) they reported that they could send out using the VM webmail system, and it also works if they connect to a different wifi or use their phone's data connection.

What had happened is that a device on their home network (not necessarily their PC, in fact it generally wasn't) had picked up a bit of malware and was happily sending out spam. This had been reported to or picked up by Spamhaus who added their address to their blocklist - the SBL, or we might refer to it as the naughty list. Note that the company also maintains other lists of IP addresses (the PBL for example) that your address should be on and this doesn't cause any issue.

VM decided that they would check this list as part of the email sending process (a bit of a simplification but you get the idea), so you send a message, it hits VM's servers, they check the list, see your address is on it and reject it - email clients didn't understand this and just reported a generic error. It was all a bit sledgehammer to crack a nut but that's what they did. Naturally if you were on someone else's wifi then the address was different and chances are it would work. VM's webmail used a different method and wasn't affected by this.

The problem was that the offending device sending out spam could literally be anything you had connected to your home network (Amazon Firesticks with some dodgy third-party software seemed to be a regular culprit) - and tracking it down could be a bit of a faff. There was no point in just trying to get your IP address changed or requesting a delisting without finding the reason for being listed. Otherwise in very short order, you'd find yourself listed again!

Now the reason for the long (and probably boring and irrelevant) explanation is that it appears that VM are running their own in house blacklist, but at least this time you get some kind of meaningful message returned. What we don't know is how VM compile the list - is it just a downloaded copy of Spamhaus' list or someone else's or something they've cooked up themselves?

In any case at least you know who to contact to request a delisting (although how exactly do you contact the abusedesk? By email - I can see a problem with that!); although if you were to call the normal customer services number and the offshore helpdesk staff even understand what you are talking about, I'd be astonished!

All that aside; it's one thing to get delisted and another to stay off the list. Unless you have been unfortunate to be hit by a false positive (which is not impossible); then without discovering and eliminating the reason you are on it in the first place, your ability to send mail is likely to be short-lived.

As an experiment, can you see if you can successfully send a message via the webmail interface?

@ModTeam look I do appreciate that this is just screaming into the void but to back up @ravenstar68 is there any way of getting the CS team to stop just making stuff up if they don't know just to be able to close a call? Unless, of course their scripts really do say that the IP addresses regularly change - in which case the training and thoroughness is even worse than we assume it to be!

Don't tell me that LG have contracted the lowest possible bidder to run their helpdesk - I'm shocked!

OK, I've changed mozilla thunderbird settings as per https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-media-mail-update-settings-mozilla-thunderbird

I'm still getting blocked outgoing emails

An error occurred while sending mail: The mail server sent an incorrect greeting: csmtp4.tb.ukmail.iss.as9143.net cmsmtp Sorry your IP 86.xx.xx.xxx is active in our local abuse blacklist. Contact Virgin Media abusedesk for delisting requests..

Molly_G
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hey @mushr00m,

 

Thanks for your your recent posts - I'm sorry to hear of the issues you've been having with your emails.

 

I'd like to get this looked into for you - I'll send you a private message to confirm some details and I can get it raised with the appropriate team.

Just keep an eye on the purple envelope at the top of the page.

 

Many thanks,

Molly_G
Forum Team



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Thanks Molly, I've sent you the details

Hello i have the same issue with the abuse blacklist, can somebody contact me to resolve please or is there  support person\group i need to contact   

many thanks


Task 'jd********@ntlworld.com - Sending' reported error (0x800CCC67) : ' The server responded: 421 csmtp4.tb.ukmail.iss.as9143.net cmsmtp Sorry your IP 86.**.***.** is active in our local abuse blacklist. Contact Virgin Media abusedesk for delisting requests.'