topic How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist in Everything else

How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

LeeCal — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 17:01:20 GMT

As the subject, for some reason my IP has been blacklisted so would need to get them to request a removal from Spamhaus. Can anyone help? Their phone support just round in circles.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

Townman — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 17:06:55 GMT

Start here - Lookup - Reputation Checker - Spamhaus

Is this a static IP address or a dynamic IP address?

If dynamic, then someone else abused the IP address, if static you did. If it is static, then you need to identify what got it backlisted and ensure the cause has been eradicated.

If it is dynamic, probably the easiest (most pragmatic) solution is to switch the router off for 90 minutes, then hope you get a new IP address when you start it up again.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

jab1 — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 17:08:30 GMT

Deleted - @Townman answered better.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

Townman — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 17:08:50 GMT

Depends on what is being done. If this is a dynamic IP address and has been identified as the submission address for volume spam, it can become blacklisted for a temporary period.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

LeeCal — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 17:09:43 GMT

Just going on what my hosting company said. Can't access my emails or website without resorting to a VPN. They insist my IP address is the problem. I'm presuming it's dynamic, but don't really know.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

jab1 — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 17:10:06 GMT

@Townman See edit - your response made more sense.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

Townman — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 17:12:56 GMT

Ah, we have seen this before - third parties making inappropriate use of Spamhaus blacklists.

Blacklisting might inhibit sending of emails, but should not be used in any other manner. Who is your hosting company - I could guess!

90 minute power-down might be the fastest route to an avoidance solution.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

LeeCal — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 17:14:19 GMT

Hostgator... although if this keeps happening, not for much longer 😡

I'm using a BT Smart Hub configured for Plusnet... would it be worth signing up for a Dynamic DNS service?

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

Townman — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 17:15:07 GMT

Not the name I had in mind!

Indeed a slightly longer solution route is to find a hosting company who knows what they are doing!

I use lcn.com for a charity I run. They are not the cheapest, but their support is top-notch.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

Baldrick1 — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 17:57:31 GMT

@LeeCal

Another option is to spend the one off charge of £5 and get a static IP address. Providing it’s clean when you get it you will not have future problems.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

LeeCal — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 18:02:02 GMT

I've signed up for a dynamic IP using noip.com and have configured the Router. So far so good but will also explore the static ip, although this could potentially have the same issue. I've no idea why my IP ended up on Spamhaus though...

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

seebee — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 18:04:37 GMT

@LeeCal What list do they claim you are on? If you use the check link in post 2 what does it show for your own IP address. It is perfectly normal to be on the PBL, most residential ISP addresses should be:

For example, I am on the Policy Blocklist PBL as expected.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

LeeCal — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 18:09:06 GMT

The policy blocklist, as you. I suspect Hostgator are misusing this listing. So far the dynamic DNS from noip.com seems to resolve the issue. I'm going to be moving away from them. Any suggestions to a good host that uses cpanel? I have GB of data stored and don't want to have to try a rebuild.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

Baldrick1 — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 18:11:57 GMT

@LeeCal

The reason is very simple. If as @Townman has said, if a previous user of that IP address has used it for sending spam or in some other way triggered the block then that address ends up on a block list. If you then get allocated that address then bingo.. If you get a fixed address and it’s clean then no-one else can use it and cause future issues.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

LeeCal — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 18:33:45 GMT

Thanks extremely helpful, thank you everyone! Bit of a babe in the wood, learning a lot.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

dvorak — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 09:56:47 GMT

Moderators Note

This topic has been moved from Broadband to Everything Else

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

ChristopherW — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 17:11:17 GMT

I hope you got it fixed LeeCal. I've had a FRUSTRATING 48 hrs with Plusnet Help on the phone on this. Very sorry for the lady I spoke to. She was very helpful but Plusnet advisers who she was texting were not. Background to my blacklist saga.

Last December some of my emails were not getting through to my colleagues or ending up in their junk/spam folders. This January Plusnet said a solution was to go on a fixed IP address for my emails. So I paid the £10 and was given one.Recently the problem started again 😕 A friend showed me how to get the raw headers from an email I sent and use the Email Header Analyzer at Mxtoolbox.com. Excellent free tool! It showed two blacklistings. Emailed the results to my domain registrar. Very helpful reply. One false positive the other was at Spamhaus. I should raise issue with Plusnet. Rang helpline who could not give me any email address and said contact Spamhuas! Spamhaus website says ask Plusnet to remove! Which I've just done and wait .....

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

Townman — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 15:36:37 GMT

@ChristopherW

Unless you ae running your own email server and are sending emails direct (which you should not be doing), then this is not an issue.

See https://check.spamhaus.org/listed/?searchterm=A.B.C.D where A.B.C.D is your IP address.

It more the likely that this is a generic PBL listing - WHICH WILL NOT BE REMOVED. See FAQ Detail - Reputation Checker - Spamhaus

The Policy Blocklist (PBL) is a list of IP space that should not be sending email direct to MX: often these are IP ranges assigned by ISPs to broadband or dial-up customers, but the PBL does include other types of IP space. Any IP space that should not be sending email directly to the Internet should be listed in PBL.

PBL listings do not prevent the sending of email unless the user’s email program is not authenticating correctly when connecting to their ISP or company’s mail server. Possible causes for this happening suddenly: changing email programs or changing settings on the existing one, forgetting to turn “SMTP Authentication” on, or switching “SMTP Authentication” off.

... or the receiving mail service is WRONGLY acting on the Spamhaus listing, which is not unheard of. Whose email services is your colleague using? This problem might actually be their problem!

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

ChristopherW — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 10:25:33 GMT

Apologies for a late 'Thank you' for your detailed reply. I'm struggling a bit with the techie details. I think the problem may be with the receiving mail service. This morning I sent a bcc list to 39 recipients and I had one non-delivery email:

This is the mail system at host smtp.livemail.co.uk.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The mail system

<XXX@YYY.plus.com>: host mx.avasin.plus.net[212.159.Z.Z] said: 552 Spam
Message Rejected (in reply to end of DATA command)

Does this mean I should email postmaster@YYY.plus.com?

Thanks for your help, Townman.

Re: How do I get Plusnet to remove my IP from Spamhaus blacklist

Townman — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 00:28:48 GMT

Not sure what you are doing here and the relevance of the postmaster address. You appear to have a third party domain / mail provider but are using Plusnet’s SMTP servers ... but you’ve not explained why.

This seems like a different question to the PBL matter.