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Blocklisted IPs FAQ

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Stephanie R.
  • Updated

Learn about delisting your blocklisted OVHcloud IPs.

NOTE: This guide is for newly purchased IPs.
Please see our How to Optimize the Sending of Emails guide to see the best practices for running an email server.

 

Introduction

Blocklisting, also known as blacklisting, is a spam-fighting tool used on IPs (or IP ranges) to block email that is considered spam or may contain malware. If an email domain or IP address is blocklisted, emails from that domain or IP address may not reach their client - impacting deliverability and sender reputation. Emails that do go through may go to the recipient's spam folder rather than their inbox.

It is important to note that blocklists can include domains and IPs that are not threats to users and that some spam filtering services take reverse DNS into account when evaluating IP addresses, such as RATSspam.

 

Supported

NOTE: Please review the Spamhaus blocklists closely as not all require OVHcloud US intervention; some just require the customer to properly configure the CSS.

  • Spamhaus Block List (SBL)

    This is for newly purchased IPs.

    If the IP is listed under the Spamhaus Blocklist (SBL), you will need to submit a ticket to OVHcloud US Customer Support. Support will contact our Abuse Team, who will then contact the Internet Service Provider.

  • eXploits Block List (XBL) or CSS

    If your IP is listed under eXploits Blocklist (XBL) and/or CSS Blocklist (CSS) this is due to configuration issues. Please follow the steps mentioned on the Spamhaus site to delist the IP. See an example below, once you have followed the steps, you can delist it yourself.

    Example:

    XBL_and_CSS1*.png

    XBL_and_CSS2*.png

  • Spamcop

  • Barracuda

  • Spamrats

    You will need to configure the URL associated with the domain in the PTR record, where the contact information for the responsible party can be found. Only properly configured email servers are removed from this list.

    You will also need to configure the reverse DNS.

    Best practices:

    The hostname of an IP address used to send email should resolve to the responsible party domain. In this case, the hostname resolves to your upstream provider, who is not responsible for the mail server at that location.

    Simply changing the reverse DNS to something like: mail.your_domain.com or gateway.your_domain.com.

    You only need to remove the IP address from our list if you are running an outgoing mail server. If you are NOT running an email server, this should not prevent you from sending emails.

 

Unsupported

s5h.net

More information...

To request removal, visit this web page from the IP address that has been blocklisted. You should be delisted immediately.

You can also do this using telnet, curl, wget, or a web browser.

To delist your IPv4 address using curl, log in to the listed mail server and run:

curl -4 http://www.usenix.org.uk/content/rblremove

You can do just the same using telnet from a Windows/Linux host, just issue the normal HTTP headers, (you need to enter the GET/host lines below).

telnet www.usenix.org.uk 80
GET /content/rblremove HTTP/1.1
Host: www.usenix.org.uk
# press enter twice

A detailed explanation is mentioned on the site http://www.usenix.org.uk/content/rbl.html

UCEprotect

More information...

Recently, UCE Protect has placed over a thousand new ASNs on their blacklist. Unfortunately, our ASN (AS16276) has been affected by this. To view the list of other affected ASNs and the number of new ASNs added, please check the following links:

Our legal abuse team has reached out to UCE Protect to remove our ASN from the blacklist. Ultimately, UCE Protect wants all of the newly blocked ASNs to pay for express delisting. Like all major providers, OVHcloud does not pay for blacklist delisting as it is a service outside of our control. Paying for delisting on blacklists only leads to an increase in blacklisting overall and ultimately hurts the industry.

UCE Protect claims automatically delist ASNs after one week, which we hope will happen but as it is outside of our control, we cannot provide any guarantees regarding this.

If you are currently affected by this, we recommend the following:

  1. Send your mail via IPv6. UCE Protect does not blacklist email sent via IPv6. All of our OVHcloud services come with at least a single IPv6 address which you can configure. All major email providers now support IPv6.
  2. Ask the receiving party to contact their mail provider and request that they don't use the UCE Protect blacklist for the time being.

Fabel Spamsources

More information...

To delist an IP from Fabel Spamsource, navigate to their delisting page.

Click Please login to continue, enter your email address, and check your email inbox. Use the verification code to finish logging in.

Enter your IP address, provide a reason for the removal request, and click Submit Query.

fabel2*.png

Delisting should take between 20 and 30 minutes to complete.

 

Go further

For more information and tutorials, please see our other Dedicated Server support guides or explore the guides for other OVHcloud products and services.

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