What is a Black List
A blacklist in it’s simplest terms is a list of of IP’s or (internet protocal) numbers that are prohibited from sending or receiving inbound or outbound communications with a server. This can prevent a user from accessing emails, web content, etc.
Email blacklist: I think my email is on a list
If you suspect that your email has been placed on a blacklist or that your hosting provider has been blacklisted, check the following email blacklist checker. This product is great for helping you assess the reputation of your IP online.
How did I get on an email blacklist
The first thing to do is pay attention to the type of bound message your receive. There is typically a link to every bounce message that will take you to an error page where you can learn more about why your email blacklist occurred.
Sometimes your email blacklist is your fault!!!
- Your email blacklist occurred do to being reported by a person
- 3 key reasons why people complain to ISP
- Those receiving your emails didn’t sign up for the email they were sent
- The content your recipients are getting after signing up are not relevant to them
- The relevant content they signed up for is pestering or bothersome
- 3 key reasons why people complain to ISP
- Your email blacklist occurred do to improper email behavior – the server reported you
- Rate Limits
- Recipients (R) per messageRecipients per message (100 maximum)Recipients per hourRecipients per connectionSimultaneous or conncurrent connections, R per hour, R per connection, Simultaneous conncurrent connections
- Are you consistently emailing:
- Non-deliverable messages, no receipt found messages:
- Not Our Customer “NDNs” By definition these are considered unsubscribed emails and should be taken off your email list immediately
- DNSBL (20 Enterprise Email IP Blacklist companies)
- Your IP was located on one of the 20 top enterprise level BLs or Black Lists.
- Rate Limits
Sometimes your email blacklist is NOT your fault
- Here are some reasons why it may not be your fault
- If you recently switched hosting companies then your IP reputation is not well developed enough
- It is also possible that you are in the middle of the big boys block game, in which one ISP blocks a IP BLOCK from another ISP. For instance, Comcast blocks a set of IPs from Host Gator for whatever reason and you are on their or sharing their IP address.
- You mail service provider IP address has a bad reputation due to other peoples behavior that has resulted in a bad online IP reputation
How do I get my email blacklist off the blacklist
First, find out which ISP you upset. This is usually in the bounced email. You can do this by locating the email in question that failed to send. E.g. susan@sbcglobal.net or tom@hotmail.com. Second, learn to identify which emails are connected to which of the big companies. For instance: did you know that any hotmail.com or live.com account belong to Microsoft and run off of there servers? Or that an test@rr.com account is Road Runner and is run by Time Warner Cable company. Below is a quick list of POSTMASTER sites where you can request to get your email blacklist and IP blacklist removed.
- Time Warner Cable (@rr.com)
- ATT (@att.com, @sbcglobal.net)
- Comcast (@comcast.net)
- Trend MicroSysytems (anti-virus spam reporter – don’t get on this one)
How Can Your Help Us Help You: Clients Only
Time Waner Cable Guidelines
Our goal is to make sure that our customers receive the mail that they want and that we keep unwanted mail away from our system or at least out of the customer Inbox. As a member of MAAWG, Time Warner Cable recommends that organization’s Sender Best Communication Practices (PDF document) as a good place for you as a sender to start in helping us meeting our goal. Beyond the MAAWG BCP, the rules of the road here aren’t much different than what mailbox providers have been telling senders for some time now
- IPs connecting to our inbound mail servers must have resolvable reverse DNS (i.e., PTR) records; if the connecting IP doesn’t have a resolvable PTR record, the connection will be refused.
- IPs connecting to our inbound mail servers should not be dynamic IP addresses; we use several third party lists of dynamic address space to reject connections from IPs believed to be dynamic.
- Send mail that our customers want to receive; this is best accomplished through a confirmed (or double) opt-in process of building your mailing list, sending mail that’s relevant to your subscribers, providing an unsubscribe mechanism and honoring it, and enrolling in our feedback loop
- Handle your bounces, especially those tell you that the address does not exist here. We reject SMTP RCPT TO commands during the SMTP transaction when the intended recipient does not exist here, and we do it with explicit text – 550 5.1.1 – Invalid mailbox: RECIPIENT@SOMETHING.RR.COM RECIPIENT@SOMETHING.RR.COM . While there has historically been a belief among some senders that some ISPs aren’t being truthful with such error messages, know that with Time Warner Cable, “550 5.1.1 – Invalid mailbox” means that the email address does not exist here or is not an active account here.
- Separate your mail streams, if appropriate – If you send both promotional (i.e., marketing) email and transactional email, chances are that you see different complaint and delivery rates for one vice the other. It is usually thought a good practice to separate such mail streams, so as to ensure that you don’t pollute the clean mail stream.
- Maintain a consistent identity when sending – If you always use the same identity (email address and domain) when sending wanted mail to our customers, your mail will be that much more likely to be easily recognized by our customers as mail that they want. You’ve got a brand that you want to market, and your sender address, your subject lines, and even your content should all make your mail easily identified as being associated with your brand.
- Sending email is easy; properly marketing your business’s products and services through email is hard, and if you don’t do it correctly, your mail can end up looking like spam and being treated accordingly. There’s much more to it than just maintaining an addressbook that you send to every few days. Think about what your business’s core competencies are; they’re the products and/or services that your business sells, and email marketing is not usually among those core competencies for many senders. If that sounds like you, there are many companies out there who can help you better market your business through email, and allow you to focus your efforts where they belong, on serving your customers.
Comcast Guidlines
Conform to the standards
- All email must comply with all relevant RFCs.
Ensure your rDNS is correct
- Comcast performs an rDNS check on the IP of the sending server. If the sending server does not have a PTR record and a MX or an A record set up properly, the connections will not be accepted.
Stay off DNSBL lists
- Comcast consults several DNSBLs including Spamhaus Zen, and ReturnPath. Being listed on any reputable, widely used, DNSBL is likely to cause your email to be blocked not only by Comcast, but other ISPs as well.
Keep your distribution lists clean
- A large number of undeliverable emails sent to Comcast will result in a sending IP being blocked. All “Not Our Customer” NDNs should be treated as an unsubscribe request.
Practice good abuse management
- Enforce AUPs and mitigate compromised accounts and machines. Dictionary or Directory Harvest attacks are treated seriously and will quickly lead to the sending IP being blocked.
Keep it Static
- Dynamic IP space is a common haven for compromised machines used in bot networks. As a result, in keeping with industry best practices, Comcast does not accept mail from dynamic IP space. If email appears to be coming from dynamic IP space then it will not be accepted.
Keep your IP reputation clean
- Overall IP reputation is key to successfully sending to Comcast. If Comcast, or another reputable organization repeatedly receives spam, spyware or other malicious attacks, phishing efforts or other deceptive emails from a certain IP address, Comcast is more likely to block future messages from that IP address. Ensure the overall sending reputation of the sending mail system is as clean as possible.
Pay attention to error messages
- Most non-delivery notifications Comcast returns contain links to FAQs which explain why the block occurred and instruct in how to remediate the issue. Take the time to review any errors; it is likely they hold the key to a quick remediation.
- Visit our error messages page
Watch the sending limits
- Comcast allows 25 simultaneous connections per sending IP address
- Comcast allows 100 recipients per message
- Comcast allows a throttle rate based on your sender reputation and authentication.