SpamPal is marking my emails as Spam

I moved to Plusnet a couple of weeks ago. I've just found out that SpamPal is marking my emails as spam. I have my own domain and email setup with 1&1 and use their servers, not Plusnet's, to send and receive email.

The message is "X-SpamPal: SPAM SBL+XBL" followed by my currently allocated IP address. Does this mean that a previous user of this IP address was distributing spam? Will the spam messages go away if I reboot my router and obtain a different IP address?

Hi there,

Not sure where you're coming from here TBH.

I'm assuming that you're sending email from an externally hosted domain using 1&1's relay servers. SpamPal is then marking the email as spam at the recipient's side. Is that right?

If this is the case then the IP address assigned to your ADSL connection should be completely irrelevant. It's only the IP of the connecting MTA that the receiving servers should be concerned about.

The only other scenario I can think of is that 1&1 are spam filtering outbound email and they do not like the IP address you're connecting from although I'd find this odd.

Rgds,

Yes that is the position.

I've checked the IP address I had - 87.114.1.242 - (I've recently rebooted my router so now have a different IP address) on Spamhaus and get this:

IP Address Lookup


87.114.1.242 is listed in the SBL, in the following records:
SBL61163

87.114.1.242 is listed in the PBL, in the following records:

PBL172353

87.114.1.242 is not listed in the XBL

Then when I look at the SBL:


Ref: SBL61163

87.114.0.0/23 is listed on the Spamhaus Block List (SBL)

29-Nov-2007 14:48 GMT | SR14

MeridianDelta - repeat spam incident on PlusNet

That's not unusual, especially this bit -

In reply to:

---

87.114.1.242 is listed in the PBL, in the following records:

PBL172353

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From here -

In reply to:

---

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.

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Basically we've declared that our dynamic IPs are not used to send SMTP mail. As I've said though this would only present a problem if your IP address was assigned to the MTA responsible for delivering your email (which it isn't).

Basically, if you were running your own mail server you'd have problems. You're not though so I don't think your IP is what's causing you issues.

Kind Rgds,

I've tried again and emails are going through OK now that I'm using a different IP address.

Doesn't that point to a problem with 87.114.1.242, especially given this from Spamhaus? "MeridianDelta - repeat spam incident on PlusNet "

No, it doesn't point to a problem.

When a customers machine becomes compromised by a malicious payload and spammers start using it as part of a botnet, it will spew out email directly from it's IP address ie. the one we assign. With dynamic IPs therefore, it's not uncommon for them to end up on lists of this nature.

As I've said though, this shouldn't matter as nobody should have a valid reason for sending email directly from a dynamic IP. If you're sending messages via an ISP's servers (eg. ours - relay.plus.net), then it doesn't matter what IP your connection is assigned as the recipients mail filtering will see the message as having come from the IP of your ISP's mail server, and not the IP address assigned to your broadband connection.

I'm not saying the IP address isn't what caused your problems, but if it did then something doesn't smell quite right to me.

Rgds,

OK. Thanks