PN mail servers blocked by Comcast?

It looks to me like PN's mail servers are blocked by Comcast for "spamming". Check this out http://www.comcast.net/help/faq/index.jsp?faq=SecurityMail_Policy18628 - I get this every time I try to send an email to a Comcast domain. I don't run an email server myself, and my machines are 100% free of infection of any sort.

I first notified PN of this 6 days ago ("this has been passed to our network team to see if this [sic] can be removed from the blacklist") but they're still blocked (Comcast though say they deal with removals within 24 hours of being notified). This is causing enormous problems with dealing with US clients using Comcast - especially as I am on the business so-called "premier" service.

Being a bit unfamiliar with this sort of thing, am I right - i.e. is this down to Plusnet to sort out, and if so why should it have taken 6 days? I don't want to be unfair to them (given the other problems they have at the moment).

It is up to Plusnet to contact Comcast, but ultimately it is up to Comcast if they remove the block. In reality Comcast shouldn't really be blacklisting the Plusnet (or any other ISP) relay servers as they just block mail from anyone who uses those server as a relay point. They should be trying to block further down the line at the originating server.

As a side note to this, a few years ago my domain was being hijacked for spam, which according to the headers came from one of the MX servers listed for the domain (it seemed random as to which server was the chosen sending server). I never did find out what was causing the problem but suspect it was someone who had one of my email addresses with a virus infected machine. It meant the headers were worthless though and no-one at the time could help me diagnose the cause better.

Cheers Vince, much obliged.

Yeah I know what you mean... Soloway the infamous US based spammer uses one of my addresses (usually "postmaster@", "test@" or "admin@") and spams with forged headers (as he probably does to others here - there is nothing more annoying than receiving spam which looks like it's from yourself), but I am 100% clean... in this case though it looks like (rightly or wrongly) Comcast have blocked Plusnet.

It is however frustrating to take 6 days (at least) to solve this as Comcast say they deal with removals at their end within 24 hours... unless of course PN do indeed have a problem with spam going out from their mail servers. It is interesting to look at www.senderbase.org and enter "www.plus.net" in the search field and see the results...

Judging by the amount of spam I get these days (usually Polyakov) it's no surprise to me that Plusnet are having mail problems. I don't know why they don't just delete all the SBL/XBL spam completely instead of delivering it marked as spam! Perhaps that might lighten the load on their tired old servers.

"I don't know why they don't just delete all the SBL/XBL spam completely"

Because such blocklists are a very dangerous way of handling spam, and I think you've just illustrated why yourself. If a wrong entry gets onto the lists, then you've just nuked legitimate mail without warning.

You wouldn't give some random person admin access to your server, so I don't know why you'd let a random person running a blocklist in the spare time decide whether your mail is nuked or not.

Edited by chowells (Thu 07-Sep-06 11:40:01)

I have had the same problem, but not with Comcast.

Actually BT Internet were blocking me. I couldn't send e-mail to my own father.

I'm not sure it ever got resolved, as it never even occurred to me to take it up with Plusnet. I thought Dad needed to take it up with his own provider, if they were spamblocking mail they shouldn't, but I don't think he ever did. Instead, I just gave up trying to mail him.

T.

Ah... good point well made!