Why is my email being blacklisted?
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Blacklisting may be the cause of difficulties when sending or receiving emails and the below points will provide more information on why. Typically when Spamhaus blacklisting is preventing your emails, users will see one of the error messages, shown to the right.
Please note that Spamhaus is a blacklisting service used by Telstra BigPond, but it is up to the user to request the removal of the blacklisting.
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An error occurred sending mail: The mail server sent an incorrect greeting: nschwcmgw08p BigPond Outbound [OB105. Connection refused. (ip:address) is listed on the Exploits Block List (XBL). Please visit http://www.spamhaus.org/xbl/ for more information.
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An (smtp) error occured while sending mail. The server responded: Message rejected.
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Check that your Mail Settings are correct
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Its important to ensure your Email Settings are up to date.
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| Email Server Check |
Our Email Server Check page will provide you with which email platform your account is on.
- There are two: BigPond or Outlook.com
- To find out which platform your email is using Click here, and log in using your email address and password.
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| Email Platform Settings |
Your email settings depend on which email platform your account is on. Logging onto the Email Server Check page will provide you with these settings. Alternatively, you can find the email settings for both mail platforms here.
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| Helpful Instructions |
The following links will take you to a video tutorial on how to set up email from both platforms, on popular devices:
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Checking for Blocked URLs
Emails sent to or from BigPond accounts, may be blocked if they contain links to blacklisted domains, or are using certain URL shorteners. The affected emails will be rejected and receive a bounceback message advising of this.
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What are URL shortener?
URL shortening is a technique on the World Wide Web in which a uniform resource locator (URL) may be made substantially shorter in length and still direct to the required page.
While URL shortening is desirable for legitimate business or personal reasons, because it can make long links aesthetically pleasing, allow you to track clicks or disguise an underlying address, it is open to abuse.
For this reason, some URL shortening service providers have found themselves on spam blacklists, because of the use of their redirect services by sites trying to bypass those very same blacklists.
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Typically these domains are blacklisted by SpamHaus, which BigPond uses to assess mail for spam/malicious links.
Solution:
Customers are advised to remove any links that may be responsible from the body of the email, this includes any links that may appear in the original email if you are replying or forwarding. Alternatively, you can test if there are any blocked links by sending a text-only email to see if it goes through.
As BigPond does not control listings in the SpamHaus DBL (Domain Block list), it is the responsibility of the domain owner to request delisting, and ensure their domains are not being exploited by spammers.
If the customer receives bouncebacks due to a certain domain, we recommend they contact the domain holder with the information.
Further information regarding the SpamHaus domain listing is available here: Spamhaus.org FAQ Section
Check your IP on Spamhaus
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The error message that you receive will contain the IP address which is blocked, and a link to SpamHaus which tells you WHY you are being blocked.
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| SpamHaus Lookup Tool |
Enter your current or previous IP address.
This page will provide detailed information such as why your IP has been blocked, how you can get your service unblocked.
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| Find Your Current IP |
For those who don't know how to find their current IP address, this link will display it for you: http://www.whatismyip.com/
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| How Can I Change My IP Address? |
It is recommended that you follow the above process to request that your IP address unblocked.
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ADSL,
Velocity
NBN
and Mobile Broadband
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- Restart your modem and it will be automatically assigned a new IP address.
- Doing this prior to requesting the unblock means that the blacklisted IP will not be assigned to another user.
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| Cable |
- You will need to leave the modem turned off and disconnected for 48 continuous hours before a new IP address will be automatically assigned.
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| Telstra Business |
- Telstra Business customers are provided with a Static IP address.
- You will need to log a job to request a new IP address. 1800 066 594
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Non Business Customers who have applied for a Static IP address.
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- Consumer customers who have a Static IP will need to cancel and then apply for a new Static IP address.
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I've tried the above and I'm still getting the error messages?
If restarting your modem allows you to briefly send an email or two before your emails are blocked again, there is a very good chance that you have a virus or trojan on your computer which is why your IP keeps getting blocked.
Entering your new IP address into the SpamHaus website will provide you with refreshed details, however they will probably be similar to those on your previous IP Address but with a newer timestamp.
PLEASE NOTE: If you experience the above, you may need to run more than a standard virus scan on all of your computers as these malicious programs are designed to be difficult to identify and remove.
SpamHaus will provide details on which trojan is causing the problems, when they last detected it active on that IP address.
Once you have done a full computer virus scan you may attempt to change your IP address, and confirm that it has changed with http://www.whatismyip.com/
The SpamHaus website also has FAQs which will answer a host of other scenarios which may be more applicable to your situation.
Something not answered here?
If you continue to have issues, feel free to post a message in the Bigpond Email (Inc Windows Live) section of CrowdSupport, where our Community Members and Telstra Employees can respond.
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