Hosting Blacklist

[jim101]

Anyone encountered/rectified the situation where your domains get blacklisted due to range of IP addresses of the provider getting flagged? ie blacklist by association. In particular UCEPROTECT level 2 & 3.

[cerulean]

This is fairly tough situation to deal with, and UCEPROTECT touches on it specifically:

https://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=7&s=0

If the netblock with your IP address inside is listed as Level 2 or your provider is listed at Level 3, and you do not own the complete IP block or you are not the provider itself, this is a good indicator that you are an innocent user. This means that other customers of your service provider, or even your service provider themselves, caused that listing by regular abuse.

You NEVER sent spam? - Your system was NEVER an OPEN RELAY or an OPEN PROXY? Your system was never infected by viruses / worms???

This means your service provider’s netblock is blacklisted because someone else abused it for spamming or for the spreading viruses / worms in recent days!!!

It makes no sense for you to try to fix your service provider’s problems.

That sounds like the situation you're in, right?

I was able to rectify a similar situation for a client by asking the host to communicate directly with the RBL. I explained everything that they had to do, and surprisingly, they had it resolved in a reasonable amount of time. I am not sure if they used the contact form, but that's a dangerous game to play. Being the host itself though, that gives you a lot more credibility than a client.

For UCEPROTECT, they've laid out the steps you take, and yeah, they're pretty strict. Other RBLs are easier to work with, and I've had good luck just emailing them and explaining the situation on behalf of my clients without the host needing to be part of the conversation. YMMV.

This is what I saw with UCEPROTECT:

https://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=8&s=0

Should you want to contact us, you should keep this in mind and behave rationally and calmly in order not to aggravate your situation.

Leads you to:

https://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=7&s=7

or

https://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=7&s=8

This gets you here:

https://www.uceprotect.net/en/rblcheck.php

Please note this page:

https://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=4&s=0

The rblcheck page should provide context on how to get unflagged, but, again, by association, this is a huge problem because you're sharing the entire IP block with others and these RBLs do not care about your personal situation. It's important whether you're in 2 or 3, or both. You have to read every line they've written because they expect that.

When it came to mailers for my clients, and this happened, I really had no choice but to reissue a new dedicated IP address. Since then, I've had good luck by combining an existing MTA who is "okay" with adult content, and self-hosting software that can use that MTA to send emails out. Luckily, even on shared IP pools, this hasn't been an issue.

[jim101]

Originally Posted by cerulean

This is fairly tough situation to deal with, and UCEPROTECT touches on it specifically:

https://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=7&s=0



That sounds like the situation you're in, right?

I was able to rectify a similar situation for a client by asking the host to communicate directly with the RBL. I explained everything that they had to do, and surprisingly, they had it resolved in a reasonable amount of time. I am not sure if they used the contact form, but that's a dangerous game to play. Being the host itself though, that gives you a lot more credibility than a client.

For UCEPROTECT, they've laid out the steps you take, and yeah, they're pretty strict. Other RBLs are easier to work with, and I've had good luck just emailing them and explaining the situation on behalf of my clients without the host needing to be part of the conversation. YMMV.

This is what I saw with UCEPROTECT:

https://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=8&s=0

Leads you to:

https://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=7&s=7

or

https://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=7&s=8

This gets you here:

https://www.uceprotect.net/en/rblcheck.php

Please note this page:

https://www.uceprotect.net/en/index.php?m=4&s=0

The rblcheck page should provide context on how to get unflagged, but, again, by association, this is a huge problem because you're sharing the entire IP block with others and these RBLs do not care about your personal situation. It's important whether you're in 2 or 3, or both. You have to read every line they've written because they expect that.

When it came to mailers for my clients, and this happened, I really had no choice but to reissue a new dedicated IP address. Since then, I've had good luck by combining an existing MTA who is "okay" with adult content, and self-hosting software that can use that MTA to send emails out. Luckily, even on shared IP pools, this hasn't been an issue.

Interesting background.

It looks like levels 2 & 3 are IP blacklist by association due to the ISP permitting spam abuse by others. UCEPROTECT regard this as the fault of the ISP and won't delist the individual IP under any circumstances they say. Level 1 seems to be for direct fault. Whitelisting IPs tainted by others at level 2 & 3 is possible but it's not cheap per IP - is this the moneymaker for them?

It seems UCEPROTECTL3 may not be the most important blacklist but avoiding getting domain/IP flagged can be important in some situations. So then the next step is to identify a "blacklist free" ISP and switch...

[cerulean]

Originally Posted by jim101

Interesting background.

It looks like levels 2 & 3 are IP blacklist by association due to the ISP permitting spam abuse by others. UCEPROTECT regard this as the fault of the ISP and won't delist the individual IP under any circumstances they say. Level 1 seems to be for direct fault. Whitelisting IPs tainted by others at level 2 & 3 is possible but it's not cheap per IP - is this the moneymaker for them?

It seems UCEPROTECTL3 may not be the most important blacklist but avoiding getting domain/IP flagged can be important in some situations. So then the next step is to identify a "blacklist free" ISP and switch...

I don't know how UCEPROTECT makes money, but I do know once you're on an RBL, it's pretty tough to get off it.

If you are considering switching to a new host... The two major adult hosts that I know of, would be willing to go the extra mile to talk to an RBL, at least when I've had the pleasure of working with them. They provide managed service, which comes with that perk. I could be wrong, but I also think they buy in block, so if someone were abusing on their network they would know immediately and be able to show proof to an RBL, that they dealt with the problem. I suppose they would just rotate you to a whole new IP if that were to happen, though, rather than deal with the RBL. It would be faster and cheaper to just give you a new IP. You can view them through the affiliate links on my website, but they are Vacares and MojoHost.

If you don't want to switch or it's something more critical than web or dedicated hosting, push it on your ISP and tell them to figure it out with a deadline.