emails blocked by NTL?

[stevew]

Hi all..

Just wondering if it's possible to find out what servers have been blocked by NTL with regard to incoming emails?

Just that a club I belong to (car club, nowt dodgy!) is on a server and it cannot send emails to ntlworld.com users...

NTL claim that "they've done nothing" but a quick telnet session shows that any message is rejected by the ntl smtp server from that domain.

Any ideas where I can start looking or if anyone knows where I could go for help cos as I say, surprise surprise, but NTL deny everything!

[nostra]

type the ip address of the mailserver that is being blocked into

http://www.openrbl.org/

and that will tell you what blacklists have your server blacklisted

[Okonski]

I'm surprised, because I get wall to wall spam on all my NTLWorld accounts, they let everything through even the stuff that's so obvious (code letters in the subject line). Unless they've given you special treatment...?!

[mortonjoynes]

I'm not an NTL or Telewest customer - I can receive messages from NTL customers, but I have to use my googlemail account to get in touch with them as Demon appears not to be recognised???

[tanny]

Originally Posted by nostra

type the ip address of the mailserver that is being blocked into

http://www.openrbl.org/

and that will tell you what blacklists have your server blacklisted

Thanks for that but exactly where are you looking for the Blocked list?

[patrickp]

Originally Posted by mortonjoynes

I'm not an NTL or Telewest customer - I can receive messages from NTL customers, but I have to use my googlemail account to get in touch with them as Demon appears not to be recognised???

I'm not quite sure what you're saying, mortonjoynes, but if you're not receiving emails from ntl account users, then presumably it's your ISP (i.e. if you're a Demon customer using a Demon mail account, it's Demon?) blocking them.

---------- Post added at 21:06 ---------- Previous post was at 20:59 ----------

Originally Posted by Okonski

I'm surprised, because I get wall to wall spam on all my NTLWorld accounts, they let everything through even the stuff that's so obvious (code letters in the subject line). Unless they've given you special treatment...?!

Then I would think you need to go to your ntl account online and set up your spam blocking.

There are two levels of spam blocking with ntl - there's the SORBS blacklist level, which you can't opt out of, and the settable level, which may well not be on by default, so you would have to set it.

However, I don't use ntl's email service anyway, except that once in a very blue moon they send me some sort of notification on it.

Originally Posted by tanny

Thanks for that but exactly where are you looking for the Blocked list?

that link seems to give info about the ntl proxy server???

[nedsram]

Originally Posted by Okonski

I'm surprised, because I get wall to wall spam on all my NTLWorld accounts, they let everything through even the stuff that's so obvious (code letters in the subject line). Unless they've given you special treatment...?!

Most primary email accounts will now get masses of spam. I posted a month or two ago that I strongly suspected that spammers had obtained a list of primary email addresses. This generated some heated discussion. I'm not going to respond to any flames this reply may generate, but I am now being bombarded by offers of pirated software (full of Amazon graphics) - several per day. I am letting spam through (flagged as such), because otherwise I lose some solicited emails, but am directing it to my "deleted items" folder. As I expect you are aware, there are several spam options, which you can set here:

http://webmail.ntlworld.com/

However there are two issues.

1. NTL block email from sites registered with the SORBS database. Or rather they just fail to respond, so it times out. This includes any relay used to get the email to you, so the problem isn't necessarily the originating site. At present this includes hotmail. I can verify this as I have had to set up a hotmail account for the numerous people on hotmail who can't send email to us. I then sent a test email to my NTL account, and it was ignored (timeout). However SORBS must have received spam for the site to be registered.

2. The pirated software emails direct you to a site in China. I confirmed this by doing a whois on the IP address of the web site you are invited to go to. However if they are specifically targeting NTL accounts, it's unlikely that SORBS will see them, so it won't be registered there.

The result is that lots of spam gets through, but legitimate emails from hotmail and other sites (which for us recently has included beeb.com and lycos - relayed via demon) get discarded. I raised this issue wiith NTL, and they are adamant that using SORBS "offers the best protection to our customers". That's a matter of opinion.

---------- Post added at 21:53 ---------- Previous post was at 21:47 ----------

Originally Posted by nostra

type the ip address of the mailserver that is being blocked into

http://www.openrbl.org/

and that will tell you what blacklists have your server blacklisted

I just did that for hotmail (65.54.244.136), which is apparently in the SORBS database (see another post). This is what I got. The problem is that I have no idea how to extract the blacklists from the information provided:

-------------------------

Query IP-Address 65.54.244.136 (hotmail.com)

• IP-Address:
• Host-Name: mx1.hotmail.com
• Forward-DNS: 65.54.244.8 65.54.244.136 65.54.245.8 64.4.50.50</B>
• Domain: hotmail.com (64.4.33.7 64.4.32.7)

DNSBL Lookup "65.54.244.136"


Lookup at Openrbl requires JavaScript1.5 and W3C-DOM. No scripting!
JS-ClientJavaScript/DOM application CompleteWhoisHTML tablePlain text
MORE about "65.54.244.136"


Ressource-intensive CGI-Links protected from Robots with JavaScript.

• IP-WHOIS 65.54.244.136: [CompleteWhois] [DNSstuff]
• Traceroute 65.54.244.136: [CompleteWhois] [DNSstuff]
• Mail Volume (SenderBase): [65.54.244.136/24] [*.hotmail.com]
• Abuse-Contact: [hotmail.com] [65.54.244.136]
• DOM-WHOIS hotmail.com: [CompleteWhois] [DNSstuff]

SEARCH on Newsgroups and the Internet


External Links - use [<- BACK] to return to this page.

• Search Groups: [65.54.244.136] [65.54] [hotmail.com]
• Search Google: [65.54.244.136] [65.54] [hotmail.com]
• Search Yahoo: [65.54.244.136] [65.54] [hotmail.com]
• Search AltaVista [65.54.244.136] [65.54] [hotmail.com]
• Visit Website: [http://www.hotmail.com] [Alexa]

---------- Post added at 21:59 ---------- Previous post was at 21:53 ----------

Update: I just did a search of the SORBS database for the hotmail email server and it doesn't seem to be there. However NTL are definitely blocking emails from hotmail. Do NTL use any other databases?

[Scooby_simon]

OK, now I've the same problem. Has anyone got a solution apart from removing the virus protection !

assume Norton know about the problem and will be working all hours to fix it !!!!!

[nedsram]

Originally Posted by patrickp

I'm not quite sure what you're saying, mortonjoynes, but if you're not receiving emails from ntl account users, then presumably it's your ISP (i.e. if you're a Demon customer using a Demon mail account, it's Demon?) blocking them.

Then I suggest you read his post again. That's not what he said.

[MrBen]

Originally Posted by nedsram

I just did that for hotmail (65.54.244.136), which is apparently in the SORBS database (see another post).

Update: I just did a search of the SORBS database for the hotmail email server and it doesn't seem to be there. However NTL are definitely blocking emails from hotmail. Do NTL use any other databases?

All Hotmail email doesn't originate from a single IP address. Have a look at this list on SenderBase.org. That lists all the IPs that have been picked up as sending email for Hotmail.com. There are 2411 of them!

I found three IP address out of the first 15 or so listed on SORBS (you have to click on each IP address to run a check)... I don't fancy checking the other 2400 IP addresses to see which of them are listed It's basically pot luck which server sends your email when you use Hotmail... you've probably been unlucky recently and had all your ntl: destined email sent via a listed server.

Ben

[nedsram]

Originally Posted by MrBen

All Hotmail email doesn't originate from a single IP address. Have a look at this list on SenderBase.org. That lists all the IPs that have been picked up as sending email for Hotmail.com. There are 2411 of them!

I found three IP address out of the first 15 or so listed on SORBS (you have to click on each IP address to run a check)... I don't fancy checking the other 2400 IP addresses to see which of them are listed It's basically pot luck which server sends your email when you use Hotmail... you've probably been unlucky recently and had all your ntl: destined email sent via a listed server.

Ben

Oh my god!

We haven't had any email at all from Hotmail since December 12th. If you factor in routers used to reach NTL, it becomes impossible to figure out what emails will be blocked. I know that some people can get through to NTL email addresses in some parts of the country but not others.

Do people think that the policy of blocking SORBS (or other) registered sites is a good thing or just encouraging people to ditch NTL and get email addresses elsewhere? I know what my wife would say.

[simbr]

Originally Posted by nedsram

1. NTL block email from sites registered with the SORBS database. Or rather they just fail to respond, so it times out.

The server will respond with error 421. What hotmail do with this is up to them, but for whatever reason they seem to take a day or so to report the problem.

This includes any relay used to get the email to you, so the problem isn't necessarily the originating site.

It applies to the remote mail server that talks to the ntl mail server.

As mentioned below, I always use Senderbase for checking blacklists.

[blackthorn]

I was on the phone to my daughter last night and she said that she was sending me mail with pics of my grandaughter, they never arrived, she was actually sending them as we were speaking. I then told her to send them to my gmail account and they came through instantly. Her isp is fsnet.

Originally Posted by blackthorn

Her isp is fsnet.

Which is now owned by wonadoo ?

or as some call it wanaspam


I never have and never will use a ISP email service. Its just too open to problems. I have always used a third party email provider.