Emails to telecom.co.nz from ihug SMTP filtered by SORBS?

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meowsqueak

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Topic # 10127 6-Nov-2006 13:39

I often send emails from my ihug account to various addresses at the Telecom domain (...@telecom.co.nz). However at approx. 11:30 this morning, something odd started happening. Every email I now send to @telecom.co.nz addresses comes back with the following error from the ihug SMTP server:

<...@telecom.co.nz>: host ish5.telecom.co.nz[146.171.13.194] said:
554
    Service unavailable; Client host [203.109.132.1] blocked using
    dnsbl.sorbs.net; Dynamic IP Addresses See:
    http://www.sorbs.net/lookup.shtml?203.109.132.1 (in reply to RCPT TO
    command)

A reverse DNS lookup on that IP address yields "smtp1.ihug.co.nz"

Am I right in thinking this indicates that Telecom is filtering incoming emails via SORBS, and somehow ihug's SMTP server is now in the SORBS blacklist? Who needs to know about this?

johnr

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Reply # 51206 6-Nov-2006 13:46

Looks like that to me

juha

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Reply # 51212 6-Nov-2006 13:58

Looks like SORBS has done it again...

The postmaster account at telecom.co.nz doesn't appear to be read so good luck trying to get Ihug's mail server whitelisted.

Juha

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Fraktul

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Reply # 51215 6-Nov-2006 14:09

Sigh, SORBES & co while offeing a valuable sevice in one respect are a total pain in another.

It is very hard to get a blacklisted smtp server out of the blacklist, often taking weeks to resolve, which is of course not appropriate for the critical service email has become. As such it is generally agreed that such blacklists be used as a spam filter in a weighting value only and not outright rejection.

FYI, this happens all the time and I'm sure it has already been raised with Xtra, Ihug, your mother and her dog, with various customers throwing toys and demarding their intarwebs work ;)

meowsqueak

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Reply # 51224 6-Nov-2006 14:29

I see. This sounds rather unfortunate.

Does anyone know of any other SMTP relay that I could use until this is fixed? However, I doubt there are any open ones left.

juha

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Reply # 51225 6-Nov-2006 14:32

meowsqueak: I see. This sounds rather unfortunate.

Does anyone know of any other SMTP relay that I could use until this is fixed? However, I doubt there are any open ones left.

You may have to use something like Gmail temporarily.

Juha

tonyhughes

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Reply # 51242 6-Nov-2006 15:07

gmail is great, open an account, and you have a free smtp relay service, as outlined in my blog a while ago

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meowsqueak

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Reply # 51259 6-Nov-2006 15:54

tonyhughes: gmail is great, open an account, and you have a free smtp relay service, as outlined in my blog a while ago

I have a GMail account but I didn't realise it came with SMTP access. I'll give that a try. Thanks for the info.

freitasm

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Reply # 51264 6-Nov-2006 16:01

The problem with using Gmail as a SMTP is that it sends emails as "john.doe @ gmail.com on behalf of john.doe @ yourISP.com".

I've noticed that this causes problems with some e-mail clients, and a friend using this resource found out lots of replies sent to his Gmail inbox instead of his ISP's inbox.

If you really want something professional, try www.smtp.com. I use www.myrealbox.com, which is free, but they no longer accept sign ups.

The Gmail option is good though if you are using an ISP that blocks smtp (port 25), such as Xtra. A friend is visiting Melbourne and everytime he's to change to Gmail because the ISP there won't allow him to connect to www.myrealbox.com on port 25.

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bradstewart

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Reply # 51271 6-Nov-2006 16:18

xtra have finally blocked port 25 on my account. So I have I use the xtra SMTP server on all my accounts except for gmail.