Hi,
I was doing a random check on my IP address range on MX-Toolbox on mail delivery and I found that I am listed on a blacklist: UCEPROTECT-Level3. It’s the IP address range of Linode, my own IP is not listed, but that means the issue is bigger than my individual box. This doesn’t get reported in the box admin system check screen.
So, what is the best way to deal with this? I have sent a support ticket into Linode to ask them what the situation is and what they are doing about it. I really don’t want to have to move my server again, but I don’t want to support a host that doesn’t have this sort of stuff under control. Is UCEPROTECT legit? Looks like their willing to put me on a whitelist for a fee which smacks to me of extortion. Anyone know of a really good host for email setups? I can move the server again if that is the best solution.
Thanks in advance.
This is the response from Linode:
Thanks for reaching out to inform us about this blocklisting. We understand and share your concern regarding the recent listing of our ASN with UCEPROTECT’s Level 3 service. After researching the details of the listing, we have determined that the Level 3 service offered by UCEPROTECT is not reputable, and we will not be paying for delisting from their service.
Not sure where this leaves me.
You’re fine. They’re snakes.
Thanks for that article. Yes, it looks as if my emails are going to where they need to go.
I appreciate your reply and now I know what to look for if I’m not sure.
I’ve had the same thing happen on a number of my Digitalocean mailinaboxes, and was having specific difficulty with deliverability on one server to office365 customers, as seemingly (according to a microsoft technical support guy I spoke to on the phone) they use this list in conjunction with other things to determine blocks.
My solution was to setup a SMTP relay with sendgrid (free for under 100 emails a day), but you gotta make sure to setup this relay every time you upgrade mailinabox.
Eventually it will have to be that parties involved are informed that only huge mail companies can communicate with each other. IOW, migrate away from their services. This is not the case today, but the day is coming.
Would a separate SMTP relay server really make things better? Or is there a VPS host out there that doesn’t have SPAM issues?
I prefer having my own server and I would like to keep it going in a happy way.
I’ve been administrating my own mail servers for some time now, and the issue of large mail providers refusing to accept mail from small servers has just continually gotten worse, and in some cases provides the appearance to me that these large companies no longer follow the open standards, and instead follow some other standard.
The current trend seems like they are slowly chipping away at IP address blocks owned by smaller ISPs, such as DO, Linode, Vultr, etc. Big companies operate on long time horizons. They can make a plan and spend 15 years gradually implementing it. I’m not saying that I know this is the case, just that it outwardly appears to be this way.
I mean, really, we are all getting hit by the same spammers. No is not meaningful use to blocking huge swaths of IP addresses or employing extortion tactics (do you think UCEPROTECT is applied against Google? You think they’d pay?) can result in measurable cost reductions. I have a $5/month 1GB instance with some very old domains and email addresses (approaching 20 years now, OMFG) and still the 15 minute load on the server when I log in is 0.00.
The reason they do this is market share. They know the “little” guys are going to migrate to use some large mail provider instead of just telling the people using the big mail servers “tough luck - talk to support we are following published standards they are not, and they regularly send spam we do not.”