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Newbie/Basic Questions

Total confusion

Author: A.Chenoweth (2 Oct 06 11:57am)

I have attempted to send emails from my regular email account (I am just an individual, no business,no domain name, no group mailers, etc.) and am getting messages that "550 rejected because 17.250.248.47 is in a black list at dnsbl.sorbs.net"

When I googled this IP address (17.250.248.47) I got referred to your website. I don't understand why my email won't go through,and I don't understand why I would be "blacklisted" and most importantly, I don't understand how to undo this situation.

Any help would be hugely appreciated.

Re: Total confusion

Author: M.Prince (3 Oct 06 6:29pm)

SORBS is a DNSBL. They maintain a blocklist of IPs that they believe are sending spam. While we query them, we don't currently share any Project Honey Pot data with them. If you believe you have been wrongly listed, you can contact them through their website:

http://www.au.sorbs.net/

One of the most likely ways your IP could have been blocked is if your computer was infected with a virus that then relayed spam messages. You may want to run a virus check and make sure your machine is clean before contacting SORBS.

Re: Total confusion

Author: M.Nordhoff (4 Oct 06 2:32pm)

The IP is owned by Apple and its hostname is "smtpout.mac.com" (which is also the hostname of a bunch of other IPs). Sounds like something shared, so malware on any machine could get it blacklisted.

That IP is listed on Project Honey Pot, too:

http://www.projecthoneypot.org/i_3e00ccd2fa1249a9a16e05ba6434aebd

That's only two messages sent 5 and 6 months ago, respectively, but SenderBase and SORBS show more recent activity, I think:

http://www.senderbase.org/?sb=1&searchBy=ipaddress&searchString=17.250.248.47
http://www.us.sorbs.net/cgi-bin/lookup?IP=17.250.248.47