RBLs and mail relays

n3llyb0y · 11-01-2008, 17:26

So this is a little annoying - I've jumped into bed with virgin media without doing my research.

I'm hosting my own mail server and during some troubleshooting received a dreaded error from a remote server with the message it would not talk to my server due to its Ip address being listed with spamhaus. I tried contacting virgin broadband support - I cut the conversation off after 5 minutes.

So, the virgin/ntl/blueyonder customer assigned IPs are probably all listed in RBLs. Okay. I might be able to live with that by using my ISPs mailer to relay - right?

me@home:~$ telnet mailin.blueyonder.co.uk 25
Trying 195.188.53.99...
Connected to mailin.blueyonder.co.uk.
Escape character is '^]'.
550-Rejected because 82.34.213.65 is listed in Spamhaus ZEN list.
550 http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=82.34.213.65
Connection closed by foreign host.

ARGH!

It seems to me that other people must be suffering from this. Has anyone discovered a (free) work around that doesn't involve changing ISP?

Does anyone know of any other virgin mail relays that won't drop their own customers? Any Authenticated SMTP services available from Virgin?
something - anything...

Cheers,
Neil

Tricky · 11-01-2008, 17:34

You'll probably need a "real" server address as most "home" ranges are banned as SPAM
Have you considered some cheap hosting? that'll come with a email service?

**Rob** · 11-01-2008, 17:47

Not sure how you have setup your email service. Open relays these days are not useable due to spam problems.

Your best option, would be to setup your mail server to issue it's email via the blueyonder smtp server, similar to however you would setup outlook express or other mail client. You can still show the return address for replys as being your domain.

n3llyb0y · 11-01-2008, 17:50

I don't want cheap hosting (thanks for the plug) - I want to be able to securely relay through my ISP if they can't give me a static address which I can fight to have removed from the RBLs. I never ever, ever had any problems whilst with ZEN.

Also - where does it say I can't host my own mail server? Quite to the contrary:
http://www.virginmedia.com/digital/s...hp?storypage=1

Thanks, nonetheless.

n

dev · 11-01-2008, 18:02

you can host your own mail server however using it to send from your own connection to most proper mail servers will fail as you are using an IP address from a dynamic range which most mail servers drop mail from. Incoming mail would be delivered to your mail server fine but you should either use VMs mail server for sending email or one on a dedicated server elsewhere with a static non-residential IP

n3llyb0y · 11-01-2008, 18:16

yes - okay. I'm happy to relay via virgin media as I stated.

But trying to connect to the registered MX server for blueyonder failed

mailin.blueyonder.co.uk

Are there any other servers virgin media have that I can relay through?

Cheers,
n

dev · 11-01-2008, 18:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by n3llyb0y

yes - okay. I'm happy to relay via virgin media as I stated.

But trying to connect to the registered MX server for blueyonder failed

mailin.blueyonder.co.uk

Are there any other servers virgin media have that I can relay through?

Cheers,
n

MX record would be for mail incoming and the hostname suggests likewise, the mailin.blueyonder.co.uk may not be configured for sending mail out and only recieving it.

try smtp.blueyonder.co.uk instead, has a different IP address to mailin.blueyonder.co.uk and so is more likely to be the one you want

n3llyb0y · 11-01-2008, 20:10

aha - smtp.blueyonder.co.uk does indeed accept a relay. Many, many thanks.

Now I'll just have to sit back and see if that host is RBL'd anywhere ;-)

Thanks to all posters.