New member needing help - blocked email

[JennyW]

I wonder if someone can help me but please bear with me as I'm not very technically minded.

My home computer email has always been freeserve/wanadoo. My husband then got a free broadband offer with Orange (which I believe are now part of Wanadoo) when he renewed his mobile phone contract.

Yesterday the new box arrived and I believe the email addressed are running ok now under orange. However for some reason he cannot email me at work (he's tried other emails and they have worked fine).

All messages he tries to send to my work address get returned with the following message:

.....Sender refused by the DNSBL bl.spamcop.net

We've never had this problem before and I've searched this site and as I'm not very technical, I'm not sure what to do? Can anyone please direct me.

[dra007]

That message is unusually brief and it does not have the information we need to help you, the IP blocked by the recieving party. Wanadoo is however notorious for not cleaning up their spamming act..

[JennyW]

That message is unusually brief and it does not have the information we need to help you, the IP blocked by the recieving party. Wanadoo is however notorious for not cleaning up their spamming act..

thank you for replying

Well the complete message details email addresses too - is it OK to list them here?

[Farelf]

.....Sender refused by the DNSBL bl.spamcop.net ...

Hi JennyW, on the face of it, it sounds like your work (or their mail service provider) is using the SpamCop blocking list to reject mail (recommended use is to filter into a junk mail area for human consideration). Even though parts of Wanadoo might have given no such trouble for you in the past, the broadband servers have many different IP addresses (each looking something like 193.252.23.21) and are more widely used by spammers. If you care to post the IP address to which the rejection applied someone "here" could have a look. That detail should have been quoted with the rejection message. If it actually is a SC DNSBL listing it goes away within 24 hours of the spam stopping - and if Orange get on top of the situation (enforce their own Terms of Service) it stays off. Depending on the details, there may be a number of solutions for you.

[Miss Betsy]

The whole email address is not needed. What is needed is the IP address (the number that looks sort of like this xxx.xx.xxx.xx - I am not technically minded either) and the part of the email address at your work after the [at] and the same part of your husband's address.

What is happening, probably, is that your work is using the spamcop bl to block spam. The spamcop blocklist is automatic and when the spam stops, the email will work again - until the next time a spammer uses it.

You could request your work to tag the spam or to whitelist your husband's email address. But they don't want you to spending your work time dealing with spam. Probably the best solution is for your husband to use a different address to email you from.

Miss Betsy

[JennyW]

We have 3 email accounts from our home PC and none of them worked :angry: (he tried each one to my work address and they were all returned).

I've copied the message and taken out our email address and replaced with Z's

This is the SMTP Server program at host me.freeserve.com.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be

be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.

For further assistance, please send mail to <postmaster>

If you do so, please include this problem report. You can

delete your own text from the attached returned message.

The SMTP Server program

<zzzzzz[at]zzzzzzzz.co.uk>: host

mailgate.zzzzzzzz.co.uk[212.41.178.241] said: 501 5.7.1

<zzzzzzzz[at]zzzz.freeserve.co.uk>... Sender refused by the DNSBL

bl.spamcop.net (in reply to MAIL FROM command)]

it seems very basic doesn't it?

[StevenUnderwood]

The SMTP Server program

<zzzzzz[at]zzzzzzzz.co.uk>: host

mailgate.zzzzzzzz.co.uk[212.41.178.241] said: 501 5.7.1

<zzzzzzzz[at]zzzz.freeserve.co.uk>... Sender refused by the DNSBL

bl.spamcop.net (in reply to MAIL FROM command)[/color]]

it seems very basic doesn't it?

All 3 email addresses could come through the same server but something about the mesage does not add up. If this is your work, I would ask the IT folks there to explain it and perhaps request they provide a clearer reply at the server level.

Taking the message literally, Sender refused by the DNSBL bl.spamcop.net (in reply to MAIL FROM command), would be contradicting itself.

bl.spamcop.net ONLY lists the IP address of servers sending spam

MAIL FROM command would indicate the email address or domain (zzzz.freeserve.co.uk) part is being blocked.

We have seen many instances where spamcop was named in all reject messages, even if it was not the specific cause. I guess our support here in the forum is excellent

By the way, that server is not CURRENTLY lists, but there were spam reports against it as recently as July 19, so it is possible it was listed at the time.

In any case, the IT folks at zzzzzzzz.co.uk are the only ones who can solve this issue.

Hope some of this helps

[dbiel]

If receiving mail from your husband does not violate your TOS at work (or put another way, the email rules at work permit the receiving of non work related email from spouses, then I would give a copy of the notice you posted here as well as the list of other email address you may be receiving mail from so that they could white list those address for you or tell you how you can white list them yourself. If your work rules for internet use do not permit such mail, then there is not much that you can do. Many companies are starting to crack down on internet usage for non work related usage even during non work hours (ie breaks and lunch) Issues such as streaming video and audio are having a real impact on bandwidth and impacting company related internet usage.

Another point to remember, is that all email sent to a work address or from work, is the property of your employer and they do have the right to monitor its usage and content as well as the right to make what ever rules (unreasonable or not) they want regarding its usage and violation of those rules can, in a worst case situation, result in loss of employment. The point is, be sure what the rules are where you work. I may need to be making some changes in my work usage due to planned changes from local management of internet usage to the shift of all email and internet usage being managed by the national corporate office which does not even understand many of our business needs as our company does not fit in the same category as the rest of the companies in our corporate division. We are a extremely high end commercial printer and they think that we should be able to operate the same way as the publication printers and smaller low end printers and envelope printers that make up most of the rest of the corporate family. And add to that new corporate management that has only one main corporate goal, return on investment for the benefit of stock holders and as such have implemented ever increasing cuts in employee benefits. It does not help when the new CEO is the largest single stock holder; and he and his group of followers managed to result in the death of one of our largest competitors mainly due to their direct intervention in corporate policy a few years earlier when they were in charge of competitor's national corporate parent, before leaving there and taking over our corporate parent through use of a proxy battle.

I need to get off of my soap box as this has drifted away from the topic at hand.

By the way, thank you for taking the time to learn a little about the SpamCop Forum before posting as seen by your posting in the correct forum and the attitude expressed in your first post. We are here to try to help but sure get frustrated with those who only seem to rant as they ask for help and refuse to listen to any of the advise given. It is a lot easier to help those who simply do not understand than those who think they know it all yet ask for help and refuse to accept it. The fact is we all start off with knowing nothing about the internet, but find out that we need to do a lot of learning about how it really works if we do not want to get into some trouble along the way. Just like credit cards, they make them sound so easy to get and use, but if you do not know how to use them wisely, you can get into some serious financial difficulties before you are even aware of it.

[JennyW]

By the way, thank you for taking the time to learn a little about the SpamCop Forum before posting as seen by your posting in the correct forum and the attitude expressed in your first post. We are here to try to help but sure get frustrated with those who only seem to rant as they ask for help and refuse to listen to any of the advise given. It is a lot easier to help those who simply do not understand than those who think they know it all yet ask for help and refuse to accept it. The fact is we all start off with knowing nothing about the internet, but find out that we need to do a lot of learning about how it really works if we do not want to get into some trouble along the way. Just like credit cards, they make them sound so easy to get and use, but if you do not know how to use them wisely, you can get into some serious financial difficulties before you are even aware of it.

well I navigated around the site to see if I could find my answer but not being as clued up on these issues I felt to ask a question was my only way.

Regarding the work issue. We're a very small company and we are allowed to send and receive personal emails (without abuse of course). We do not have an IT department but source the knowledge and help of an independent individual. I did in fact show him the message and I don't think he was too sure as his answer was to go on the Spamcop website and remove the personal email address from their "blocked" list - I have since read though that it's not as simple as that.

Good news is that earlier today I sent an email from my home pc (as my husband was doing) to my work address and touch wood it hasnt been returned. Perhaps it has corrected itself as I read on Spamcop that IP addresses can be cleared after 24 hours.

[Derek T]

Good news is that earlier today I sent an email from my home pc (as my husband was doing) to my work address and touch wood it hasnt been returned. Perhaps it has corrected itself as I read on Spamcop that IP addresses can be cleared after 24 hours.

Often MUCH sooner, especially for a first offence. If the server admin takes the 'herads up' from sppamcop seriously and fixes the problem fast then delisting happens very quickly. Spamcop is 'aggressive' and 'proactive' in that it lists quicky (and automatically) when there is a problem and de-list quickly (and automatically) once the problem is fixed. In other words, if the problem has been alerted and fixed then SpamCop is working exactly as it should. May I add my thanks for your attitude here on this forum.

[JennyW]

May I add my thanks for your attitude here on this forum.

you are welcome. I'd like to say that i've been very impressed with the responses I received especially being a newbie. It's much appreciated.

[dbiel]

Regarding the work issue. We're a very small company and we are allowed to send and receive personal emails (without abuse of course). We do not have an IT department but source the knowledge and help of an independent individual. I did in fact show him the message and I don't think he was too sure as his answer was to go on the Spamcop website and remove the personal email address from their "blocked" list - I have since read though that it's not as simple as that.

Not sure what is meant by "removed the personal email address from their "blocked" list" It appears that he set up you server to access the SpamCop Block list. What needs to be done is on your end, not the SpamCop side. There are several options.

1) do not block the mail but use the list to filter the mail and send the filtered mail to a separate spam folder.

2) set up a White List that users can add email address to which will override the SpamCop BL and let the messages be delivered regardless if they are on the list or not.

It is possible this is what your friend is talking about, using a singe corporate White List, the the terminology used leads be to thing that he used the one time removal of the IP address from the SpamCop list. If that was done, it was not the right choice. But I am simply guessing at the meaning of your words.

After re-reading your post several times, I am wondering if he has sent up a personal or corporate email account with SpamCop and is filtering your mail through that in which case the terminology would make sense.

Good news is that earlier today I sent an email from my home pc (as my husband was doing) to my work address and touch wood it hasnt been returned. Perhaps it has corrected itself as I read on Spamcop that IP addresses can be cleared after 24 hours.

Since the address is no longer on the current BL the messages would not be blocked.

I'd like to say that i've been very impressed with the responses I received especially being a newbie. It's much appreciated.

Thank you for your kind words.