IP Cleaning/whitelisting?

[IceDigger]

Is there an easy way to clean/whitelist an ip address that was previously used for spam?

Example: I just bought a dedicated server with a couple dedicated ips. All of the ips are flagged by various places and I can't send emails out properly because they have been put on blacklists.

 

[goodcooper]

start with spamhaus lists

 

[Nate7311]

If you didn't get them flagged, then ask your Provider to Re-IP it as you are paying for a service.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It's a pain, but you have to go on every list and ask, some are better than others for handling this. This is useful for checking a lot of lists at once: http://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

Some of the RBLs are very strict though, like they'll only unblock an IP once, so if it's been blocked twice already they may not unblock it. Providers and customers don't really have much control over what previous customers did with it, so it can put you in a bad position. I guess you can ask to get a new IP and hope for the best, but there are only so many IPs to go around. I never ran into this myself though, I did notice at some point I was listed and all the ones did unlist me but some did warn that if it gets blocked again it will be permanent.

 

[mwarps]

I would cancel the service and move somewhere else if it's important that you be able to send email.

You're likely on a shared block (you can check with whois %ipaddress%).. If it's big, you're probably going to face these problems forever.

Look at it like this:

If you're a good guy, not gonna send spam, but you're on a provider that has an entire say /23 of dedicated servers and they just don't care? You're not getting unblocked ever. The rbl list makers are going to leave the /23.

For example:
my VPS provider has a /19. Say I got a /29 allocation. Say there's 1023 other people on my netblock with the same situation. Say 25% of them are sending spam.
Is the RBL going to do one line in the list? (the /19)
Or they going to just block the 256 baddies - 256 lines on the list?