I don't think any of these replies are actually correct. I had exactly the same message from mail-in.pol.net.uk relating to some mail passing through my server to one of my clients (a Freeserve.co.uk subscriber) for whom I operate MX services. I can see from my logs that subsequent mail to freeserve has gone through, via mail-in.pol.net.uk. The relevant IP address does not appear on any of the blacklists covered by the link below and the mail server is not promiscuously relaying. My conclusion is that freeserve had a temporary problem. Andrew At 17:13 12/10/2001 +0200, Boris Lorenz wrote:

Hi,

On 12-Oct-01 Avi Schwartz wrote:

...

Looks like the receiver is blacklisted by few DNSbl filters due to being a spam source. You can check for yourself at:

http://relays2.osirusoft.com/cgi-bin/rbcheck.cgi

I think the *sender* is blacklisted, not the receiver. I have never seen an anti-spam feature of any MTA which checks wether the host the MTA runs on is blacklisted - would be a poke in the eye sometimes ;))

The postmaster warning mail reads:

"while talking to mail-in.pol.net.uk.:(email i'm mailing to) [...]"

...and prints just this communication afterwards.

Maybe the sending mailer is blacklisted after being abused by some formmail spammers... ...or it accidentally got on some blacklist, this happens sometimes (although the rate of these false alarms gets lower since ORBS is outta business...).

Btw., SamSpade ( http://classic.samspade.org ) also offers a good blacklist check.

...

Avi

--On Friday, October 12, 2001 09:43:07 AM +0100 elfed lewis wrote:

...

I got this message today (names have been changed to protect the innocent!). Is it saying i'm blacklisted, or the host i'm emailing to is blacklisted?

----------email-------------------

from localhost

_ _----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- (email i'm mailing to) _ _ (expanded from: (their local alias name))

_ _----- Transcript of session follows ----- ... while talking to mail-in.pol.net.uk.:(email i'm mailing to)

...

...

...

_RCPT To:

<<<_550- <<<_550 mail from (my emailer ip address) rejected: administrative prohibition (host is blacklisted) 550 (email i'm mailing to)... User unknown

----------email------------------- [...]

Boris Lorenz ---

-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: suse-security-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands, e-mail: suse-security-help@suse.com

Ar Sunday 14 October 2001 7:34 pm, ysgrifenodd Andrew Hougie:

I don't think any of these replies are actually correct. I had exactly the same message from mail-in.pol.net.uk relating to some mail passing through my server to one of my clients (a Freeserve.co.uk subscriber) for whom I operate MX services. I can see from my logs that subsequent mail to freeserve has gone through, via mail-in.pol.net.uk. The relevant IP address does not appear on any of the blacklists covered by the link below and the mail server is not promiscuously relaying. My conclusion is that freeserve had a temporary problem. Andrew

Yeah, i think you're right. My situation is similar. I know we have a fixed ip, and connect through the janet (joint academic) network. We arent listed in any of the blacklisted sites everyone is submitted, so i'll assume its a temporary problem at freeserve's end. Thanks for everyone's suggestions Elf.