EmailDiscussions.com  

Go Back   EmailDiscussions.com > Discussions about Email Services > Email Help Needed!
Register FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read
Stay in touch wirelessly

Email Help Needed! Having problems with your email service, or with the email software you're using? Post your questions and answers here!

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 15 Jan 2021, 01:55 AM   #1
Rich_A
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 11
Blacklisted IP

Been having an on-going problem for a long time. My personal IP address assigned to me by my ISP (comcast) is showing up on many IP address blacklists. This is causing (among other things) lots of problems with my emails.

Anyone else have a problem with a Comcast assigned IP address that is black listed? So far I've been told the only solution is to "change my Internet Service provider". That is not an option for me.

If you've had this problem I'd like to hear if and how you fixed it. I've tried everything here. (and I mean "everything") .. FWIW, my IP address is ACTING like a "static" IP and has not changed for close to 3 years. It's supposed to be a "dynamic" address but I can NOT force a change by any of the normal means. I've contacted Comcast dozens of time over the last couple years, each time spending MANY hours with support only to be pushed up through several higher levels to ultimately be told that they will get in touch with their "IT" department and someone from there will get back to me. NO ONE EVER DOES. Lately the problems have been getting worse.

No problem with the Internet service or the cable tv. Both are FAST super reliable, great quality. can stream 4K video etc to multiple devices simultaneously. typical speeds up near 200 mps and it's been great over-all.

BUT, I'm having huge slow downs trying to send regular short emails and many are being blocked. Plus am now being locked out of more and more web sites on the Internet. .
Rich_A is offline   Reply With Quote

Old 15 Jan 2021, 03:55 AM   #2
JeremyNicoll
Essential Contributor
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Scotland
Posts: 483
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich_A View Post
Been having an on-going problem for a long time. My personal IP address assigned to me by my ISP (comcast) is showing up on many IP address blacklists. This is causing (among other things) lots of problems with my emails.

Anyone else have a problem with a Comcast assigned IP address that is black listed? So far I've been told the only solution is to "change my Internet Service provider". That is not an option for me.

If you've had this problem I'd like to hear if and how you fixed it. I've tried everything here. (and I mean "everything") .. FWIW, my IP address is ACTING like a "static" IP and has not changed for close to 3 years. It's supposed to be a "dynamic" address but I can NOT force a change by any of the normal means. I've contacted Comcast dozens of time over the last couple years, each time spending MANY hours with support only to be pushed up through several higher levels to ultimately be told that they will get in touch with their "IT" department and someone from there will get back to me. NO ONE EVER DOES. Lately the problems have been getting worse.

No problem with the Internet service or the cable tv. Both are FAST super reliable, great quality. can stream 4K video etc to multiple devices simultaneously. typical speeds up near 200 mps and it's been great over-all.

BUT, I'm having huge slow downs trying to send regular short emails and many are being blocked. Plus am now being locked out of more and more web sites on the Internet. .
Even if you were able to change your IP address, the new one would also be one of the ones Comcast manage, and would quite likely have the same problem.


You say you can't change your ISP. Well, fine. But your ISP needn't be the service that sends your emails. If you get yourself a personal domain and have that hosted by a reputable email-hosting company, then your problems may go away. Then, your ISP is just the company who provide your physical connection to the internet. Provided you didn't then use the reputable-company's servers to send content that anyone objected to, I wouldn't expect them to prevent your email client (assuming you use such a thing) from logging-in to their system.

I don't understand why your home(?) IP address would be causing you to be blocked from "more and more" websites, unless they are meant only to service people who live in countries that you don't live in. Maybe using a VPN would fix that?
JeremyNicoll is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 15 Jan 2021, 05:02 AM   #3
TenFour
Master of the @
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: USA
Posts: 1,683
Wouldn't email sent by any of the free email providers, like Gmail or Outlook.com, also avoid the problem? Or, are you running your own email server?
TenFour is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 15 Jan 2021, 06:12 AM   #4
Rich_A
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 11
[quote=JeremyNicoll;618885]Even if you were able to change your IP address, the new one would also be one of the ones Comcast manage, and would quite likely have the same problem.

Yes I realize that "may" be the case. I've been told changing the address was a hit or miss thing. But I "should" be able to change it in any case and for now I'm just trying to get rid of that IP address.

You say you can't change your ISP. Well, fine. But your ISP needn't be the service that sends your emails. If you get yourself a personal domain and have that hosted by a reputable email-hosting company, then your problems may go away. Then, your ISP is just the company who provide your physical connection to the internet. Provided you didn't then use the reputable-company's servers to send content that anyone objected to, I wouldn't expect them to prevent your email client (assuming you use such a thing) from logging-in to their system.

Been all thru that. I do NOT use Comcast's email service. I have my own domain, ( our-emails.com) and am using Ionos (formeraly 1 & 1) for for my email for about a year.

Originally three years ago and at another location, I had Cox as my ISP and Aplus for hosting and had no problems for over 10 years. Three years ago I moved to this new location .. No Cox service here and Comcast is the only one with the quality and speed I need. I've already confirmed there is NOTHING wrong with my email or domain and they are monitored constantly and are not blacklisted anywhere. However my personal IP address assigned by comcast IS on many black lists. Have been to the various blacklist sites and for only a few was able to have my IP address "de-listed". However not only does the ip show up again later but here are several sites who are telling me that they can NOT de-list me and I should contact my ISP.


I don't understand why your home(?) IP address would be causing you to be blocked from "more and more" websites, unless they are meant only to service people who live in countries that you don't live in. Maybe using a VPN would fix that?

Point is any email coming out of my house has it 's originating IP address on it. And that IP address is being checked at various email recipients by their overly aggressive security which subscribes to various anti-spam and other services that also provide lists of known bad IP addresses.

And yes I have been able to get around this bad IP address problem concerning web sites by using a VPN service. When I do that I CAN check into those web sites again as normal. BUT the VPN doesn't work for "some" web sites. These are normal web sites I've been using for the last 20 or more years . An example is "Consumer Cellular". I manage my account and pay my monthly bill there. The only way I can access that site now, is to log in with a VPN. Last year when I first got "locked out" of the site they told me there was nothing they could do on their end and I should contact my ISP.

I've even looked into adding a second ISP JUST to use for email so I can continue to use Comcast for the Internet and TV. But I'm told only one IP address is allowed per a physical location.

It is my personal IP address assigned by Comcast that is the problem. There is NO problem with INCOMING email. Just out-going mail. And that is because every out-going email coming out of my home has it's originating IP address embedded in it.


(edit) Sorry about the red text and weird formatting. New to this forum .. and think I'm not using the quoting correctly. <grin>

Last edited by Rich_A : 15 Jan 2021 at 06:38 AM. Reason: added note
Rich_A is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 15 Jan 2021, 06:32 AM   #5
Rich_A
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by TenFour View Post
Wouldn't email sent by any of the free email providers, like Gmail or Outlook.com, also avoid the problem? Or, are you running your own email server?
I've been reluctant to use "free" stuff like Gmail for various security reasons. But I don't know why that would work. If I use a PC from my home with Gmail, wouldn't that still have the Comcast IP embedded in it? I'm not at all familiar with GMail.

I've always had my own domain and email going back over 20 years. When I had Cox as my ISP (for Internet, TV and Telephone) I did not use the "cox email" service but rather had my own domain, email and web site hosted by Aplus. But when I moved to this new location I changed to Ionos and am using them strictly for my new Domain and emails. I only have one actual Comcast email account that I "have" to keep to manage my Comcast account (which is now just Internet and TV and no other email) I don't use it .. Just about everyone I have used that Comcast email complains about my emails getting sent to their spam accounts and in a few cases they have had to do extraordinary things to get THEIR ISP to un-block me. So I never use the Comcast email.
Rich_A is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 15 Jan 2021, 06:50 AM   #6
TenFour
Master of the @
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Location: USA
Posts: 1,683
I'm pretty sure Gmail does not include your home IP in outgoing emails if you are using Gmail on the web, only the IP of the Gmail servers. Not sure what other providers do. However, if you are using a local client like Thunderbird I believe your IP will show.

Quote:
Popular internet-based email services differ in the use of IP addresses in email headers. Use these tips to identify IP addresses in such emails.

Google Gmail omits the sender IP address information from all headers. Instead, only the IP address of the Gmail mail server is shown in the Received line.
Microsoft Outlook.com provides the IP address in the first Received header line.
Emails from Yahoo contain the sender's IP address in the last Received entry.https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-find...address-818402
TenFour is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 15 Jan 2021, 07:13 AM   #7
JeremyNicoll
Essential Contributor
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Scotland
Posts: 483
None of the companies you name mean anything to me - so if there's knowledge of how they operate required to make sensible specific suggestions, I can't do that.

Can you tell us what software you use to send mails?

If eg a mail client on your PC is logging into an Ionos server then sending mail, and the Ionos server is recording your IP address as the one the SMTP login and data came from, perhaps Ionos' technical support may have a way to suppress that IP address information.

Alternatively, wouldn't using a VPN for that connection solve the problem?
JeremyNicoll is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 15 Jan 2021, 07:23 AM   #8
SideshowBob
Essential Contributor
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 278
It's actually quite common for ISP dynamic addresses to be in blocklists. It usually creates no problems unless you do something odd like trying to deliver direct-to-MX.

Which lists are you in? The fact that you have had the same address for years and are getting relisted suggests you may be running some malware or have some sort of abusable server software such as an open relay. The type of list may give some indication.

Last edited by SideshowBob : 16 Jan 2021 at 12:07 AM.
SideshowBob is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20 Jan 2021, 06:46 AM   #9
Rich_A
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by SideshowBob View Post
It's actually quite common for ISP dynamic addresses to be in blocklists. It usually creates no problems unless you do something odd like trying to deliver direct-to-MX.

Which lists are you in? The fact that you have had the same address for years and are getting relisted suggests you may be running some malware or have some sort of abusable server software such as an open relay. The type of list may give some indication.
Can you clarify what you mean by "running some malware" or "have some sort of abusable server software such as an open relay" ??

All my computers in my home are well protected and checked regularly for malware etc. Have not had any kind of infection etc. in at least the last 2 years. One computer (an HTPC) is being used as a "DVR" and is on and running 24/7 (for the last 3 yrs) It goes thru extensive anti-mailware checks etc. every morning at 4 am. I've not had any problems with incoming spam, never visit "ANY" questionable sites etc.
Here the list of sites "black listing" my IP address
dnsbl.spfbl.net
dnsbl.justspam.org
dnsbl.sorbs.net
dnsbl-1.uceprotect.net
dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net
all.s5h.net
bl.spamcop.net
cbl.abuseat.org

My ISP is Comcast. My domain is "our-emails.com" and is NOT on any lists (I have MX Toolbox checking it weekly for the past year) All my computers are using "mailbird" for their email client and I have 5 email addresses .. all under the "our=emails.com" domain. 1 is a POP3 and the other 4 are all IMAP. I have email issues (several) on all the computers, laptop, and a tablet. If I take ANY of those PCs to a remote location (like my daughter's house whose ISP is Frontier) All the PCs emails and web site access work perfectly.

Today .. I had a lot of trouble just trying to "read" a new email. Kept saying the email was taking too long to download. After many minutes of waiting I opened up my browser and logged into my web mail account and INSTANTLY connected and the message popped up instantly. Usually that is true for many of my emails .. the web mail is fast - almost instant. But the windows email client has problems getting and sending email "most" of the time. Sometimes it IS okay, and then sometimes it's horribly slow. The problem with the web site access however is such that I can no longer access some web sites AT ALL now, unless I use a VPN. Then I can get access them. I appreciate the help here and hope you can help.
Rich_A is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20 Jan 2021, 08:09 PM   #10
JeremyNicoll
Essential Contributor
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Scotland
Posts: 483
You mention that you use "mailbird" as an email client.

It might be brilliant, but - to my mind - anything whose website pushes the idea that "it's beautiful" and has integration with lots of other apps, means it's quite likely not to have had the level of programming attention required to make it fast and efficient and email standards-compliant.

The site has only a handful of questions in its FAQ and Troubleshooting sections.

Admittedly I only looked briefly, but I failed to find a "knowledgeable user" support forum. That's rarely a good sign.

How about "official" support? Have you tried to engage with them about all your issues? Are they any good?
JeremyNicoll is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21 Jan 2021, 05:03 AM   #11
Rich_A
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 11
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyNicoll View Post
You mention that you use "mailbird" as an email client.

It might be brilliant, but - to my mind - anything whose website pushes the idea that "it's beautiful" and has integration with lots of other apps, means it's quite likely not to have had the level of programming attention required to make it fast and efficient and email standards-compliant.

The site has only a handful of questions in its FAQ and Troubleshooting sections.

Admittedly I only looked briefly, but I failed to find a "knowledgeable user" support forum. That's rarely a good sign.

How about "official" support? Have you tried to engage with them about all your issues? Are they any good?
I have used other email programs Ie: Thunderbird, Outlook etc. and the problems are all the same. About a year ago I took a look at this "MailBird" application .. and ended up buying it. They have quick and decent support. Have interfaced with their support directly about my problems and they have examined many examples of logs and have determined the problem is with my email server provider .. Ionos. Also have been interfacing with Ionos support ( I pay for that service as well) and they tell me I need to work with my ISP to fix the problem . (comcast) .. Over almost three years now everything and every one, keeps pointing me back to Comcast.

Before moving to this new location I used Gmail for a while. But when moving up here I dropped that. I might try that again here but have to look into being able to use it with my own domain. I've been told that Gmail doesn't embed my originating IP address in my sent email headers? I might try that as a test to prove whether or not it's the IP address that is causing the problem. Not exactly sure about that though.

One thing I've tested and found is when using the Mailbird program from my home and a laptop I find the MB log has a lot of connection errors, and time outs and the log usually says "could not connect to server" or "server taking too long to respond" etc. Yet if I take that same laptop to a place with a remote location with public Wifi service, all emails are lightning fast .. no errors and everything is instantaneous. I've done various tests etc. on my lan and internet connection with various utilities and no problems are found. My Internet speed tests are always averaging around 125 Mbps. History over last 2 years has shown highest at 190 and lowest to be around 90 Mbps. I have NO problem streaming hi res on line shows, and general web site access is very fast. But I do have more frequent problems now accessing some web sites these days due to being "blocked from access" (Blacklisted IP ? ). As mentioned before, SOME times I can get around that by using a VPN. I wish there was a way to use a VPN service to mask my IP with my outgoing email. Ergo my thought about re-trying Gmail.
Rich_A is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22 Jan 2021, 12:46 AM   #12
somdcomputerguy
Cornerstone of the Community
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Rupert, WV
Posts: 876
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich_A View Post
I wish there was a way to use a VPN service to mask my IP with my outgoing email. Ergo my thought about re-trying Gmail.
Using a VPN with a local email client should not be an issue. If it is, try another VPN service or email client.

- Bruce
somdcomputerguy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22 Jan 2021, 12:46 AM   #13
JeremyNicoll
Essential Contributor
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Scotland
Posts: 483
You've got two main problems - connections to your email host seem very poor even though connections elsewhere seem fine, and

someone/something is keeping your public IP address on blacklists.


You mentioned taking your laptop to somewhere with a public wifi service, and it being fine. At home, are you also using wifi? What happens if you use a wired connection to your router?

Can you alter the timeout settings on your email application?

If your router has wifi, change the wifi passwords and make sure it's set to the most thorough security settings. One possible reason for your problem could be that someone else is using your connection (so they have the same WAN ip address) and is sending spam.

Do you have kids (or their friends) or your friends who ever use your connection, even if only when visiting you?

Routers themselves can be compromised. It's possible that yours has malware on it, and it could be acting as a relay ie sending mail by itself. Did you change its admin interface userid & password when you got it or is it using the standard (often publically known) values? It might be worth logging into it, noting the values of all its settings that make it work for you, then factory resetting it, resetting the necessary values, setting new admin login passwords etc, then seeing if that helps. If the vendor provides firmware updates, it's maybe worth updating it.

How is DNS configured? You can see what your current ethernet/wifi adapter is using by issuing ipconfig /all in a command window. It lists settings for every adapter in your machine. For example for my in-use ethernet adapter the relevant part is

Ethernet adapter Ethernet 2:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
...
...
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.168.4.100
208.67.222.222
8.8.8.8

Most people use DHCP to have their router tell the machine(s) on their LANs what settings to use, and that often includes using an ISP's DNS servers. ISP DNS can be very slow. I'm not sure that a slow DNS service would necessarily cause a problem for an email client, but it might, and who knows whether the client's logfiles would accurately show that as a DNS issue. It's one of the things that might be different when you're not using your laptop at home (if at home you get one set of settings from your ISP but elsewhere you get different settings from the provider of the connection you use).

Here (in the UK) I explicitly configure the TCP/IP service to use DNS servers of my choice, currently specifying one of my ISP's servers (which /should/ be quick for me as my cable modem is in their network), but also 208.67.222.222 (a server at opendns.com) and also 8.8.8.8 (which belongs to google; I'm not keen on telling google the name of every site I use, but they are reliable).

In Windows 8.1 these definitions are made by drilling down on each 'adapter's settings starting at Control Panel - Network and Sharing Center then clicking Change adapter settings. Each possible adapter (eg different ethernet ports, wifi adapters etc) have their own settings. You pick an adapter, right-click and choose Properties, choose the Networking tab, and on that there's a list of "items" the adapter uses. Scroll that to find (in my case and probably yours too) the one named "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)", select it and click the Properties button, and you should see a pane allowing you to hardcode LAN ip address, subnet mask and gateway address (leave them alone) then under that a section about DNS servers. If you deselect the "obtain DNS sever address automatically" line, you can define your own choice of server addresses under it. The Win8.1 pane lets one specify just two servers there but I clicked on Advanced and then chose a DNS tab and eventually you get to a place where you can define more than two.

/If/ you do that you can eliminate one of the differences between home and elsewhere.
JeremyNicoll is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22 Jan 2021, 12:53 AM   #14
JeremyNicoll
Essential Contributor
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: Scotland
Posts: 483
I googled for: vpn email

and it's clear that there are some problems; some VPN services block some of the ports used for email traffic. It might be that they don't want their servers to end up on blacklists if spammers use them?
JeremyNicoll is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 22 Jan 2021, 05:37 PM   #15
jarland
Essential Contributor
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 399

Representative of:
MXRoute.com
Interesting problem. It is as others mentioned normal for a residential IP to be on RBLs. In fact, many of them request their ranges to be listed at spamhaus proactively because they have in their policies that customers shouldn't run mail servers on them. However, as you also noted, you're not running a mail server but your mail server is including your connecting IP in a Received header, and a content filter is checking Received headers against blacklists.

I've noticed an increase in this as well. One of my filter servers fell in a /24 that got SBL'd (cloud provider IP range) and we saw email rejections due to this, even though the filter server doesn't deliver the mail but merely passes it to the relays.

I think if this is going to be the trend, the email provider removing the client IP from the Received headers before sending it on isn't an unreasonable ask. It can be argued as a violation of accepted RFC standard, but standards are less important than working around unfair algorithms.

I would recommend bringing it to your mail provider with that request in mind: That they remove your IP from headers before sending the email on. It is the SMTP server that you connect to which writes that Received header, so it is the job of that server or one after it to remove it and it's not something you can influence withot their help. Unless of course you are running your own mail server, in which case I'd highly recommend removing a Received header before sending it on.
jarland is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT +9. The time now is 02:35 PM.

 

Copyright EmailDiscussions.com 1998-2022. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy