Email seems to be on blacklist. How do I get off?

Sorry to hear that your IP has been listed on a few spam blacklists. That has to be frustrating; we’ll try to walk you through what we think happened and how to avoid having your IP placed on them in the future.

As a general rule, it is our customers’ responsibility to ensure that the IP assigned to their Linode is not placed on any blacklists. If the IP is put on a blacklist, it is typically the customer who has the responsibility to have it removed from same. Though, there are some blacklists that do require the hosting provider to request delisting. For these specific edge cases, we can help.

Some reasons for getting put on a blacklist:

Additional DNS Records (SPF, PTR) need to be set up:

If you have not set your Sender Policy Framework record (SPF), or your Pointer record (PTR), you will have to set those up. Put super simply, an SPF record tells the internet you’re allowed to send bulk emails (even if you don’t intend to); a PTR record sets up your reverse DNS, which provides a “return address” to your Linode. To verify if you do have them set up, the following commands will provide this information:

--> dig -x <ip address>
--> dig <ip address> txt (bulk mail; Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records or DKIM)
--> dig <ip address> ptr (reverse DNS)

These outputs will show if you do not have your Sender Policy Framework or your reverse DNS set up. If you need to set up those DNS records, the following links should be helpful:

Set up your SPF record (bulk mail)

--> https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/dns/dns-records-an-introduction/#spf
--> http://www.openspf.org/FAQ/Examples

Set up your PTR record (reverse DNS)

--> https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/dns/configure-your-linode-for-reverse-dns/
--> https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/dns/dns-records-an-introduction/#ptr

Email Company needs you to comply with its guidelines.

After setting up the DNS records above, you will have to reach out to Email Company to remove the IP address from the blacklist. When you reach them, they will expect that you will be in compliance with its Terms of Service. After you set up the necessary DNS records, it would be best practice to review the rules before reaching out.

I've had the same issue but it's only been with IPv6/64 number that I was initially assigned. It seems that block lists block the whole /64 when blocking so one of my IP neighbours has been naughty.

I contacted the awesome helpdesk people and they gave me a IPv6/64 block of my own and now I don't have that problem at all.

I still have problems sending email to anyone who has office 365/hotmail/outlook. But so does the rest of the world.

Once your email is setup correctly it would be worth looking into joining sender feedback loops from some of the larger email providers like Yahoo! …

"As a general rule, it is our customers’ responsibility to ensure that the IP assigned to their Linode is not placed on any blacklists. If the IP is put on a blacklist, it is typically the customer who has the responsibility to have it removed from same. "

Please can I double check what Linode staff said above.

If I purchase a linode that has an IP blacklisted by a previous customer, I'm responsible for cleaning it up.

Is this really true? How is it my responsibility?

If you create a Linode and you notice that the assigned IP address was placed on a blacklist before it was created, feel free to reach out to the support team. Just remember to provide the links or information about which blacklist is listing the IP address.