You know the problem too? You want to write to a business partner who - for whatever reason - runs his business emails via outlook.com. Unfortunately the e-mail comes back with the message:
[box type="warning" align="aligncenter" class=" width="]: host
domainnamecontact-com.mail.protection.outlook.com [207.46.163.215] said: 550 5.7.1
Service unavailable; Client host [123.123.123.123] blocked using FBLW15; To
request removal from this list please forward this message to
delist@messaging.microsoft.com (in reply to RCPT TO command)
The personal Data and IP address I have made unrecognizable here.
Unfortunately, Microsoft has the habit of blacklisting IP addresses arbitrarily. In the above example, an unused IP address with a freshly installed email server was used. So it has not been noticed or listed anywhere.
Of course the technical details were taken into account:
[tie_list type="checklist"]- PTR record (reverse DNS) of the mail server domain
- SPF Entry v=spf1 mx ptr ip4:123.123.123.123 ?all
- TLS Support of the mail server under exclusion of old encryption methods
- Checking the IP address for blacklist entries and correct configuration (multirbl, mxtools)
So the IP is "clean". Sending to other e-mail providers is no problem. Communication with Microsoft services is not possible. These include Outlook.com/live/hotmail.
So how do you get off the Microsoft blacklist?
Unfortunately, this is not so easy and depends on goodwill Microsoft.
As requested I sent a copy of the email including the header to the email address delist@messaging.microsoft.com and got a tickettid back:
[box type="info" align="aligncenter" class=" width="]Hello ,
Thank you for your delisting request SRX1308604213ID. Your ticket was received on (Oct 14 2015 11:47 AM UTC) and will be responded to within 24 hours.
Our team will investigate the address that you have requested to be removed from our blocklist. If for any reason we are not able to remove your address, one of our technical support representatives will respond to you with additional information.
Regards,
technical support
Unfortunately the 24h did not work out. The Microsoft support needs a little bit longer until they take care of it. (see below)
So I tried to send the email almost every day, always with the same reason for refusal, I always forwarded the email to Microsoft with the request to unsubscribe from the blacklist and the reasons mentioned above.
Unfortunately as always no processing of the matter, only a ticket number.
After 11 days someone from DNS Whitelist reported that my entry was added.
[box type="success" align=" class=" width="]Hi,
Your request with ticket number #XXXXX to add, change or delete IP addresses to dnswl.org has been processed with the DNSWL Id XXXXX
You can check the new entry via the lookup tool at
https://dnswl.org/s?s=XXXXX
Before filing a feedback, please consider the information at
https://www.dnswl.org/?page_id=21 and our trust level description directly
at https://www.dnswl.org
Each reply will reopen the request ticket and cause additional work - so
please no "thanks", thanks 😉
If you know of IP addresses which we have miscategorized or which we
missed, please use the form at https://www.dnswl.org/?page_id=87
Your input is our motivation for maintaining this service.
Arne Jensen
—
http://www.dnswl.org
DNS Whitelist - Protect against false positives[/box]
So a first success to put the mail server on the whitelist, which was not initiated by me at all. But apparently there is a connection here. They obviously checked the mail server and saw that everything is ok. I only send about 10 mails a day and the server log doesn't show more, so a hack attack on my mailbox or any other attack on the server is out of the question.
Unfortunately the whitelist entry did not help much. The e-mails were still rejected - at least at the recipient. I could send the eMail to a previously created outlook.de eMail address. But this address was saved as Spam considered without further explanation.
After I set the email in the outlook.de webmailer to "no spam" I could at least communicate with myself at outlook.de. But then the unexpected happened. Short time later I received an eMail from Microsoft on my ticket:
[box type="note" align="aligncenter" class=" width="]Hello ,
Thank you for contacting Microsoft Online Services Technical Support. This email is in reference to ticket number 1308604213, which was opened in regards to your delisting request for 123.123.123.123.
The IP address you submitted has been reviewed and removed from our block lists. Please note that there may be a 1-2 hour delay before this change propagates through our entire system.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. As long as our spam filtering systems do not mark a majority of email from the IP address as spam-like, your messages will be allowed to flow as normal through our network. However, should we detect an increase in spam-like activity, the IP address may be re-added to our block list.
Should you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to respond to this email.
Thank you again for contacting Microsoft Online Services technical support and giving us the opportunity to serve you.
[/box]Afterwards I could send the email to the business partner who has outsourced his emails to Microsoft.
Almost 2 weeks support time on service requests for critical outages. That's really lame. If I had not been in contact with the business partner by other means, he would have missed an order.
