New server and everything is marked as spam!

[cooldude7273]

Hi everyone,

I just got a new server sitting and everything coming from the server is being marked as spam everywhere from GMail to Windows Mail.

I'm listed in 2 spam blacklists: HOSTKARMA (caught in a /20 block)and FIVETENOTHER (caught in a /24 block), but nothing else.

I've even gone so far as to add a spf record for my domain, and yes it does work fine, but it hasn't changed anything.

Does anyone have any ideas on what is happening or what I can do?

Thanks,

Daniel

[Kheldin]

Have you setup reverse DNS for the IP that your mailserver uses?

If not, I'm guessing you either don't have a PTR record for the IP address at all, or it's set to a rather generic one from your provider.

What you'll need to do is contact whomever owns the IP address and have them set the PTR record to something not so generic, ie mail.yourdomain.com, or have them delegate authority to you and you can set the PTR record in BIND.

You can always use the tools at http://www.dnsreport.com to help you troubleshoot DNS issues.

[cooldude7273]

Yeah, forgot to mention that - reverse DNS is setup fully.

[Kheldin]

OK.

Just curious, but how does your SPF record look? Is it something simply like "v=spf1 mx -all" .. I've found that some receiving servers don't like it if you have anything but -all in your SPF record.

Also, a lot of times an IP will end up in one of those lists because at some point that IP did something wrong, and if you have it now, and are sure the SPF and PTR records are setup right, maybe you can contact the list owners and ask to be removed. But don't even bother until your 100% sure everything is kosher on your end.

[cooldude7273]

SPF record is "v=spf1 a mx a:mydomain.net ~all"

Also, its not that my IP is blocked, but that I'm in both a /20 and /24 block of IPs and they won't remove me until dozens of other trouble servers in this block stop spamming.

[Kheldin]

Try changing your ~all to a -all and see if that helps any. Theoretically it shouldn't, but you never know.

Perhaps you can contact the folks who are junking your mail and have them whitelist your IP address. I know its real hard to get out of those lists, so that may be your only chance other than getting a different IP.

On a side note.. I wish ALL server admins would STOP using these lame blacklists.

[cooldude7273]

Changing that didn't fix anything, but I did install DomainKeys for the domain and that fixed it all up!