I recently moved a server to a new host and all mail is going through with the exception of earthlink. After some research it appears that this is a huge problem with legitimate businesses like mine. First of all, I was under the impression that if your server is being blocked that the blocker would send a message to “abuse@mydomainname.com”. That’s why I have that mail box set up anyway. Apparently earthlink doesn’t. So after running my mail server log analyzer a week after cutting over, I discovered that some of my clients have not been receiving email notifications.
What to do?
First I checked all the spam indexes that earthlink suggested to see if I was on a spam list. I’m not. Second, I verified that my server is not an open relay, Third, I verified in the logs that for some reason my server was sending email as if it were compromised, it’s not. Fourthly, I verified that a ptr was set up on the server, it is.
So I wrote blockedbyearthlink@abuse.earthlink.net with {BLOCKED - myIP} in the subject line asking to be removed from their block list. However, I have not heard back. The email just goes into what I can only guess is a black hole. I’m sure the employees at earthlink are hard working individuals and that the company really doesn’t want to block legitimate emails to their customer inboxes. However, the system they have in place is broken.
It’s hard to imagine why legitimate emails are being blocked so arbitrarily by just earthlink and not any of the hundreds of other ISPs my clients use. What gives?
Has anyone else run into this? If you have, what did you end up doing about it? I’d be willing to bet that some of you reading this have the same thing going on and you aren’t even aware of it. Check your logs and let me know.
I hope I have a resolution soon. I’ll chime in once I do.
Update: 2/8/2008
I just received a response from (associate_name)@corp.earthlink.net and here was the response:
Vincent, That IP was removed from blocking. The changes will take a couple of hours. Regards, (associate's name) EarthLink
In the end, I’m just glad it’s cleared up but I still have no idea why the server’s IP ended up on their block list. My only advice…monitor your email log files often.
Vince Collins
April 25, 2008 at 5:57 pm
We are having this same issue…Multiple USPS letters and proper submission forms are being sent in to Earthlink and we have all best practices in place. We have yet to receive a single reply and phone calls seem pointless.
April 25, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I’m sorry to hear that. It was very frustrating for my company as well. Essentially you are at the mercy of the individual service providers when it comes down to it.
I’d be curious to know if you are able to resolve this and how. I was lucky enough to have a human read my email and fixed the issue. I hope you are as fortunate.
June 6, 2008 at 2:08 pm
I am an engineer supporting several customers. I have one that recently changed service providers and this began happening about a week afterwards. I hope that resolving it will be easier than what I see here. Earthlink needs to pony up on better support response to this issue.
August 19, 2008 at 4:47 am
I have had the same problem with Earthlink and think it is due to their use of SORBS.net which is a spam database.
The database makes reference to opinions about what normal internet users should be and shouldn’t be using on dynamic IP addresses. Note: their opinion. Earthlink just takes this as said it seems and denies a lot of reputable business mail such as mine which is critical to my business. These guys are looking like amateurs. I appreciate the fight against spam but when they kill business traffic they are for sure going to loose business at least and get sued big time at worse.
September 26, 2008 at 5:24 am
I have the exact same issue
I have recieved the “That IP was removed from blocking.
The changes will take a couple of hours.Regards,” e-mail but still no e-mail is getting through to earthlink
These guys are a nightmare!
October 7, 2008 at 11:47 am
I have been emailing Earthlink for over 2 weeks because they have blocked my IP address. The only response I received was a email with a list of sites that may have me on their blacklist and instructions to check each one of them. I contacted each site and I was not on any of their list. I cut and pasted the results into an email to Earthlink. Today I finally recieved the, “That IP was removed from blocking.The changes will take a couple of hours” email. I guess you just have to keep after them.
October 28, 2008 at 1:32 pm
hmmm…. im currently experiencing the same issue. i’ve been sending them emails for days, following their instructions exactly and i still can’t get off their blacklist, even though i’m not listed in any spam databases. i’m going to keep trying and hopefully i’ll get somewhere.