Status of rbl.spamhaus.org: NOT A BLOCKING LIST

My friend Mickey Chandler pointed out recently that he's been seeing some unusual bounces that look like this:

Host blacklisted - Found on Realtime Black List server blocklist.address.is.wrong.spamhaus.org

Status of dnsbl.radparker.com: NOT A DNSBL

For a time, SORBS was found to be inaccurately referring to “dnsbl.radparker.com” on the mail server configuration pages over on the SORBS blocking list website. This appears to have been done in retaliation for DNSBL.com publishing data on the effectiveness of the SORBS blocking list. (Both domains are owned by me.)

The real problem was for potential SORBS users – if they followed the instructions verbatim, they ended up rejecting 100% of your inbound mail. Sadly, I've seen traffic, which implies that this has happened to some degree. If you're going to use the SORBS blocklist, be very careful to make sure you've implemented it correctly. Both this, and SORBS' claim that dnsbl.sorbs.net is an unsafe zone to use, suggest that the SORBS' list may not be a wise starting point for those looking to simply, safely block spam. More information on SORBS can be found here.

There has never been a blocklist with a zone name of dnsbl.radparker.com -- and if you type that into the DNSBL section of your mail server config, you will break your inability to receive inbound mail.

Status of rbl.maps.vix.com: INVALID DOMAIN

In January 2007, MAPS (Mail Abuse Prevention System) co-founder Paul Vixie noted on the NANOG mailing list that he continues to receive significant traffic from sites attempting to query the “rbl.maps.vix.com” blocking list.

The DNS zone “rbl.maps.vix.com” was the original zone for the MAPS Realtime Blackhole List (RBL), the first widely-used anti-spam DNSBL. The zone has long since been replaced with another, named blackholes.mail-abuse.org.

The queries against rbl.maps.vix.com will never return anything valid. It’s my understanding that you currently would get no response, and it will block no more mail. You risk eventually blocking wanted mail, if Vixie later decides to implement a wildcard listing strategy, to force sites to stop using his list. (This would make all inbound mail to any site using the list bounce.)

If you currently have rbl.maps.vix.com on the list of DNSBLs you are querying, please remove it. As indicated above, there is currently no spam-blocking value, and there is potential for future risk.

It appears that RBLSMTPD, a tool to allow sites to utilize DNSBLs to block mail, widely utilized in conjunction with qmail, will default to querying rbl.maps.vix.com. If you use RBLSMTPD, please review your configuration to ensure that you’re not contributing to this problem.

If you are attempting to use the MAPS RBL, please do not simply change over to the blackholes.mail-abuse.org zone. The MAPS services are not free, and are blocked from unregistered access. Please see the MAPS website for more information.

If you’re looking for a free, reputable blocking list suite to try, my recommendation would be to consider Spamhaus’s ZEN combined list. I plan to post an article about them very soon, and I’ll link to that from here, after it’s posted.

It's very unlikely that you would see a bounced email message making reference to rbl.maps.vix.com. If you do see such a bounce, it is likely in error. Contact the site (from another email account or via telephone call) and point them toward this site for further information.