Verizon blocking my IP

[vlutsky]

Hello,

A few days ago our company leased a new web server, and it appears Verizon has the IP address blocked internally.  Perhaps due to a prior holder of this IP was a spammer.

I say internally, because the IP does not show up on ANY of the public blacklists, and has a Neutral Sender Reputation at SenderBase.

We have only sent a handful of emails, mostly to our own agents and business partners, and some of them are being blocked because they are on the Verizon network.

We have all of the commonly required anti-spam measures in place, use DKIM for outbound email, have SPF records set up, have rDNS set up, etc.

Our agents and clients are screaming because as real estate agents some of them are in the middle of transactions or negotiations.

I have tried using the only online Verizon tool I could find, which is the whitelist request, however, I keep getting the same canned reply back, that we are blocked for either spam, which we don't, or because we don't have rDNS set up, which we do.

We have checked all of our settings against all of the popular checking tools and we come up green over and over again.

Our company is going to end up getting sued over a blown transaction because we can't move documents and information back and forth, because potentially someone else used this IP in the past.

PLEASE I need someone to work with me either via this forum or over the phone, to get this cleared up.  I can proved 6 ways to Sunday that our company is not a spammer.

Thanks and I look forward to hearing back.

Victor

[gs0b]

Note that these forums are where residential customers help each other.  Occasionally, a Verizon rep will take a discussion to a private support area; which may happen in your case.

It sounds like you have a commercial account.  In which case, you should contact Verizon commercial account support.  If you are using a residential plan, know that running a server is prohibited by the residential terms of service.

If you have a dynamic IP address from Verizon (which is true for residential accounts), you can try to get a new IP address yourself.  Login to your router, go to the page for your broadband connection and release the IP address.  Then turn off your router and wait at least two hours.  When you turn it back on, you may very well get a new IP address.

You should also consider using another email system temporarily since you business appears to be in jeopardy.  If you own your own domain, you can update your DNS records to point to a different server than the one you can't get working.

You may want to consider using a hosted server as that will free you up from having to maintain your own server.  They are quite inexpensive; just Google "web hosting."

If you want more help from us users, post more details about what is going on.  Tell us what kind of account you have, how you are connected to Verizon, and so on.  Headers from the bounce messages would be particularly helpful.

Good Luck.

[vlutsky]

Note that these forums are where residential customers help each other.  Occasionally, a Verizon rep will take a discussion to a private support area; which may happen in your case.

I understand that, however, there is no other place to interact and hopefully get a human from Verizon to help.  I located several other similar posts on this forum where Verizon did help, hence my post.

It sounds like you have a commercial account.  In which case, you should contact Verizon commercial account support.  If you are using a residential plan, know that running a server is prohibited by the residential terms of service.

No I dont have a commercial account or a residential account other than my cell phone.  I am a stand alone business who is having my emails blocked by Verizon for no valid reason.

If you have a dynamic IP address from Verizon (which is true for residential accounts), you can try to get a new IP address yourself.  Login to your router, go to the page for your broadband connection and release the IP address.  Then turn off your router and wait at least two hours.  When you turn it back on, you may very well get a new IP address.

I appreciate your efforts, however, you are not understanding the problem.  If you can direct me to an email or phone number for a network support person, that would be greatly appreciated.

You should also consider using another email system temporarily since you business appears to be in jeopardy.  If you own your own domain, you can update your DNS records to point to a different server than the one you can't get working.

My server is working fine, and my email is working fine.  Verizon is BLOCKING it.

You may want to consider using a hosted server as that will free you up from having to maintain your own server.  They are quite inexpensive; just Google "web hosting."

We ARE leasing a hosted server, which is working fine.  VERIZON IS BLOCKING THE IP ADDRESS FROM ITS NETWORK.

If you want more help from us users, post more details about what is going on.  Tell us what kind of account you have, how you are connected to Verizon, and so on.  Headers from the bounce messages would be particularly helpful.

Here is a copy of the bounce:

Return-path: <>
Envelope-to: {edited for privacy}
Delivery-date: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 19:26:11 -0400
Received: from mailnull by hostname.theactionagency.net with local (Exim 4.80.1)
 id 1VI5Pm-0002xS-Rh
 for {edited for privacy}; Fri, 06 Sep 2013 19:26:10 -0400
X-Failed-Recipients: {edited for privacy}
Auto-Submitted: auto-replied
From: Mail Delivery System <Mailer-Daemon@hostname.theactionagency.net>
To: {edited for privacy}
Subject: Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender
Message-Id: <{edited for privacy}>
Date: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 19:26:10 -0400

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

  {edited for privacy}
    SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection:
    host relay.verizon.net [206.46.232.11]: 571 Email from {edited for privacy} is currently blocked by Verizon Online's anti-spam system. The email sender or Email Service Provider may visit http://www.verizon.net/whitelist and request removal of the block. 130906

Filling out the form at the whitelist link gets a canned reply of:

After investigation, Verizon Online Security has determined that e-mail from your IP address will not be allowed access to the Verizon Online e-mail domain due to one or more of the following reasons:

Your IP has been blocked because of spam issues or because your ISP indicates that it is dynamically assigned

 No Reverse Hostname associated with your IP address.


As I mentioned in my original post we do not and have never spammed, we have rDNS set up, and we do not have a dynamic assigned IP.

Ideally a network or abuse technician at Verizon will see this post and offer some assistance.  Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any way to contact someone at that level.  If a 'user' has such a phone number or email address it would be awesome if they post it here.  As mentioned my post is in the hopes of getting a Verizon reps attention, as I have seen some older posts achieve.

Thanks,

Victor

Good Luck.

[prisaz]

I would suggest sending them messages daily until you get a response. I can see HOW this would be unacceptable for your IP or domain to be blacklisted.

http://my.verizon.com/micro/whitelist/RequestForm.aspx?id=isp

Yes even spamhaus.org does not showing your domain or IP as being blocked. As you have said, Verizon is bocking it for some reason, as it shows in the header information.

You may want to contact abuse@verizon.net and file your complaint in regards to not being whitelisted, as per your request. The POC information for the IP blocking your mail can be found here. But as stated contacts with the POC directly to the engineering group will be ignored. So if your whitelist requests are being ignored, I would suggest the Email address provided, or if the email address gets removed because of TOS rules. The Email address for the "abuse" whitelist / blacklist people can be found in the POC record for the IP that rejected your Email.

http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-206-46-0-0-1/pft

Best of luck from just another Verizon user.

[gs0b]

---

As I mentioned in my original post we do not and have never spammed, we have rDNS set up, and we do not have a dynamic assigned IP.

Ideally a network or abuse technician at Verizon will see this post and offer some assistance.  Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any way to contact someone at that level.  If a 'user' has such a phone number or email address it would be awesome if they post it here.  As mentioned my post is in the hopes of getting a Verizon reps attention, as I have seen some older posts achieve.

---

I've never seen any evidence that Verizon's network folks even look at this forum.  It's used primarily by residential users to help each other.  Occasionally, a residential user may have a Verizon customer service representative "escalate" their billing or service issue; but nothing like what you're expecting.

Are you confusing the IP address of your business with the IP address of your hosted server?  They are different.  You may be buying a fixed IP address from your ISP, but that has nothing to do with the IP address of your hosted server.  You'll need to contact your hosting company to figure that out.

I too have a hosted sever that has nothing to do with Verizon.  Sometimes it get's blocked by various block lists as it's a shared environment and a spammer messes things up for the other users.  My web hosting company is very responsive in dealing with these issues, kicking the spammers off, and cleaning up the block lists as best they can.  The challenge is once the server is cleaned up it can take a while before the block lists agree.  Not much the average user can do about that.

You may want to work with your ISP, they may have channels not available to you.  The entities you pay for internet access and hosting have a vested interest in help you, their customer.  Maybe you can get them to give your server another IP address.

Good Luck.

[vlutsky]

Thanks for the email address and link.  I have taken your advice and emailed the 'abuse' email address.  Not only is spamhaus clean... EVERY public blacklist comes up clean.  I ran several checks from different links.  Even the senderbase reputation is clean.  I am at a total loss, and surprised VZ doesn't have some type of path for resolution other than the automated 'whitelist' page, which doesn't really help with this issue.  Thanks again for your time and information.

And PLEASE... if ANY VZ rep sees this post... your assistance is greatly appreciated!

Victor

[LawrenceC]

Hi vlutsky,

Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Before the agent can begin assisting you, they will need to collect further information from you. Please go to your profile page for the forum and look at the top of the middle column where you will find an area titled "My Support Cases". You can reach your profile page by clicking on your name beside your post, or at the top left of this page underneath the title of the board.

Under "My Support Cases" you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. This should be checked on a frequent basis, as the agent may be waiting for information from you before they can proceed with any actions. Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.