Make sure your static IP’s don’t come with baggage!

Thinking about getting a static IP for your small business (or over-the-top home network)? Then you may first want to see if the IP’s your ISP is offering come with any baggage. I recently had the pleasure of helping one of my clients rid his shiny new IP’s of blacklists. If you are unfamiliar, a wise IT admin once said, “…blacklists make email not work”.

He was referring to the fact that once an IP has been tagged as a source of spam, your popularity on email server blacklists will soon follow. There are quite a few good (and not so good) websites that offer RBLs or Real Time Block Lists for exchange servers. You will usually see small and mid-size companies that have one or two exchange servers use these free lists. Bigger corporations and even ISPs use their own form of blacklisting, but trust me, they all work the same. If your IP is on a blacklist it makes it nearly impossible to send email to most domains these days. The only way to erase the damage from the previous owner is to beg for forgiveness.

Is my IP associated with a block list?
Here is how to check: go to this site and enter your IP address. You will be given a list of well known RBL providers and green or red light indicating your squeaky clean, or muddy past.
If all is well on this site the biggest part is over. You may still be receiving NDR’s from other domains though. You will need to deal directly with those domains to correct the problem. Usually a link to an online application for removal will be provided in the NDR. If a link is not provided you will need to contact the webmaster or IT admin on record. All domains are required to have such records, so you can check a WhoIs database.

Doing a little research before your purchase can save you a lot of time and headache later. If you do get blacklisted, follow the above steps to help yourself get back on track.