AboutThomas Kracht Expertise I can answer most questions about web hosting, as in, hosting companies, control panels, website administration, etc.
Experience Have worked/volunteered in the web hosting industry for about 3 years. Both free web hosting and paid web hosting, have served in customer and technical support roles in the industry.
Organizations Frozen Midnight LLC. http://www.frozenmidnighthosting.com Currently the server coordinator/lead technician on the largest of 11 servers the company has.
Expert: Thomas Kracht Date: 2/25/2008 Subject: web host blocked by hotmail
Question QUESTION: Hi,
Just in the past three days, we have found that any e-mails we send out are bounced back my Hotmail.
The message is that the mail is "rejected by Windows Live Hotmail for policy reasons." And "the reasons for rejection may be related to content with spam-like characteristics or IP/domain reputation problems."
I don't send out spam, but of course I understand that programs can look for certain characteristics. But I rather think it might have to do with the IP/domain reputation. My company's website is hosted, so I suppose some other spammer company might be there too, and so Hotmail tars everyone coming from the host with the same brush.
My host told me that they are aware of the problem and they said: "Hotmail is blocking our mail servers. We are in the process of getting our servers removed but this process can take serveral days to weeks to be completed depending on how fast hotmail responds."
So my question to you is what is the meaning behind those words. And do I need to look for another host?
Art
ANSWER: Hi Art,
This usually means that the IP address for the server you are hosted on has been reported (more than likely many times) for spamming the email service. Once hotmail receives enough of these reports they block that IP address from sending mail to any hotmail users. The server owner/company can resolve the issue with hotmail but as your host said it can take a little while to do so. Since you stated you've only noticed it happening the last few days, I wouldn't suggest you find a new host just yet, give your host time to work out the issues, if they don't work them out quickly (5-7 business days tops) contact your host again and inquire if they still say it will be awhile then I would start looking for a new web host.
Additionally you can check for yourself if any server has been reported for spamming from SpamCop.net (http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml). This will not tell you if the server is blocked from any email providers, however if anyone has reported the spam to SpamCop it will let you know.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Okay, like I suspected. Additional question though now about spamcop. How can I find the IP address for the server where we are hosted?
Art
Answer If you are a windows user open your command prompt (Go to the start menu, click the run button, type 'cmd' without the '' and open) and type 'ping webhostsdomain.com' (again without the '') this will show you the IP address of your webhost.
If you are a linux user open your command line and following the ping instructions above.
