Thanks for visiting! Remember that nowadays, (most) blocklists don't usually govern deliverability and inbox placement on their own. Want to learn more about email marketing best practices, email technology, and deliverability troubleshooting? Then you'll want to check out my other site, Spam Resource.

All posts

  1. Status of relays.orbs.org: Shut down, legal troubles in 2001

    Remember ORBS? Short for “Open Relay Behavior Modification System,” it was a blocking list run by Alan Brown from New Zealand. (Mr. Brown ra...

  2. Status of rbl.cluecentral.net: ALIVE

    The DNSBL “ rbl.cluecentral.net ” has been revived. Its maintainer, Sabri Berisha, had previously shut it down in November 2005. ...

  3. Which DNSBLs work well?

    This is a question I get quite often and it’s a tough one to answer. I don’t really bother with running my own mail system any more, as I’m ...

  4. NJABL Dynablock List Now Obsolete

    With the advent of Spamhaus's new PBL anti-spam blocking list, it appears that the NJABL Dynablock list is now obsolete. I just saw the ...

  5. Spamcop Roundup

    5/22/2007: This information is out of date. Please click here for my latest take on Spamcop's SCBL. My most recent take on Spamc...

  6. Spamhaus ZEN: Recommended

    Look for a longer article from me in the near future on Spamhaus; I'm collecting a ton of data against a large spam corpus and hope to s...

  7. DCC: Spam filter?

    The Distributed Checksum Clearinghouse (DCC), created by Vernon Schryver, is a very powerful tool to help system administrators identify and...

  8. Spamcop BL: A blacklist with a hair trigger

    The Spamcop Blocking List (SCBL) is a DNSBL populated with data obtained from spamtrap hits and spam reports from users of the popular Spam...

  9. Status of block.blars.org: DEAD

    The “Blars” DNSBL (block.blars.org) appears to have gone on walkabout. Created in 2002, the “Blars Block List” was an aggressive, semi-pri...

  10. Status of relays.ordb.org: DEAD

    Created by Thomas Jensen in 2001 , the Open Relay Database (ORDB) was one of the multitude of open relay spam blocking lists to come about ...

  11. Status of opm.blitzed.org: DEAD

    The primary project of the “Blitzed” group is the Blitzed Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network. They also operated a DNSBL zone called opm.b...

  12. Status of relays.visi.com: DEAD

    The zone relays.visi.com was home to the VISI.com Relay Stop List (RSL). According to the site , “RSL was created by volunteers, VISI.com us...

  13. Status of relays.radparker.com: DEAD

    The DNSBL relays.radparker.com is no longer valid. If you are using relays.radparker.com in a mail server or spam filtering product, please ...

  14. CBL: Block those exploits!

    The Composite Blocking List (CBL) is a DNSBL that helps you block mail from exploited computers. That includes abused open proxy servers, a...

  15. 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 sig...

  16. Status of lbl.lagengymnastik.dk: DEAD

    The DNSBL lbl.lagengymnastik.dk is no longer active . It ceased operation back in 2003 or 2004. In January 2007, Henrik, the operator of thi...

  17. What is a DNSBL?

    A DNSBL is a DNS (domain name service)-based spam blocking list. Some people call them blacklists, while others call them blocklists. They...

  18. How to confirm the current status of SPEWS

    I figured it would be helpful if people were able to check my work. If you’d like to confirm for yourself whether or not SPEWS has been upda...

  19. SPEWS Current Status: DEAD

    Please note: I have no involvement in SPEWS. I publish this information simply to be helpful to people I see trying to figure out what to do...

  20. What to do if you're listed on SPEWS

    The newsgroup news.admin.net-abuse.blocklisting (NANAB) regularly plays host to blocklist removal requests. Most of those requests seem to ...