Status of dnsbl.inps.de: DEAD

Christian Jung launched the inps.de DNSBL way back on December 29th, 2007.

Christian described the listing criteria as follows: "Every day thousands of spam e-mails arrive on our e-mail servers, which have to be processed by our anti-spam system. If an email is recognized as spam, the IP address of the sender is recorded in a blacklist for a certain period of time in order to enable faster email processing and reduce the system load."

Today, May 25, 2020, he has announced that it is shutting down, due to concerns around GDPR and personal challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

He appears to be shutting it down in a graceful manner -- not "listing the world" as so many lists do as they wind down. This is good to see.

Note that in addition to the DNSBL dnsbl.inps.de, this also affects the DNSWL (whitelist) found at dnswl.inps.de. Both are ceasing.

If you use either the whitelist or blocklist in your email server config, you'll want to disable those checks as soon as possible. 

Status of all.rbl.webiron.net and bsb.spamlookup.net: DEAD or BROKEN

Two anti-spam blocking lists appear to have died or malfunctioned recently.

Users on the Mailop mailing list are reporting that Webiron (all.rbl.webiron.net) blocklist appears to be malfunctioning. Its domain has expired and the temporary holding pattern pending payment or termination has resulted in the Webiron DNSBL effectively "listing the world" because of wildcard DNS entries.

Another list, BSB (bsb.spamlookup.net), a DNSBL focusing on "comment spam," also recently appears to have died, as reported by MX Toolbox back on April 17th.

When most lists "die" or malfunction, they often end up with wildcard DNS entries in place, as this is a common domain DNS setting implemented by registrars, domain speculators, or domain parkers. What this means is that every single DNSBL query made to the DNSBL's domain is falsely returns with "yes, block that IP address." Meaning your spam filter suddenly blocks 100% of your inbound mail. This is bad news, if you like to actually receive inbound mail.

If you're using either of these lists, you should cease doing so immediately, as their use may impede your ability to receive inbound mail successfully. As always, it's important to pay attention what DNSBLs you use for spam filtering, and periodically review and ensure that they still exist and that they're working properly.

And if you run a DNSBL, see RFC 6471 for best practices around DNSBL management, including how to appropriately shut one down.

Status of megarbl.net: DEAD

The DNSBL "MegaRBL.net" is no-more. According to the Internet Archive, MegaRBL had been around since at least some time in 2013. It was a non-commercial independently run spamtrap-driven blocking list. Mailop subscribers suggest the list may have been dead for years, but the Internet Archive shows its website being alive and active as recently as March 2019.

As of today, November 25, 2019, the blocklist's domain name appears to have expired and the new owner or domain registrar has implemented wildcard DNS. This has the net effect of "listing the world" and it means that if you use this DNSBL in your mail server configuration, you're likely to now be rejecting all attempts to send mail to your users.

You don't want that! Remove the "MegaRBL.net" DNSBL from your mail server configuration as soon as possible.

Status of bl.emailbasura.org: DEAD

The DNSBL Email Basura is no more. Email Basura ("Trash" in Spanish) appears to have been online since at least 2004, according to the Internet Archive. This anti-spam blocklist's DNSBL zone was "bl.emailbasura.org."

The domain emailbasura.org seems to have expired and been purchased by a domain speculator. The domain has wildcard DNS entries, meaning that any use of the old DNSBL zone in your email server may result in your server blocking all inbound mail. You don't want that! Remove the DNSBL zone "bl.emailbasura.org" from your mail server configuration as soon as possible.

Status of combined.rbl.msrbl.net: FIXED

If you use any of the MSRBL DNSBLs, take note: For the second time since 2017, the domain msrbl.net has expired and its name servers are responding positively to any DNS request.

This has the net effect of the DNSBL "listing the world." If you use any MSRBL blocklist in your mail server, you're blocking all mail from any IP address in the whole world.

So....don't do that!

The MSRBL's website at msrbl.com is up and running, but the DNSBL zones are not under "dot com" -- they are under "dot net."

June 14, 2019 Update: Looks like the DNSBL has been restored and is no longer "listing the world."