What is Blacklisting?

When someone sends out spam, it is possible for the recipient of the email to mark the email as spam. When an email message is flagged as spam, the email is reviewed for blacklisting. If the email is determined to be spam, the IP address and/or the email address that sent the spam may become blacklisted.

There are two scenarios in which you may encounter blacklisting using our services. If you are not receiving messages from a certain contact, it is possible that the contact has been blacklisted. Or you may be receiving bounceback messages saying that your mail was not delivered. In this case, it may be that your server or email address has been blacklisted.

Receiving Mail From Blacklisted Sources

Our Shared and Reseller servers keep a list in sync with companies that monitor IP addresses that are sending spam. If a sender's IP address is on this list then our servers will block email from the IP until the sender's IP is no longer on the list.

Our list is updated every four hours which will allow for mail to continue normal delivery if the sender has their IP address removed from the blacklist. If you wish to receive email from a domain that is on a blacklist you will need to upgrade to a VPS or Dedicated server.

How to Check for Blacklisting

1. Go to the blacklist check tool at mxtoolbox.com

2. Enter the server name or IP address the email originated from

3. Click the Blacklist Check button

4. Follow any onscreen prompts

What If I am Blacklisted?

If you become blacklisted, the emails you send to destinations that screen blacklists will return your emails with a bounceback message that mentions the fact that you are blacklisted. If you get a bounceback error that you cannot figure out, please follow the blacklist check instructions above.

If you determine that your server is blacklisted, please visit the WHOA website so that you can enable the full headers of the email. Full headers are required so that we can help solve your problem. Once the headers have been exposed, you can submit a ticket to our Support department and we will assist you with your blacklist issues.

Note: we can only fix a blacklisting issue if the block is against the entire server. If the block is specifically against your email address, then the receiver is blocking your emails purposefully and you will need to directly contact the blocking agency to get the blacklisting removed.