Blacklist Patrol

Did you just get blacklisted?

Get notified so you can take action.

Blacklist Patrol

Blacklist Patrol proactively monitors major anti-spam blacklists to see if your email server has been listed on any of them.

You're notified daily by email of any blacklists your server is found on.

• Free 30-day trial

• Sign up now - just $9.95 per month
• Sample Blacklist Patrol Report
• Currently Monitored Blacklists
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Terms and Conditions

DNSBL, or not to DNSBL - that is the question.

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I've been pretty smug about SpamButcher's performance over the last few weeks. It was nailing nearly everything the spammers threw at it.

Then, when I was sifting the spam program's logs - I noticed something I shouldn't have seen. SpamButcher had indicated it blocked a message because the sender was listed on the CBL blacklist.

It turns out I had accidentally enabled blacklist (DNSBL) support on my copy of SpamButcher. I usually try to run with it disabled, since that's how SpamButcher installs by default.

Now that I've turned off DNSBL support, SpamButcher is still doing pretty well. However, there are definitely a few campaigns that slip a message or two past the filter that the CBL was killing previously.

Back in the day, SpamButcher shipped with DNSBL support enabled without even asking the user. Then, one of the blacklist providers we used for data shutdown on relatively short notice, causing some wanted messages to be blocked. We've had a sheepish attitude towards blacklists since then.

One option might be to have SpamButcher validate the blacklist it's using by querying a webpage at www.spambutcher.com. SpamButcher already has this functionality, but it only checks for the latest recommended blacklist upon user request. Automating this feature might help the anti spam filter block a little more spam without adding any risk to wanted email.