Visitor
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7 Messages
Calling XfinityCSAEmail regarding Spamhaus.org PBL
I currently have a CSA IH ticket and waiting for a call (told 24-72 hours from yesterday afternoon).
We are residential customers with our own modem & router. We do not use comcast.net email, instead, we use Gmail.
Recently my wife has been getting: "554 Message not allowed - [PH01] Email not accepted for policy reasons. Please visit https://postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codes" Messages to recipients not having a yahooinc domain (AOL, SBCGLOBAL) are working.
That page says:
- A 553 or 554 SMTP error indicates an email could not be delivered due to a permanent problem. Message delivery can be permanently deferred because:
- You're trying to send a message to an invalid email address.
- Your message failed authentication checks against your sending domain's DMARC or DKIM policy.
- The message contains characteristics that Yahoo won't accept for policy reasons.
- Other suspicious behavior which leads Yahoo to issue a permanent rejection for your SMTP connection.
- Your IP is listed by Spamhaus. Please check with https://www.spamhaus.org.
I assumed the problem was spamhaus and did a lookup. Our public IP address is in the PBL.
Spamhaus says:
- This listing is controlled by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), not Spamhaus.
- Your ISP lists ranges of IP addresses that shouldn’t be sending email directly to the internet.
I sent the Block Removal form to Xfinity. I got this back from bl.comcast.net:
"The following IP provided has been removed from the Comcast.net blocklist. Below we have included the result of our research for your IP Address. Please do not reply to this message."
After finding that it was still on the PBL, I sent this to spamhaus.org, and they responded:
"I see no removal requests for this IP:" and
"they are saying they removed it from the "Comcast.net blocklist", not Spamhaus"
I sent the form again to bl.comcast.net and asked how long it would take for Comcast to remove the IP from the PBL. This was the (non)response:
"Blocklist Removal Response: After investigating the issue, we have found that the IP you provided for removal is currently not on our blocklist.
IP Address Submitted:"
Two years ago you said: "To also note, its not a matter of "finding" that your IP is on the PBL, its a matter fact that 100% of all residential IP addresses are listed on the PBL."
I believe that I can change our public IP address, but if your above statement is true, the new IP would also be in the PBL and the problem would still exist.
Since CSA removed our IP from the comcast.net block list, how can it get removed from the spamhaus PBL, which must be done by Comcast/Xfinity?
BajaBarry
Visitor
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7 Messages
2 years ago
Continuing the saga: (But first a suggestion to Comcast/Xfinity- provide Internet support a checklist (not the phone bot) of questions for agents to ask residential customers in order to connect them with someone that can actually help, especially if the customer is using non-Xfinity equipment and/or comcast.net email)
1- Here is a sample of the complete problem message:
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Mail Delivery Subsystem < [Edited: "Personal Information"]>
Date: Fri, Aug 26, 2022 at 1:55 PM
Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
To: <xxxxxxxx@gmail.com>
Message blocked
Your message to YYYYYYY@aol.com has been blocked. See technical details below for more information.
LEARN MORE
This link will take you to a third-party site
The response from the remote server was:
554 Message not allowed - [PH01] Email not accepted for policy reasons. Please visit https://postmaster.yahooinc.com/error-codes
2- Repeating from above:
https://senders.yahooinc.com/smtp-error-codes/
A 553 or 554 SMTP error indicates an email could not be delivered due to a permanent problem. Message delivery can be permanently deferred because:
Your IP is listed by Spamhaus. Please check with https://www.spamhaus.org.
3- Repeating from above:
https://check.spamhaus.org/listed/?searchterm=nn.nn.nn.nnn
This listing is controlled by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), not Spamhaus.
Your ISP lists ranges of IP addresses that shouldn’t be sending email directly to the internet.
4- Sent Xfinity/Comcast Block Removal Form
Got back (edited out our IP and highlighted that it WAS removed from Comcast's blacklist):
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: < [Edited: "Personal Information"]cast.net>
Date: Thu, Aug 25, 2022 at 9:22 AM
Subject: Comcast Block List Removal Response
To: < [Edited: "Personal Information"]>
Comcast.net Block Removal Response
Thank you for contacting Comcast Customer Security Assurance. We have received and reviewed your Block List removal request.
The following IP provided has been removed from the Comcast.net blocklist. Below we have included the result of our research for your IP Address. Please do not reply to this message.
nn.nn.nn.nnn
Our filters have determined that email from the IP you submitted was blocked because it sent email to the Comcast domain with pattern characteristics of spam. Mail servers are typically shared by many users, so it may be the case that another party using your mail server has sent spam, even if you have not. It is important that your email administrator is aware of their outbound spam problem to avoid being blocked by Comcast in the future. When contacting your email administrator, you should include the error message contained in the email which alerted you to this problem. Taking this step now will help avoid blocks in the future.
If you have a different IP addresses which you would like considered for removal from the Comcast Blocklist:click here to learn more.
Sincerely,
Comcast Security Assurance
HELPFUL LINKS
Comcast Mail Servers
Blocklist Removals
FBL Sign-Up
Copyright 2019 Comcast. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Comcast respects your privacy. For a complete description of our privacy policy,click here.
One Comcast Center
1701 JFK Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19103-2838
5- Sent this to Spamhaus along with the above from Xfinity:
Our IP address is listed in the PBL. I contacted our ISP and the block was removed an hour ago but it still appears in the PBL. How long does it take to get removed from the PBL?
6- Repeating from above:
they responded:
"I see no removal requests for this IP:" and
"they are saying they removed it from the "Comcast.net blocklist", not Spamhaus"
7- I sent another form asking about Xfinity removing our IP from Spamhaus and got back:
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: < [Edited: "Personal Information"]cast.net>
Date: Thu, Aug 25, 2022 at 1:20 PM
Subject: Comcast Block List Removal Response
To: < [Edited: "Personal Information"]>
Comcast.net Block Removal Response
Thank you for contacting Comcast Customer Security Assurance. We have received and reviewed your Block List removal request.
Blocklist Removal Response: After investigating the issue, we have found that the IP you provided for removal is currently not on our blocklist.
IP Address Submitted:
nn.nn.nn.nnn
We need the IP address currently blocked to further investigate this issue. The IP address is a number separated by decimals and is located in an error code starting with "550" in the returned email from Comcast.
If you have a different IP addresses which you would like considered for removal from the Comcast Blocklist: click here to learn more.
Sincerely,
Comcast Security Assurance
HELPFUL LINKS
Comcast Mail Servers
Blocklist Removals
FBL Sign-Up
Copyright 2019 Comcast. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Comcast respects your privacy. For a complete description of our privacy policy, click here.
One Comcast Center
1701 JFK Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19103-2838
8- This is the 2-year-old Xfinity reply from XfinityCSAEmail:
https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/email/comcast-ip-address-is-blacklisted/602dae4ec5375f08cde59c1e?commentId=602dae7cc5375f08cdebb33e :
To add, Comcast is indifferent to you using a non-Comcast email. You can freely establish a connection off the Comcast network to any email server as long as that server allows your connection. To also note, its not a matter of "finding" that your IP is on the PBL, its a matter fact that 100% of all residential IP addresses are listed on the PBL. The primary function of the PBL is to prohibit residential server hosting as it is not residential usage. There are also a plethora of security concerns when it comes to a residential user being able to freely host mail servers from their home network. The issue is as you likely stated, a misconfiguration or a block imposed by the domain to block your connection to their server.
9- Yesterday I got a callback to my escalated ticket. I asked the agent if he knew about Spamhaus and he responded positively. I fully explained the situation. He sent me the link to
https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/email-errors
The closest relevant section is:
BL000001
Your email could not be delivered because your sending IP address is listed on the Spamhaus Zen. This is a list of IP addresses which have been detected as sending spam and also contains dynamically assigned IP addresses which are not supposed to send email directly to email servers. Comcast uses these lists to protect its subscribers from receiving spam.
How do I remediate the block?
It is important that your email provider is aware of their outbound spam problem to avoid being blocked by Comcast in the future. When contacting your email provider, you should include the error message contained in the email that alerted you to this problem. This error message contains important information to help your email provider resolve this issue. To address this issue, either you or your email provider can visit the Spamhaus website in order to request removal.
I told him the list did not address my problem and that it was late and I could not continue the discussion.
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BruceW
Gold Problem Solver
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26.1K Messages
2 years ago
If you are a residential Comcast customer and asking about your public IP, you can't remove it from the PBL. As stated by the Employee in the message you quoted, "... all residential IP addresses are listed on the PBL ...". All dynamic residential IPs assigned by all ISPs can change at any time, and for that reason all are, or should be, on the Spamhaus and a bunch of other policy blocklists.
That's doesn't mean you can't send email, it only means you can't operate an email server on your Comcast service.
It isn't clear what you are trying to do here. If you are logging in to Gmail's website (or using an email program or app configured with Gmail's servers) and sending to a Yahoo address from there, then Comcast's blocklists don't matter. If Yahoo is rejecting an email sent using a Gmail server just because the sender was a customer using a dynamic IP, then the rejection is improper and you are in the unenviable position of persuading Yahoo that their rejection of your message was incorrect.
It's possible that the "policy reason" they are objecting to is something other than PBL/dynamic IP.
Please be aware that there are 2 kinds of responses in this Forum: Replies and Comments. When you Comment on a post by scrolling down to "Comment on this post here...", I am notified of your response. But if you select Reply, I am NOT notified and may not be aware of your response.
(edited)
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XfinityDaveL
Official Employee
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193 Messages
2 years ago
From https://senders.yahooinc.com/smtp-error-codes/
So, looks like something in your message content? PH errors (reading the above) aren't IP based.
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XfinityCSAEmail
Official Employee
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1K Messages
2 years ago
Good afternoon,
To confirm the above, this is an issue with emails from your Gmail email account to a yahoo email account. To add to the already mentioned above, in regards to Comcasts' involvement - the line stops when you are able to sign into your Gmail account. When you're sending emails from your Gmail account, the communication is between Gmail servers and whoever you send it to. In this instance yahoo email servers. To further elaborate, you could have sent that email from any ISPs connection from your Gmail account and end up with the same delivery error from yahoo. The error message you provided specifies as mentioned the issue to be with the content within your email(s) and not with your IP or who you have your internet services with. The delivery error you received has nothing to do with spamhaus. All Comcast dynamic IPs are on the PBL and cannot be removed. The PBL has no influence on whether you can or cannot send email with Gmail servers. To try and break this down a bit more:
To hopefully provide insight in regards to what the yahoo page references, each bullet point is a "or" , for example they denied because
You're trying to send a message to an invalid email address.
*or
Your message failed authentication checks against your sending domain's DMARC or DKIM policy.
*or
The message contains characteristics that Yahoo won't accept for policy reasons.
*or
Other suspicious behavior which leads Yahoo to issue a permanent rejection for your SMTP connection.
*or
Your IP is listed by Spamhaus. Please check with https://www.spamhaus.org.
Unfortunately, you don't have a comparison of what the error code after 554 or 553 would look like, but it does specify for each of those parameters. For example; a invalid email address will look like 554 30. 30 being the designation that the email address is disabled or does not exist. Had to do a bit of digging, but found the yahoo designation for spamhaus related issues, which is the following error code: "553 5.7.1 [BLXX] Connections not accepted from IP addresses on Spamhaus PBL". In your case the PH01 is the designation to which one of those "or" messages the delivery denial was in regards to and according to yahoo, its the "The message contains characteristics that Yahoo won't accept for policy reasons." or 554 PH01. Unfortunately, the policy reasons can only be explained and specified by yahoo directly. Fortunately, as mentioned above by XfinityDaveL - Yahoo gives slightly more details that something within the email could have triggered them to deny your email message. However, it's not granular enough and you will have to reach out to yahoo for specifics like "X link in your email is blocked by yahoo", "the attachment you sent has a virus", etc. Alternatively, if its what's referred to as a False Positive, it would need to be investigated by Yahoo. Checking their postmaster, they do have a form for such scenarios that you are experiencing: https://senders.yahooinc.com/contact/#sender-support-request
(edited)
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