Bellsouth is blocking my email

NOTE:  Thanks to Ben Totanes for pointing out that this now applies to all AT&T (att.net) accounts and sbcglobal.net accounts.

I've thought about this a great deal, and I think my initial concerns have proven true.  Taking two companies who were neck and neck in the race for nations worst tech support and merging them was a very bad idea.  This became even more apparent as I was troubleshooting an issue where one of our clients was unable to send email to a specific domain (AT&T's Bellsouth.net domain).

One of our clients recently noticed their messages to BellSouth.net were being delayed and then they received an NDR.  The error messages they received looked like: "This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.  Unable to deliver message to the following recipients, due to being unable to connect successfully to the destination mail server."

There are a few steps you can take to greatly expedite the troubleshooting process:

1)    Check a site like http://www.mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx to make sure you are not on a blacklist.

2)    Perform an NSLookup for Bellsouth.net on your mail server.

H:\>nslookup
Default Server:  appserver.local.dcaglobal.com
Address:  10.100.111.2 > set type=mx
> bellsouth.net
Server:  appserver.local.dcaglobal.com
Address:  10.100.111.2

Non-authoritative answer:
bellsouth.net   MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = gateway-f2.isp.att.net
bellsouth.net   MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = gateway-f1.isp.att.net gateway-f2.isp.att.net  internet address = 207.115.11.16
gateway-f1.isp.att.net  internet address = 204.127.217.16

3)    From command prompt attempt a telnet connection to a Bellsouth mail server on port 25 (e.g. telnet 204.127.217.16 25).  Pay attention to the response, if your connection is rejected you are most likely on one of their blacklists.

Good response: 220 isp.att.net - Maillennium ESMTP/MULTIBOX frfwmxc11 #116

Bad Response: 550-65.182.55.3 blocked by ldap:ou=rblmx,dc=bellsouth,dc=net

550 See http://www.att.net/bls_rbl/ for information.

4)      If you are blocked, send an email to [email protected] including

a.       Originating email domain:

b.      IP Address of mail server

c.       Company name:

d.      Phone Number:

e.       Contact Email:

f.       Time issue was first noticed:

g.      Error received:

h.      Message Header (if you have it):

5)      You can also request they unblock your email address here: http://worldnet.att.net/general-info/bls_info/block_admin.html

This issue took far more time to troublshoot than it should have due to the obscure/misleading NDR message from Bellsouth.  I'm hoping that by posting this I might save a few people a bit of time.

Comments

[Eric Wagoner]

Thank you! I've been fighting this since before Thanksgiving. Only, I never received any NDRs -- the emails to bellsouth.net customers simply vanished. You gave me far more help than I was able to receive from anyone at bellsouth.

[Scott North]

This was extremely helpful and I was able to get the block lifted although it took twice as long to get removed as they said it would. Go figure.

My wife works in IT support at a school and is now having similar problems with bellsouth.net. I was able to e-mail her the link to this info. Very helpful. Thanks so much.

[Jukka Alve]

I have the same problem, but even though I was initially able to get some of my ISP's servers off the Bellsouth blacklist, they were soon added back to it. I can also never predict the exact IP address of the server that is trying to send my mail to bellsouth.net, because they have several. My ISP's helpdesk is trying to fix this, but they say AT&T is not responding to their requests. Worse yet, AT&T is no longer taking my requests for removing servers off the blacklist, either, because they already have a recent request from me. What else can I do? Is there any way to talk to or write to a real person at AT&T or Bellsouth, instead of a robot?

[Jukka Alve]

I have the same problem, but even though I was initially able to get some of my ISP's servers off the Bellsouth blacklist, they were soon added back to it. I can also never predict the exact IP address of the server that is trying to send my mail to bellsouth.net, because they have several. My ISP's helpdesk is trying to fix this, but they say AT&T is not responding to their requests. Worse yet, AT&T is no longer taking my requests for removing servers off the blacklist, either, because they already have a recent request from me. What else can I do? Is there any way to talk to or write to a real person at AT&T or Bellsouth, instead of a robot?

[Travis Phipps]

Here's one for you: I've actually contacted them TWICE to remove my server from their RBL and been guaranteed BOTH times that this was done. As of now, we can send to bellsouth.net addresses, but att.net addresses are STILL bouncing.

I'm about to contact them for the 3rd time to correct this! I can't believe how ridiculous this is!

[Ben Totanes]

This issue is also true with ATT accounts (same company), as I have problems sending to sbcglobal.net domains.

[Levi Nichols]

My company has been running into the same problems, I only have 1 IP address and they will unblock it but its a random amount of time before they block it again. We have tried to call support numerous times only to get directed to the webpage or email address to request an unblock. To top things off when they do unblock us they never answer any of our questions or provide any information on why they blocked us in the first place. To make things worse when they do unbllock us it doesn't unblock us accross all the AT&T related domains. For example they will tell us we are unblocked we can send to bellsouth.net right now but sbcglobal.net we still cannot send to and if we ask to unblock now they say we are already unblocked even though we are not. I did find some info that indicated they have made some big changes recently. If anyone else wants to work together on this feel free to go to spws.net and contact me.

[Andrew Boyce]

It is becoming such a problem that I am now recommending to anybody that is having this problem to use another mail system. If everyone did this we would solve the problem because nobody would be using bellsouth/att.net

[John Dolan]

Andrew, I completely agree with you. In addition to the responses on the post, I have received numberous emails from network admins with the same issue. It's frustrating that AT&T continues to remain so backwards to work with and the only way we have a voice is to stop using the products where they aren't taking care of us.

[Trigg Gayle]

I have several companies that have Small Business Server 2003 with the same issue. They all have T1's or DSL from Bellsouth and host their own e-mail. We have not had any issues untill 3 weeks ago. I have several other customers on SuddenLink Cable and they have no problems sending to Bellsouth e-mails.

[George Walenga]

Same issue, with the close to the same timing as Trigg Gayle. Thanks John, this was getting irritating. Your post helped a great deal.

[Randy Davis]

Same thing for one of our customers. They have SBS 2003 and are on a BellSouth DSL and all of a sudden (just recently) they were blocked sending to bellsouth.net addresses... I submitted the form and I am now waiting. I will let you know what happens. To be continued.

[Michael Klett]

Ditto to the above. Small Business Server 2003 on a BellSouth DSL. Can't send to bellsouth.net addresses... "550 Blocked for abuse". Yeah right.

How long does it take for companies like this realize they have serious problems? Does anyone there see that they're fixing the same type of tickets over and over and over and over?

[Tyle D.]

Question for anyone who has been blocked and requested unblocking: what did you list as changes made to your configuration? The ATT form asks this, but I know my domain has not been sending spam.

[John Dolan]

Tyle - I would say/do something like, "We have verified that our site is setup according to AT&T Guidelines and have also verified that our domain is on no other blacklist. We also updated user guidelines on sending emails to multiple recipients." And updating guidelines may be telling users to better use BCC and never email more than 10-25 people at a time unless using an email service.

[Tavie]

OH MY - you are the BEST! This has been a thorn in my side because of the fact they don't tell you it's blacklisted (turns out I was according to MX Toolbox), whereas others will at least include a link to 'want to get unblocked, click here'.

I'm not out of the woods yet, but as you said, your post helped TREMENDOUSLY and will save me much needed time - thank you!!!

[Patrick Andrew]

This is how bureaucracy deals with SPAM no doubt management said to a senior engineer / Manager that they wanted the SPAM problem fixed no excuses. And the idiot said "sure i will fix it no problem just give me the authority to do what needs to be done." and without consulting with someone that had half a brain. the complete dumb dumb did what all big corporate managers do. he completely messed it up. If upper management knew what was been done the idiot and his entire team would or should be fired.

[Andrew Boyce]

Just an update...

I have personally converted over 500 users in the last 12 months to other email solutions. including canceling the internet service with ATT and going to the cable company for internet service.

I am making it my mision to get ATT out the email and internet business in my town.

[Rod Lucas]

I think that these bell - 128 street services are so great! I haven't had any problems of them blocking any of my emails though, have you been current on your bill payments?

[John Dolan]

Rod - I would always recommend staying away from an ISP's email service. It can make life much more difficult when it comes time to change service providers.

Regarding spam filtering and such, I certainly have not seen as many issues in the last few years which is probably why the last comment is from 2011.