GFI MailEssentials does an excellent job of leveraging third party blacklists such as ORDB, SpamHaus, Spamcop. This tool protects your email users from receiving spam. What do you do, if your company email server gets blacklisted? “No way” you say. This scenario can and does happen to companies that run a legitimate and ethical business.

Being blacklisted can temporarily put a chokehold on company communications. It’s like being an innocent person on a spammer wanted flyer in the post office. This situation can have a direct impact on company profits.

Not locking down your server to prevent relaying is not the only reason an email server can be blacklisted. Although there are many reasons, at this moment it’s not important why this happened. What’s important is to quickly coordinate getting your SMTP server off the blacklists.

Right now all company eyes are on you as the email administrator to resolve this “high impact” issue. Despite the yelling and screaming, which can occur from executive powers upstairs, stay calm and focused on getting your email server off the blacklist. This is a serious situation that needs to be resolved expeditiously. Take a deep breath and start contacting the RBL sites.

How to Get Your Email server Removed from a Blacklist

1. Make this a priority task. Every minute counts. Your email senders may start receiving bounce backs, because other servers are rejecting your server’s connection due to DNS/RBL lookups.
2. Identify which RBL sites have your domain/IP address blacklisted.
3. Follow the blacklist site process exactly to request getting your server off the blacklist.
4. Make sure the tonality of your request is polite and humble. Clearly explain no one in your company would deliberately send spam. The goal is to convince the blacklisting site, your company is not in the business of sending spam.
5. Repeat this process with each RBL site, which lists your server.
6. Once the server is off all the blacklists, now you can review with your team what caused this situation. Then implement proactive measures to prevent his from happening again.