[epub] How to read the OPENRBL report

[Janet Roberts <janet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Amy said "I went to http://openrbl.org/ and got the
following. How the heck do you interpret all of this? Can someone walk
me through it? Appreciate it!"

This site runs an IP address through 32 blocklists, some well known such as 
SpamCop and Osiriusoft, and others not as well know. The idea is to have as 
few positive reports as possible. So, if your report reads as Amy's does, 
like this: Results: Negative=32, Positive=0, it means that none of the 
blocklists is listing your IP address for spam complaints, open relays or 
what have you. The blocklists that returned the results are listed in all 
caps after the Negative-Positive report.

I have used this site a lot both for Ezine Tips research and to track down 
people who have abused our email addresses, and also to check our own IPs.

 It seems likely that anyone who has been doing bulk emailing -- I mean 
publishing, not spamming -- for any amount of time will likely find his/her 
IP address on a minor list -- it's not unusual to find reputable names or 
hosts with one or two positives. As long as they aren't the blocklists that 
major ISPs use, I think you're in the clear, although you should try to 
contact the blocklist owner to see what's going on. I wouldn't know how to 
find some of the smaller lists -- they seem to be the one who don't want 
any public contact at all -- but the major lists all have people who you 
can, in theory (in theory!) contact.

janet
epub moderator

PS to list veterans: No, I did NOT pay either Amy or Larry to write nice 
posts! :-)


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