Server IP blacklisted on DroneDL

Question

Dear DO team,

We recently were getting frequent internal server errors resulting in significant downtime to complete testing the deployment.

Upon researching using the tools available on internet from website (mtoolbox.com), we found that our IP was blacklisted on DroneBL with a reason cited as Open HTTP Proxy(?)

All relevant snapshots can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/4va8b8xy

We are currently searching for answers to the following (and need help):

a. How did our IP (159.89.1.245) land in the blacklist with DroneBL? b. How to whitelist it from there so that these internal server error messages stop (assuming these are the cause)? c. How to ensure that it doesn’t happen again with some other lists, as its a significant show down on business if it happens again in future.

Looking forward to a positive response.

Thanks,

Revent Team

Bobby · Answer

Hello,

The blacklists that you are referring to are only related to the email reputation of your IP address. Those blacklists can not cause internal server errors for your server in any way.

If you are not using your server for sending out emails, the blacklists in question can not affect your website in any way.

What the blacklists could affect is only the deliverability rate of your emails sent from that server in question.

Regarding your internal server errors, this could be caused by a number of things including low memory, server load, application/website problems and etc.

I would recommend to first check your server resources utilization and then what I would recommend is checking your server logs to identify the actual error rather than the generic internal server error.

This would depend on your website and the software stack that you are using. For example, if you have an Apache server you could follow the steps here on how to troubleshoot common Apache problems:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-troubleshoot-common-apache-errors

Best, Bobby

alexdo · Answer

Heya,

You can check our article on why you may not want to run your own mail server:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/why-you-may-not-want-to-run-your-own-mail-server

I’ll recommend you to use an explicit email provider like SendGrid or any other dedicated email provider. This will ensure your emails will be delivered successfully.

In the meantime you can request a delist from DroneBL:

https://dronebl.org/lookup

You can the lookup option and if the IP is listed in their database you can request removal.

You can also scan your IP against MXtoolbox database. They will all known email blacklists.

https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx

Hope that this helps!