Although the Barracuda blocklist is useful, how exactly does it block IP addresses? And how can you take action to take IPs off the Barracuda Blocklist?
Just a quick peek inside the spam folder of an average email will show how far which spam filters go to prevent unwanted messages from reaching your inbox. The Barracuda reputation system is an important component in the email provider’s anti-spam toolbox. It prevents emails from IPs that are blocked, which is a challenge for senders who need to figure out how to take IPs off of the Barracuda blocklist.
A list of IP addresses (individual IP addresses or ranges) and domain names that relate to spam messages is called the Barracuda Reputation Block List (BRBL). This list can be used by email delivery firms to find IP addresses that are probably sending bogus emails.
sadly, email servers that are transmitting legitimate messages occasionally find themselves on the Barracuda blocklist—often without any fault of their own. Thankfully, Barracuda is aware of this problem and allows you to remove a server’s IP address from their list provided you have a good reason for doing so.
Let’s first review the definition of Barracuda and how it prevents IP addresses from sending spam before going into how to remove an IP from the Barracuda Reputation Block List.
Table of Contents
What is Barracuda block list?
The Barracuda Network has been compiling and keeping track of IP addresses that have delivered spam messages since 2008.
The Domain Name System blocklist (DNSBL), a real-time database with details on IP addresses and domains suspected of sending spam emails, is one example of this type of list. DNSBL listings are used by mail servers to protect their clients from spam and to execute Domain Name System inquiries.
Businesses can fight the growing number of spam mail by using the Barracuda blocklist, which is free to use. With the exception of rivals and spammers themselves, Barracuda wants to provide its service to everyone.
How does Barracuda blacklist work?
Barracuda Blacklist is an automated system that detects IP addresses sending spam emails and adds them to its blocklist.
It is built on the Barracuda Reputation System, which catalogs IP addresses sending spam using honeypots, spam traps, and captive spyware protocol analysis.
A key component of the Barracuda Blacklist system is the Barracuda Reputation Block List, or BRBL for short. It’s a live database of untrustworthy IP addresses. Systems for network security and spam detection utilize this list to prevent emails or traffic from coming from questionable sources.
Spam traps are a collection of email addresses created and maintained by Barracuda for the sole purpose of catching spammers who attempt to web scrape email addresses. The sender of an email is immediately added to the blacklist as soon as it is sent to a spam trap.
How to check if you are on the Barracuda blocklist?
If you start guessing that your IP or domain is listed on the Barracuda Blacklist, it is very critical that you first check this before moving to the next step. Various methods can be used to identify the blacklist such as looking for the error messages that come with the emails that bounced back and using the Barracuda’s search page or MXToolbox.
Error messages and bounce Emails
Bounce emails are sent when an email message is unsuccessfully sent to the intended recipient, whereas error messages are alerts indicating something is wrong with sending or receiving an email. These emails contain bounce codes that indicate whether the failure was a “hard bounce” (permanent) or a “soft bounce” (temporary).
It’s obvious that you need to take action if you get error messages in bounce emails mentioning that your IP address is on the Barracuda Blacklist.
Using Barracuda’s lookup tool
Barracuda Central maintains a live database of IP addresses that have a “poor” reputation for delivering legitimate emails. You can check if your IP address or domain is on the Barracuda Blacklist by typing it into the lookup tool. As an alternative, you can verify the status of your IP with third-party applications like MXToolbox.
As soon as you’ve established that your IP address is on a blacklist, you must act quickly to address the reasons for the blacklist and request removal in order to prevent further damage to your email deliverability.
Fix the issues that led to blacklisting
Identify the cause
Start by learning the reasons for your blacklisting. Was it a result of a bad IP reputation, an email-based attack, or a high spam complaint rate? Examining your email server logs and any bounce-back messages you’ve received will yield this information.
Scan your systems
Do a full system virus and malware scan. Without your knowledge, infected computers may send spam or malicious information, harming your IP reputation.
Secure your Email server
Make sure your email server is not set up as an open relay and is secure. Because anyone with internet access can send email through your server, an open relay attracts spammers.
Minimize the risk of sending emails to spam traps
- Don’t buy lists: they may contain spam traps, people who receive a lot of complaints, and other undesirables.
- Avoid gathering email addresses from many websites
- Your contacts for marketing, newsletters, and transactional emails should only start from those who have given their consent.
- Use a scraping tool like Evaboot to obtain your email list from LinkedIn for a cold emailing campaign.
Request removal from Barracuda blacklist
It’s time to request removal from the Barracuda Blacklist after you’ve taken care of the issues that resulted in your IP being blacklisted. To verify the status of your IP, you must first fill out the removal form and wait for Barracuda to confirm.
Complete the removal form
You have to fill the Barracuda Central Reputation System – Removal Request form out with not only the truth but also providing a persuasive argument so you can get out from the Barracuda Blacklist. It’s necessary to present the precise data and build a compelling argument as to the automated system might deny requests because not naming it fully. One should be able to understand that the more times you send the Barracuda a lot of removal requests, the faster the process will be will not be.
In the case of the removal form, to give your email server’s IP as well as your email address and phone number. It is best to provide information in a correct way. To submit your removal request, complete the form and press the “Submit” button.
Wait for confirmation
It’s crucial to wait for an email confirmation from [email protected] after submitting the removal request. Barracuda delisting requests normally take 12 hours or less to process, assuming a good reason is submitted.
It’s advisable to get help from Barracuda support if you don’t hear back from them within the anticipated time limit.
Build and maintain a great sender reputation
Use Email warm up to get the best results
You need a good sender reputation in order to have excellent deliverability and get all of your emails into the inboxes of your recipients. The majority of your sender reputation is determined by the responses you receive from your recipients.
To put it another way, your chances of reaching the inbox increase with the amount of positive engagement you receive from your emails.
Gaining favorable responses to your emails—such as opens, stars, and removals from spam—teaches Google and Microsoft, the two main email service providers, to display your emails in their users’ inboxes.
Follow the best practices
- The most cold emails you should send in a day is 150.
- There should always be an unsubscribe link in cold emails.
- Confirm that your list is accurate, up to date, focused, and free of mistakes.
- Make your emails unique.
- For the purpose of cold emailing, we advise sending follow-up emails no more frequently than three times, with a minimum of three days between follow-ups to preserve your reputation.
- Avoid being overly pushy.
Why choose LeaseIPx
Using a trustworthy IP supplier is crucial to avoiding IP blocklisting problems. With the help of LeaseIPx, you may stay out of blacklists and preserve your online reputation while obtaining premium, clean IP addresses.
Advantages of leasing from LeaseIPX or purchasing IPs:
- LeaseIPx offers IP addresses that are kept up to date and routinely checked to make sure they are not listed on any blocklists.
- Strong security precautions are put in place by LeaseIPx to prevent the compromising of your IP addresses.
- Excellent customer service is provided by LeaseIPx to assist you in swiftly resolving any IP blocklisting-related problems.
- LeaseIPX can handle any size network or a small number of IP addresses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Barracuda blocklist may have an impact on your server even if you have a reputable company and are sending emails to a list of valid email addresses. This is probably the result of unsecured contact forms on your domain, compromised user accounts, and compromised online applications. Barracuda might then conclude that spam emails have been sent from your server.
Fortunately, it’s easy to correct in just three easy actions. First, find out if your server has really been blocked by using the Barracuda blocklist check tools. If your address appears on the blocklist, you should investigate and resolve the problem. After this, spam filters will not be triggered.
