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How do I set up GMS to use the RBL+ database from mail-abuse.org?

Question

Gordano does not use the RBL services provided by mail-abuse.org itself, but the software can be set up to use it successfully.

The following information was provided by a customer using GMS Anti-Spam to run DNSBL checks against his local zone files transferred from mail-abuse.org

Answer

DNSBL Server: rbl-plus.mail-abuse.org
Action: Fail
IP Response: 127.0.0.2 and 127.1.0.1 thru 127.1.0.7

The RBL+ returns the IP Response from 127.1.0.1 through 127.1.0.7 depending on the list it’s from.

Successful use of the RBL+ service required the following settings:

rbl-plus.mail-abuse.org Fail 127.0.0.2 Mail not accepted from server in RBL
rbl-plus.mail-abuse.org Fail 127.1.0.1 Mail not accepted from server in RBL
rbl-plus.mail-abuse.org Fail 127.1.0.2 Mail not accepted from server in RBL
rbl-plus.mail-abuse.org Fail 127.1.0.3 Mail not accepted from server in RBL
rbl-plus.mail-abuse.org Fail 127.1.0.4 Mail not accepted from server in RBL
rbl-plus.mail-abuse.org Fail 127.1.0.5 Mail not accepted from server in RBL
rbl-plus.mail-abuse.org Fail 127.1.0.6 Mail not accepted from server in RBL
rbl-plus.mail-abuse.org Fail 127.1.0.7 Mail not accepted from server in RBL

Note: mail-abuse.org claims not to use the 127.0.0.2 return but it was necessary to include this to get lookups to work correctly.

The way that this lookup works is as follows:

  1. GMS receives smtp connection request from an IP address such as 192.168.1.1.
  2. GMS queries its DNS server to resolve the name 1.1.168.192.rbl-plus.mail-abuse.org to an IP address.
  3. The DNS server resolves the name to an address by recursively querying name servers until it locates the one that is authoritattive for mail-abuse.org. The DNS server then returns the result to GMS. Note that the address of the querying DNS server must be listed in the access control list of the mail-abuse.org DNS server in order to get a response back.
  4. If the returned result is that the hostname cannot be found, then GMS continues with the connection to the smtp server. If the returned result is one of the IP addresses listed in the rblservers.txt file (e.g., 127.1.0.1), then the smtp connection is rejected.

Please do be sure to have the correct IP address registered with MAPS. One problem you may have is if your DNS server is configured to forward its requests to a DNS server further up the chain. If this is the case, MAPS would not have this IP in its access control list and the lookups will not work properly.

RBL and RBL+ are Service Marks of MAPS, LLC.

See Also:

Keywords:MAPS, RBL, RBL+, mail-abuse.org, DNSBL

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