BSNL IP Range blacklisted

[dukhi]

Hey guys,
New user here. A nice community you got here so that we can all share our internet woes :tongue:
I have been reading posts here for a long time, but was finally forced to register due to the following issue.
I am using bsnl and for the past few days, I have been unable to send mails using my gmx.com account.
I use mutt + msmtp for sending mails, but since the past few days, gmx doesn't allow me to send mails through this setup. The error message says that my IP has been blacklisted. I have tried renewing IP addresses, but with each one of them the result is the same. I can send mails using the gmx web interface though.
I tried checking the IPs assigned for blacklisting, and each one of them came up as blacklisted. I visited some of the blacklists and some of them have blacklisted all of bsnl's IP range!
Here's one such result:
https://imgur.com/lji5WBF
The issue is because gmx uses some of these blacklists, on the other hand gmail works fine.
I contacted gmx and they asked me to contact my ISP.
Anyway, I have the following questions?
1) Can anyone with a GMX account and using Bsnl confirm that they can send mails using their mail clients?
2) Who do I contact in Bsnl to raise an issue, I doubt my local SDO can help?
Bsnl has become a huge pain. Ever since the last cable cut, my Internet has been shitty with latency upwards of 1000 ms, and most of the times Internet speeds of 5-10 KBps. I am on the ULD 800 plan.
And now we cannot even access services because we have been blacklisted! :crying:

 

[mgcarley]

They have probably blacklisted BSNL due to excessive spam or attempts by malware-infested PCs trying to send spam etc through their relays. It happens. Often.This is not an uncommon move - I, for example, have blacklisted the entire country of China from accessing my servers since, well, the concerned servers have no business with China and it has proven to reduce the number of form-spam by I guess 95%The ban on your IP range may or may not be temporary depending on whether they blocked the range themselves or whether the servers download a list from some organization like spamhaus or rbl etc. You may need to set up a VPN in another country to be able to continue sending emails through their smtp server. Or simply rent space on a webhost that offers email (either option would probably cost about the same depending on where you got it).

 

[Deleted member 10390]

Many foreign forum owners have blocked India, Pakistan, China, Philippines, Russia etc for spending spam. They often forget that these spammers are paid by their fellow citizens.

 

[dukhi]

The ban on your IP range may or may not be temporary depending on whether they blocked the range themselves or whether the servers download a list from some organization like spamhaus or rbl etc.

Yes, they use third party RBLs, probably spamhaus too. But haven't specified which ones.

You may need to set up a VPN in another country to be able to continue sending emails through their smtp server. Or simply rent space on a webhost that offers email (either option would probably cost about the same depending on where you got it).

Well, I am using tor to work around the problem, and I also have a VPS.
But if our national ISP gets blacklisted, and we are unable to access essential services, then something is very wrong with this country...
Instead of topping charts for service quality and bandwidth, we top spamming charts:
http://www.uceprotect.net/en/l3charts.php

Many foreign forum owners have blocked India, Pakistan, China, Philippines, Russia etc for spending spam. They often forget that these spammers are paid by their fellow citizens.

Yes, I can understand small communities blocking us, but imagine if gmail or facebook start blocking us...

 

[Deleted member 10390]

They won't. They know the market potential. They will find other ways of misusing their accounts.

 

[mgcarley]

Yes, they use third party RBLs, probably spamhaus too. But haven't specified which ones.

The block is probably legit and/or justified... as in, there's probably a reason that the IP blocks are on the blacklists. You mention that your Internet speed has been reduced - have you done any packet analysis to see if your machine is for any reason generating excess traffic? A responsible ISP can and would suspend your connection if they saw "bad" traffic saturating the upstream if it were that.Of course, it may also be such that BSNL has started blocking outgoing smtp (this is common practice, and for the sake of network safety, not a bad idea on BSNL's part) - so if you were previously connecting to GMX on port 25, now you'd no longer be able to do it that way, so they may have an alternative port for you to connect on and/or suggest you use SSL. I personally prefer the latter.

Well, I am using tor to work around the problem, and I also have a VPS.

Setup OpenVPN or something on it. It's easy enough to install via yum/apt.But more to the point, why not just use your VPS as a MTA instead of GMX? To secure it slightly you could set it to only accept smtp connections from BSNL and/or your specific IP block (probably the /22 should be sufficient, but you could go all the way up to whatever the denomination has been granted to BSNL for your particular range - BSNL has several).Mind you, this would only really work if you aren't like me and moving around a lot.

But if our national ISP gets blacklisted, and we are unable to access essential services, then something is very wrong with this country...

A German mail provider is probably not what one would consider as an "essential service", and for them the negative impact of blocking smtp connections from India is probably minimal - that is to say, the benefits outweighed the consequences. Assuming it's a GMX block and not BSNL.

Instead of topping charts for service quality and bandwidth, we top spamming charts: http://www.uceprotect.net/en/l3charts.php

Not to mention open SOCKS and HTTP proxies.Also, I doubt I'm exactly the bearer of bad news here but... service quality? From an Indian company? Really? Uh. Hmm. Forgive me for being quite a bit more cynical now than I was a few years ago

Yes, I can understand small communities blocking us, but imagine if gmail or facebook start blocking us...

Both Google and Facebook have facilities actually *in* India, so blocking India would be... silly.

 

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[mgcarley]

Many foreign forum owners have blocked India, Pakistan, China, Philippines, Russia etc for spending spam. They often forget that these spammers are paid by their fellow citizens.

By making spam prohibitively expensive, you can partially alleviate the problem.Also, your signature - terrible analogy - think about it

 

[Deleted member 10390]

In India $ has touched Rs 60. Peanuts for those hire is a big amount in India and India is not known for rich people. I do not support people who spam, but blaming it on Indians or South Asians as a whole is a bit of irony.

 

[dukhi]

The block is probably legit and/or justified... as in, there's probably a reason that the IP blocks are on the blacklists. You mention that your Internet speed has been reduced - have you done any packet analysis to see if your machine is for any reason generating excess traffic? A responsible ISP can and would suspend your connection if they saw "bad" traffic saturating the upstream if it were that.

I don't generate any bad traffic. The low speeds started happening after the cable cut in march, and high latencies due to shitty routing by bsnl.

[Of course, it may also be such that BSNL has started blocking outgoing smtp (this is common practice, and for the sake of network safety, not a bad idea on BSNL's part) - so if you were previously connecting to GMX on port 25, now you'd no longer be able to do it that way, so they may have an alternative port for you to connect on and/or suggest you use SSL. I personally prefer the latter.

I am using TLS with port 587, and I know for a fact (confirmed through GMX themselves), that they are the ones blocking me, not bsnl.

But more to the point, why not just use your VPS as a MTA instead of GMX? To secure it slightly you could set it to only accept smtp connections from BSNL and/or your specific IP block (probably the /22 should be sufficient, but you could go all the way up to whatever the denomination has been granted to BSNL for your particular range - BSNL has several).

I am inclined to run my own mailserver, but then again blacklisting and spam control are what's keeping me from running it.

A German mail provider is probably not what one would consider as an "essential service", and for them the negative impact of blocking smtp connections from India is probably minimal - that is to say, the benefits outweighed the consequences.

Fair enough. But it just makes us Indians feel as third rate citizens of the world, and that's because of our incompetent ISPs. Why aren't they doing enough to stop misuse of their services? Why is it that providers such as Verizon, Comcast, etc aren't blacklisted despite having a considerably large user base.

Also, I doubt I'm exactly the bearer of bad news here but... service quality? From an Indian company? Really? Uh. Hmm. Forgive me for being quite a bit more cynical now than I was a few years ago

Indeed

 

[jessijass]

Many of BSNL's dynamic IP's are listed as open delegations across the web and whenever I try to log into my admin page from that IP. I simply thrown out by the plugin saying that I am trying to login from a banned IP.I am not complaining about BSNL because being India's largest broadband provider many of its IP are bound to be blacklisted at open proxies. But at the same time I am not ready to disable the Bad Behavior plugin too as it has protect my site from atleast 3 hack attempts.