Any Computer Boffins on here?

Ian Anderson

Lifetime Supporter
I'm sure there are so here goes!

About 10 days back one of our 30 office machines managed to get virussed / junk mailed or whatever and ended up sending out a couple of million spam e mails!

Now e picked it up and removed computer from network as soon as we did but the damage appears to have been done.

Next day we found we could not send e mail correspondence to lots of our major customers - gor bounce backs saying undeliverable. We asked our Internet provider, BT to "un-blacklist" us and they said we were not black listed. (WTF at that stage half our customers were gving us bouncebacks / refusing to receive mail)

Anyway over the last few days more and more e mail traffic is getting through (we are getting responses to our questions etc) but AOL and I believe 1 other remain stubbornly closed to us and we cannot send in e mails.

We asked BT to change our IP address (it is a Fixed IP address) and they have managed to screw up the issuing of a new address - each time they cancel the fixed IP and adk for a new one we get the same damned number!

So could anyone advise if we can get off an "AOL Blacklist" or is it easier to take up writing with a quill and buying a load of stamps?

Our computer tech support seems to be as much use as a chocolate teapot!
So what is the correct process for us to follow?

Any advice greatly received

Thanks
Hairless Ian - I've pulled it all out!
 
Yeah, many of the big ISPs maintain their own blacklists - AOL, Google, Yahoo, etc. Also, Barracuda and other firewall companies might maintain their own reputation lists as well.

Ian
 
Happens more often than you would think, both the email spamming and the BT pain, you will be lucky if they have not done a 'cease and provide' on your service.

This link can be used to check the status of your IP address on the many DNSBLs out there.

Blacklist Check

be interested to know what Anti-Virus/anti-Malware you are running. I/we only suggest avast and malwarebytes to our clients but its ggod to know what's working (or not) out there.

Took me nearly 24hours to clean a mail server up after an incident like that. it got choked with trying to process undeliverable notifications, had to clear the queues down manually
 

Ian Anderson

Lifetime Supporter
Anthony

Yes that is pretty well what happened - manual delete of queue.

We are running Symantec Endpoint Protection - daily updated across all our network.

A number ofcomputers have the free Malwarebytes on them but not on a daily scan - perhaps the company should spend some money and get it properly installed.

That said the person in question admits to been surfing and downloading a film off a site! Probably said click here for a virus and she would!

I have run the "what is my IP address" blacklist checker and everything says it is clear but AOL still won't play.

How come me as an accountant is doing this instead of the IT support crew? - he has not been on site for a week!

I'll see what disasters happen tomorrow morning - perhaps BT will have pulled the plug totally! Or the fairies may have been in and fixed it all

Cheers
Ian
 
Good luck with BT, maybe a change of IT support, if only i knew a firm in small business IT Support....

More than happy to used as a sounding board if you need it.
 
Ian,

You may not get rid of it that easily...

Have you used www.mxtoobox.com to check all the he blacklists?

Did you disconnect from the internet whilst removing the mail from the queue? Which version of Exchange are you using?

It can take some days for the blacklists to update, so mail will flow but it can be in dribs and drabs...

My company is a distributor for a business to business only ISP as we find that AOL and such aren't responsive enought to a business'es (sp?) needs. PM me if you're interested.

Anthony - my company specialises in IT support for SME's with guaranteed response times plus a full suite of on site and remote support options - PM me if you are interested.

Phew - that's the advertising out of the way :)

Good luck Ian - If there's any way I can help, just let me know.
 

Ian Anderson

Lifetime Supporter
Guys

Firstly a huge thank you
Last night lots happened - we followed the AOL link from Abdul and got that initiated
We also managed to get BT to pull their finger out and they allocated us a new fixed IP address

This morning changed the IP address on the router, reboot the servers and we're back in business (or so it would seem as I don't really want to speak too soon) We can even send e mails to AOL recipients and receive the replies.

At this stage we are unsure which worked but at the seme time don' really care! It's just good to stop the moaning

About maintenance and new IP provider - yes perhaps we need to look into both. do either of your companies support Accpac (Sage product)? (Directors insist on a single source for IT and system support)

Thanks again
Ian
 
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