Bad email practices result in deliverability issues like blocked emails and negatively affect the sender’s reputation. Mailbox providers often blacklist bad senders and prevent the messages from reaching to the target recipient. Hotmail is such an email provider that tries to protect its users from spammers. It has its own blacklists to stop the activities of spammers and thereby brings transparency in its services. If you are one of those persons who are unable to send emails through Hotmail, then go through this article. This would help you to investigate whether Microsoft has blacklisted your IP or not. If so then we will let you know how to remove your IP from the Hotmail Blacklist.

Know Why Hotmail Can Blacklist Your IP:

We will obviously discuss on how to remove your IP from the Hotmail blacklist. But, before jumping onto this, let’s understand why Hotmail has blacklisted your IP. It would, therefore, become easier to apply the appropriate measure. Hotmail submits your IP for additional screening if you send multiple removal requests instead of fixing the issue. Hotmail can block your IP for the following reasons:

• Hotmail might consider your emails as spam and block your IP if you are sending a high volume of emails.
• The recipients to whom you are sending your emails might have changed their email address. Moreover, they might have blocked your email ID. As a result, your emails are bounced back whenever they are sent to those recipients.
• The persons who are receiving your emails might send spam reports to Hotmail and block your IP.
• You might be unknowingly forwarding a high level of spams to other Hotmail users. As a result, Hotmail adds your IP to its blacklist.
• You might be sending emails with misconfigured DNS settings or the IP/domain you are using has a bad reputation. Hence Hotmail can blacklist your IP.
• Insecure web applications, email usage or configuration issues or compromised user passwords are other reasons behind a blacklisted IP.

Some SMTP Error Codes for a Blacklisted IP that you Should Know:

Have a look at some of the error codes and the problem associated with it.

1)421 RP-001/421 RP-002/421 RP-003

This error occurs when the mail server IP connecting to Outlook.com exceeds the maximum limit. The rate limit is determined by the reputation of the IP/domain you are using.

2)550 SC-001/550 SC-002

Here Outlook.com rejects your email due to policy reasons. It generally happens if your email has spam characteristics or you aren’t using a reputed domain.

3)550 SC-003

Outlook.com might blacklist your IP if it appears to be an open proxy/relay.

4)550 SC-004

Outlook.com might block your IP if it receives complaints concerning emails coming from that IP address. Hence you can use a specific program to remove unwanted recipients from your Hotmail list.

5)550 DY-001

Outlook.com generally does not accept email from dynamic IPs that are not intended to deliver unauthenticated SMTP to an internet mail server.

6)550 DY-002

Outlook.com might reject your emails and blacklist your IP afterward because of a compromise or virus infected server or personal computer.  

Proven Methods for How to Remove Your IP from Hotmail Blacklist

It’s important to know the actual reason in order to stay off from the Hotmail blacklist. If you read further, then you can easily identify the source that triggered the blacklisting. Also,try out the solutions carefully to get the most fruitful results:

Method 1: Review Server Logs and SMTP Authentication

Only server logs or statistics will let you know if there has been a spike in your email volume.

Give special attention over the last three to ten days of your server logs. After analyzing this, review the SMTP authentication to find out the compromised email accounts. Moreover, configure PHP to log mail only if you have PHP scripts. You can install a reliable lookup tool to lookup your IP in your favorite blacklist. Before proceeding, ensure that the mail tracking tools or statistical tools you are going to apply do not lack the sufficient details.

Method 2: Verify your Server’s Reputation

As Hotmail can blacklist your IP if it is not a reputed one, check the email sending reputation of your server. Identify the users who are forwarding the bulk amount of emails to Hotmail.com and related domains by using your server. Even inspect the server for bulk marketing campaigns and use a third-party tool to get rid of them. You might also take the help of a third-party tool to carry out this method.

Method 3: Verify the DNS Related Entries

PTR, DKIM, SPF are some of the DNS related entries that might enter your IP into the blacklist if they are incorrect. Set them correctly if these entries are incorrect for your sending domain. This process might take several hours if you aren’t an expert in identifying DNS related entries. Furthermore, review the key DNS settings and then connect with your email service provider for further clarification.  

Method 4: Check Your Brightmail Reputation

Many Hotmail users are unaware of the fact that Hotmail/Outlook uses Brightmail technology to filter emails. Brightmail scans the emails received in their spam trap network and marks those which are actually spam. Hence you might sign up for Microsoft’s Smart Network Data services and see the traffic originating from your IP address. Furthermore, you will come to know the volume of sent emails and complain rates. Take the help of a bounce monitor to track your rejected emails from Hotmail and the rate of bounces. Carefully analyze the Hotmail rejection notice to get a clue about why your IP is blacklisted.

Frequently Asked Questions

 

• Why Hotmail has blacklisted my IP?

Like other email service providers, Hotmail might blacklist your IP if your email displays spam characteristics. Hotmail users might complain against too many spam emails coming from the IP address you are using. It, in turn, forces Hotmail to add your IP to its blacklist. There can be more causes of your blacklisted IP and this article has described all of them vividly.

• What are the reasons behind my blacklisted IP?

The answer to this question is more or less similar to the previous one. If you go through the reasons thoroughly, then you would have identified the actual cause of your problem.

• How to remove my IP from the Hotmail blacklist?

Once you are able to detect the reason why Hotmail has blacklisted your IP, apply the correct method for the same. Analyze the solutions mentioned in this article carefully before moving forward with their application.

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