Need to get a new IP address

An email to a friend recently bounced back with this notice:

Recipient address: (My pal’s email address)
Reason: Server rejected MAIL FROM address.
Diagnostic code: smtp;550 IP 17.158.232.237 is blocked by EarthLink. Go to earthlink.net/block for details.
Remote system: dns;mx2.mindspring.com (TCP|17.158.232.237|56273|207.69.189.218|25)

Checking my IP address out at the MXToolbox site, I found it had been blacklisted by SORBS DUHL and Spamhaus Zen. The reasons given are possible spammer, possibly infected computer, etc., all a bunch of baloney.

I think the easiest way to solve this one is to get a new IP address, no?

I have a FiOS account and am using an Actiontec router,,MI424WR rev. I

I was hoping I could change the IP address by Renew DHCP Lease in Sys Prefs > Network pane, but that didn’t work

Could anyone tell me if there is a simple way to accomplish this or am I going to have to go into the innards of the router and dope this one out on my own.

BTW, have a 2009 iMac running Mavericks.

Many thanks

Accepted answers

Mansplainer

I posted this same question to the Mac-L list, to which I belong and here is the best explanation of this whole business of the IP being blacklisted:

I am finding this entire business of Earthlink/Mindspring blocking this IP address to be bizarre.

Email in general is bizarre. It’s old, archaic, and abused to death.

I am not well informed on the nitty gritty of email addressing so may I ask….

me.com account, to my pal with the @mindspring account, the email is routed through Apple and it is the Apple IP which is tied to the email my pal receives?

There are a vast number of IP addresses associated with your email. And, they’re all generally recorded in the received headers in the email if you’re really curious.
In this case, the Earthlink/Mindspring inbound mail relay which accepts the message to be delivered to your friend only really cares about the IP address that is connecting to it directly. If that IP has a bad reputation based on whatever Earthlink has determined is bad then the Earthlink/Mindspring inbound mail relay can reject the connection. Which is what generated the bounce message you got. The small type denotes the questions from me:

If that is the case, how could Earthlink/Mindspring possibly conclude that an IP registered to Apple is a source of Spam or malware?

That’d be a pretty long list. But, some common causes of this are that it’s a new IP iCloud has started sending from as they build out services and as such has a low reputation with Earthlink/Mindspring because they’ve not seen a lot of traffic from it yet. The other sadly common reason is that someone signed up for a fraudulent iCloud account or compromised one or more and used those accounts to send spam that got through iCloud’s outbound spam filters and over to Earthlink/Mindspring’s domain and now that IP has a bad rep.

Or do I have it wrong and there is something I don’t understand here?

I won’t try to change my IP address but will wait until I know what I am talking about before I contact Earthlink/Mindspring or Apple.

Don’t change your IP address, it’s not the problem. Earthlink/Mindspring support is likely to point you at Apple and tell you it’s Apple’s problem because spam or whatever came out of that IP and only Apple can solve that. AppleCare will likely get confused and will likely give you bad advice on how to resolve it without realizing the problem is internal and there’s nothing they or you can do about it. They may even have you do stuff that is totally unrelated to solving the problem.

Best bet is to just sit tight and wait for Apple and Earthlink to make contact and resolve the issue. I’m pretty sure they’re on it. Unfortunately, most domains and Earthlink especially don’t have a easy or direct way for postmasters of external domains to get in touch with their postmasters. 😕

All comments

Telcoguru

Neither one of those IP addresses belongs to Verizon. The first one belongs to Apple and the second one belongs to Earthlink.

Mansplainer

Thanks for responding.

I just checked, and my current IP address, the one that Earthlink is blicking, is {edited for privacy}.

Can you tell me how to change that, please?

somegirl

That's your personal IP address. Earthlink is blocking the IP address of whatever mail server your are sending from, not your personal IP.

Your personal IP appears on blacklists because it is dynamically assigned. This is normal and should not impact mail unless you are running a mail server from your home, in which case you need a static IP.

gs0b

Somegirl's advice is spot on; the problem isn't with your IP address but the email service you're using.

However, if you still wish to pursue changing your IP address, I've heard it can be accomplished by releasing it from the router, then quickly powering down the router before it grabs a new address. Leave it off for a few hours or even a day to give the Verizon network enough time to hopefully forget about it. Then, the network will hopefully give out a different IP address when the router is turned back on.

Since I've never had a need to change my IP address, I can't personally say if this works.

Good Luck

tns2

Earthlink is BLOCKING YOUR FRIENDS mail from an Apple server. It never even gets to Verizon. Probably Mindspring's mistake and your friend needs to get apple to pursue it for him.

Mansplainer

I posted this same question to the Mac-L list, to which I belong and here is the best explanation of this whole business of the IP being blacklisted:

I am finding this entire business of Earthlink/Mindspring blocking this IP address to be bizarre.

Email in general is bizarre. It’s old, archaic, and abused to death.

I am not well informed on the nitty gritty of email addressing so may I ask….

me.com account, to my pal with the @mindspring account, the email is routed through Apple and it is the Apple IP which is tied to the email my pal receives?

If that is the case, how could Earthlink/Mindspring possibly conclude that an IP registered to Apple is a source of Spam or malware?

Or do I have it wrong and there is something I don’t understand here?

I won’t try to change my IP address but will wait until I know what I am talking about before I contact Earthlink/Mindspring or Apple.