The Spamhaus Project · IP addresses (IPv4 and IPv6). The PBL does not list domains.
Spamhaus PBL (Policy Block List)
The PBL is a DNSBL listing end-user IP address ranges that should never send email directly to the internet (direct-to-MX) — typically residential, dynamic, and broadband ranges, plus ranges that show high concentrations of botnet activity. It is a policy list, not an evidence-of-spam list: being on it does not mean an IP is "bad," only that mail from it should go through a proper authenticated relay/smarthost. It is one of the component zones of the combined Zen blocklist. It is deliberately aggressive in scope (covering enormous swaths of consumer IP space) but narrow in effect (only matters for direct SMTP connections).
Why you get listed
- The IP falls in a range an ISP has declared (via an ISP PBL Account) as dynamic / residential / not authorized to send mail directly
- Spamhaus added the range because it shows high concentrations of botnet-infected (zombie) hosts
- The IP is in space that, by policy, should only send mail through an authenticated smarthost rather than direct-to-MX
- A previously-granted single-IP exclusion expired after one year, or was auto-reversed because spam was detected from the IP
- Running a self-hosted mail server on an ISP-assigned IP that sits inside a broadband/end-user block
Impact
Used very widely by mail receivers as part of Spamhaus Zen, so a listing is consequential — but only for IPs that try to deliver mail directly to recipient mail servers (direct-to-MX SMTP) at connection time. If you send through your ISP's outgoing relay, an ESP, or any properly authenticated smarthost, a PBL listing on the originating consumer IP has no effect on deliverability. The real-world hit is for organizations running their own mail server on a static IP that happens to sit inside a PBL-listed end-user range: their direct outbound mail gets rejected. PBL should only be consulted during the SMTP handshake, never for blocking web traffic or parsing Received headers.
How to delist from Spamhaus PBL (Policy Block List)
- First confirm which kind of PBL listing it is: ISP-managed listings (DNSBL return code 127.0.0.11) cannot be self-removed at Spamhaus — you must use your ISP's process (or have the ISP adjust the range); only Spamhaus-managed listings (return code 127.0.0.10) are self-service. A 'not eligible for removal at this time' message means your upstream provider owns the listing
- Confirm eligibility: the IP must be STATIC (dynamic IPs cannot be removed — the fix there is to relay through your ISP's smarthost), assigned to you, running a legitimate outbound mail server, with matching forward (A) and reverse (PTR/rDNS) DNS
- Go to the IP & Domain Reputation Checker at https://check.spamhaus.org/ and look up the IP address
- Click 'show details' on the PBL listing and follow the self-service removal steps
- Provide a working email address on a real domain (ideally tied to the mail server) — requests submitted from free webmail like Gmail, Hotmail, or Yahoo are automatically invalidated
- Complete the email verification step, then allow ~15 minutes for DNS propagation before the exclusion takes effect
Good to know
- Self-removals are NOT permanent: a single-IP PBL exclusion auto-expires after one year, and is reversed immediately if spam is later detected from that IP
- Two listing types behave very differently — ISP-managed PBL ranges (return code 127.0.0.11) must be resolved through the ISP (Spamhaus won't self-remove them); only Spamhaus-managed listings (127.0.0.10) use the self-service flow at check.spamhaus.org
- Removal requests from free email accounts (Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo/etc.) are automatically rejected by security checks; use an address on a real domain
- PBL is policy-based and largely self-service — this is different from the SBL, where a listing reflects observed spam/abuse and removal goes through an SBL evidence-based review rather than a self-service form
- Spamhaus retired the old 'Blocklist Removal Center'; all PBL lookups and removals now run through the unified IP & Domain Reputation Checker at check.spamhaus.org
Stay off the lists in the first place.
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