On 2/26/07 at approximately 9:45 am, the cable TV and Internet Service Provider Comcast blocked the delivery to its customers of all email from a server managed by Shoestring Solutions, a small web host in Atlanta GA. Comcast’s automated email claimed that the server was the originator of “large volumes of spam.”

Comcast refused to remove our server from its blacklist despite repeated requests and proof that:

• the overwhelming majority of email sent through the `offending` server to Comcast’s customers (actually, a relatively small total amount) was legitimate;
• no other blacklist service had ever listed our server as an offender;
• several of our clients are Comcast customers who receive important, legitimate email forwarded through their web site to their Comcast mailboxes;
• the alleged spam originated from another domain on another server in the same IP range. That domain was quickly removed from the network, once identified.

Our server was blocked for 8-1/2 days.

Apparently, our experience is not unusual; an online search reveals dozens of web hosts who have been incorrectly blocked by Comcast.

This is the story of one Comcast victim’s experience. However, if you don’t care what happened to us but just want to get off of Comcast’s blacklist, go here.

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