Allow and deny lists
Allow and deny lists identify sources of email abuse, or known 'good' email servers. With a Janet connection you can gain access to and benefit from a number of these leading lists.
Access our copies of several leading DNS allow and deny lists in order to protect your users from email abuse.
Deny lists will enable you to block 'unwanted' email, while at the other end of the spectrum, allow lists will allow 'wanted' email to get through to end-users.
We currently subscribe to the following:
- Deny lists - Spamhaus Zen
- URI list - URIBL
- Allow lists - Spamhaus SWL and DWL
If you think that one of our DNS deny lists is affecting the delivery of your email messages then visit our community page on what to do if your mail is being blocked.
Key features
- Comprehensive lists
- Quick look-ups from Janet mirrors
- No paying for separate subscriptions
- Rapid identification of unwanted email
- Reduced risk of losing legitimate email
- Impartial advice and tips on use from our experts
- Internationally recognised, reliable databases of IP addresses
Get in touch
To find out more, contact us on service@ja.net or call 0300 300 2212.
Eligibility
This service is freely available to all Janet-connected organisations.
Use of this service is subject to adherence to the:
Access to the lists are controlled through your organisation's IP address. Our allow and deny lists community page has more detailed information about how the service works.
This service is freely available to all Janet-connected organisations.
Use of this service is subject to adherence to the:
Access to the lists are controlled through your organisation's IP address. Our allow and deny lists community page has more detailed information about how the service works.
Technical information
This service supports both IPv4 and IPv6.
This service takes feeds from the following reputable lists:
- Three Spamhaus lists (SBL, XBL and PBL) plus these lists joined together as a Zen list
- The Spamhaus allow list
- The multi.uribl.com URIBL list
- The dnswl.org allow list
This service supports both IPv4 and IPv6.
This service takes feeds from the following reputable lists:
- Three Spamhaus lists (SBL, XBL and PBL) plus these lists joined together as a Zen list
- The Spamhaus allow list
- The multi.uribl.com URIBL list
- The dnswl.org allow list
DNS list profiles
Recommendations
We recommend that you use the Spamhaus sender lists in the first phase. In the second stage filter, the URIBL list can help to locate many of the otherwise difficult, remaining unwanted messages.
Deny lists
DNS deny lists are a well-established technique that identify sources of email abuse as lists of IP address blocks, enabling Janet-connected organisations to quickly and easily reject a high proportion of unwanted email.
URI lists
Unlike most deny lists, URIBLs are not lists of message senders but URLs (web addresses, some but not all representing undesirable sites) which have been seen in email messages and have been identified as spam or phishing, or are otherwise malicious.
Links seen in these messages are more stable than the rapidly changing botnet IP addresses used to send the vast majority of them.
Allow lists
Allow lists contain all currently known trusted email servers, and are the opposite of deny lists. Email from listed email addresses, domains and/or IP address should generally be allowed through the mail server.
Email allow lists are used to reduce the incidence of false positives and to speed up the filtering process, as they are often based on the assumption that most legitimate mail will be from a relatively small and fixed set of senders.
Recommendations
We recommend that you use the Spamhaus sender lists in the first phase. In the second stage filter, the URIBL list can help to locate many of the otherwise difficult, remaining unwanted messages.
Deny lists
DNS deny lists are a well-established technique that identify sources of email abuse as lists of IP address blocks, enabling Janet-connected organisations to quickly and easily reject a high proportion of unwanted email.
URI lists
Unlike most deny lists, URIBLs are not lists of message senders but URLs (web addresses, some but not all representing undesirable sites) which have been seen in email messages and have been identified as spam or phishing, or are otherwise malicious.
Links seen in these messages are more stable than the rapidly changing botnet IP addresses used to send the vast majority of them.
Allow lists
Allow lists contain all currently known trusted email servers, and are the opposite of deny lists. Email from listed email addresses, domains and/or IP address should generally be allowed through the mail server.
Email allow lists are used to reduce the incidence of false positives and to speed up the filtering process, as they are often based on the assumption that most legitimate mail will be from a relatively small and fixed set of senders.
Service level description
Service description
This is an email abuse protection service to assist electronic mail systems at organisations to determine if they should refuse connections from certain addresses. The system is based on data from reputable sources and provides DNS-style resolution.
Charges
This service is centrally-funded.
Your responsibilities
You are responsible for ensuring that the email system at the organisation is configured to use the service.
You are also responsible on an ongoing basis for maintaining contact details.
Security
Please ensure your organisation understands and adheres to the security policy.
Hours of service
The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year.
Target availability
The target availability is 99.5% during the hours of service defined above, measured monthly over a 12 month period, excluding service-affecting maintenance.
Service-affecting maintenance is capped at 0.5% and is normally carried out with at least two weeks' notice.
Fault management
Faults with the service may be reported via the service desk on tel: 0300 300 2212 or via email: help@jisc.ac.uk.
For full details please visit the fault reporting page.
Resilience
The service comprises multiple servers that automatically take over from one another if a server fails - giving you peace of mind.
Request for service
You can request this service via the service desk on tel 0300 300 2212 or via email: help@jisc.ac.uk
Service delivery time
The service will be delivered within five business days of receipt of all necessary information.
Terms and conditions
Please ensure your organisation understands and adheres to the terms and conditions
Escalation
If you are experiencing an issue with the service, and wish to escalate the issue within Janet please contact us via the service desk on tel: 0300 300 2212 or via email: help@jisc.ac.uk.
Technical section
This service supports both IPv4 and IPv6.
This service takes feeds from the following reputable lists:
- Three Spamhaus lists (SBL, XBL and PBL) plus these lists joined together as a Zen list
- The Spamhaus allow list
- The multi.uribl.com URIBL list
- The dnswl.org allow list
For details of how to use this service and for more information on the details of the maintained lists, visit the allow and deny lists community page.
Service description
This is an email abuse protection service to assist electronic mail systems at organisations to determine if they should refuse connections from certain addresses. The system is based on data from reputable sources and provides DNS-style resolution.
Charges
This service is centrally-funded.
Your responsibilities
You are responsible for ensuring that the email system at the organisation is configured to use the service.
You are also responsible on an ongoing basis for maintaining contact details.
Security
Please ensure your organisation understands and adheres to the security policy.
Hours of service
The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year.
Target availability
The target availability is 99.5% during the hours of service defined above, measured monthly over a 12 month period, excluding service-affecting maintenance.
Service-affecting maintenance is capped at 0.5% and is normally carried out with at least two weeks' notice.
Fault management
Faults with the service may be reported via the service desk on tel: 0300 300 2212 or via email: help@jisc.ac.uk.
For full details please visit the fault reporting page.
Resilience
The service comprises multiple servers that automatically take over from one another if a server fails - giving you peace of mind.
Request for service
You can request this service via the service desk on tel 0300 300 2212 or via email: help@jisc.ac.uk
Service delivery time
The service will be delivered within five business days of receipt of all necessary information.
Terms and conditions
Please ensure your organisation understands and adheres to the terms and conditions
Escalation
If you are experiencing an issue with the service, and wish to escalate the issue within Janet please contact us via the service desk on tel: 0300 300 2212 or via email: help@jisc.ac.uk.
Technical section
This service supports both IPv4 and IPv6.
This service takes feeds from the following reputable lists:
- Three Spamhaus lists (SBL, XBL and PBL) plus these lists joined together as a Zen list
- The Spamhaus allow list
- The multi.uribl.com URIBL list
- The dnswl.org allow list
For details of how to use this service and for more information on the details of the maintained lists, visit the allow and deny lists community page.
ISO certification
This service is included within the scope of our ISO9001 certificate.
