I’m hoping someone can help me out with a really frustrating issue I’m having with my email. For the last couple of years, I’ve had a domain registered with Njalla. Even with alerts from other users (see https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/s/4A4TXPCG0S) I decided to use one of those domains as email custom domain in Protonmail.
As “expected”, my outgoing emails started getting rejected because my domain was suddenly listed on Spamhaus.
Spamhaus flat-out refused to remove my domain. They told me my domain is in an “Internet neighbourhood with a poor reputation” because of Njalla’s network and that it would keep happening. They basically said my only option is to transfer my domain to a different registrar with a “good reputation,” and they even discouraged from moving to another privacy-friendly option like 1984.
I’ve talked to support from both ProtonMail and Njalla, and both essentially said their hands are tied and there’s nothing they can do.
So, I feel stuck. Refusing to delist my domain seems to me a direct fight against privacy and anonymity. I understand that many bad actors might use such service and that blocking the registrar (maybe) might make sense from the security side of things. However, refuse to delist a user who can prove legitimacy looks like an attempt to kill the privacy-oriented business model.
Has anyone else gone through this? Is there any way to fight Spamhaus on this “bad neighbourhood” thing, or is transferring away from Njalla really the only fix? If I have to move, are there any registrars that are both privacy-respecting and have a good enough reputation to avoid these blacklists?
I just checked my njalla domains and none are blacklisted by Spamhaus. Did you set SPF, DMARC, and DKIM records appropriately? Are aliases correctly set as allowed senders? Also what TLD is it if you don’t mind sharing?
Why was it expected? Are your mails not transactional?
Yes, it’s all set according the proton instructions, so I assume it’s all correctly set.
I said it’s was expected to be blocklisted because the history behind it. Check the link to the Reddit forum I posted above. They said I was blocklisted because my domain is on a neighborhood “with poor reputation” and because of that I’m no eligible from being delisted. The only ways, according to spamhaus, is change my domain to another registrar.
Just for clarification I use this domain in my nextcloud instance, to notify users and my self. I have total control of sent messages and none of them was improperly sent.
The other domain I use as my personal email was not affected.
Firstly, I’ll just note that we only recommend email providers for receiving and storing emails securely, not for sending emails, so this is not exactly our area of expertise.
Not owning your domain is a huge reason we don’t recommend Njalla. That kind of means there is no good solution though, which is why we don’t list any domain registrars currently. I would generally lean towards one like Porkbun over a spammy one like GoDaddy or Namecheap, but at the end of the day there is a limit on how private you can be with any ICANN accredited registrar, unfortunately.
As far as Spamhaus goes, the reality is that anyone can create a spam list and publish it, there are even plenty out there who will add IPs and domains randomly just to extort people for removal fees, and they somehow get trusted by major providers (usually Microsoft, who is the worst at validating the legitimacy of their security-related vendors). There’s absolutely no guarantees of due process, they’re just some randos saying your domain is bad.
You can only control your side of the equation here. If your emails are rejected on the other side, because the recipient uses Spamhaus, then there really is not much you can do about it.
The inherent insecurity of email and these archaic systems that so many ISPs have in place is exactly why email is useless for anything non-transactional, and the most private communication methods you should be using are modern instant messengers.
Thank you very much for your response @jonah . I’m currently trying to get an answer from Spamhaus on whether they consider providers like Porkbun or Infomaniak to be part of a “good reputation neighborhood.”
It’s incredibly frustrating that a third party like Spamhaus can essentially blocklist a service without clear justification, leaving us with no choice but to migrate to another registrar. (Although, to be accurate, Njalla isn’t strictly a registrar). It seems they simply disagree with Njalla’s privacy-focused model and are effectively trying to stifle this type of business, especially since so many systems rely on their blocklists.
I truly wish I had the time and resources to take legal action, as this is something I feel very strongly about. Unfortunately, that’s not an option for me right now.
So, for the time being, I’ll focus on moving to another service. That’s the plan for now. Thanks again for your help!