Server not receiving external email while outgoing one work fine

My YunoHost server

Hardware: OVH VPS
YunoHost version: 11.2.9.1
I have access to my server : SSH (root), Webmin
Are you in a special context or did you perform some particular tweaking on your YunoHost instance ? : no

Description of my issue

Hello everyone!

I’m currently running into an issue where outgoing emails are working fine, but I cannot receive or access any external incoming emails.
I don’t get any errors (tested from Gmail), my inbox is mostly empty, and when checking either on an external client or roundcube, nothing show up in my inbox.

Any idea where I could get some logs or more information about this? Or a potential fix?

Thanks

Does the diagnosis complain about anything email-related ?

Nope, all clean except for my server’s IP being flagged for spam by Spamhaus ZEN but it was the case for a very long time, and used to work despise it.

Update, I got an automated message back from the server after a failed attempt.

Here is the error message:

Client host [*(IP v6 of the server)*] blocked using [cbl.abuseat.org](http://cbl.abuseat.org); Error: open resolver; https://www.spamhaus.org/returnc/pub/51.38.67.166

Tried to contact OVH support hoping something would be happening on their end, but they are of no help.
I also submitted a ticket to Spamhaus to remove the server from their spam list, but I doubt that would solve my issue.

Any ideas?

After a LOT of digging, ended up on this community post on OVH Pas de mail en reception - VPS - OVHcloud Community

It seems related to an issue with using public spam list keys specifically from OVH servers, so I had to update my configuration.
But even after that, nothing changed, so I simply removed the “cbl.abuseat.xxx” line in the postfix main.ch

If I understand it right, that means I’m skipping a spam check, but now at least, I can receive emails.

Any one using OVH VPS services ever ran into a similar issue?

Hi ZeAntwan,

Was Gmail on the sending or receiving end? Maybe Gmail silently drops the error? I have no experience with them, but Gmail is not said to be very friendly towards home-hosting.

I recall recently someone started a thread that seems to be from “the other side” of the problem.
Edit, Recption email impossible

The point was that the hoster (could be OVH, or another large hoster) was freeloading on Spamhaus’ infrastructure, or something.

Spamhaus got sick of it, and would designate any “Is this mail spam?”-question from the network in question with “I’m not sure whether it’s SPAM, but you have to pay up or request a small-use API-key to get a better indication”. Since the answer includes “SPAM”, the message got sent back to the sender (poster of the thread in this case).

I think the Spamhaus page explaining the case is DNSBL Error Code - Open/public resolver - The Spamhaus Project

Was Gmail on the sending or receiving end? Maybe Gmail silently drops the error? I have no experience with them, but Gmail is not said to be very friendly towards home-hosting.

Sending. I can receive email from my server on my gmail account, but my server account couldn’t get anything externally, either from gmail or anything else (tested through accounts created with that email when asking to reset my password, and never received the email)

What I believe is maybe the anti-spam on my server got SO angry that it basically rejected EVERYTHING (specifically that abuseeat thing), but as for why it suddenly changed, I have no idea why…

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