Suddenly listed on ix.dnsbl.manitu.net? This DNSBL has seized its operations.

In the following weeks your monitoring might alert you that your mail server(s) got listed on the anti-spam DNS Blocklist (DNSBL) ix.dnsbl.manitu.net.

The reason is not spamming from your mail server. The operators behind this DNSBL, the well known Heise media group in Germany, decided in January 2025 to stop the project immediately.

Screenshot of the blog post mentioning the end of this DNSBL

In a personal blog post on hostblogger.de, the reasons for the decision were mentioned. The decision was not made because of technical difficulties or efforts, but rather legal concerns. Legal complexities with data policies and laws from the European Union, the GDPR for example, were evaluated and deemed too risky to continue the block list.

Mail server or monitoring administrators can therefore remove this DNSBL.

On the open source monitoring plugin check_rbl this DNSBL was already removed 2 days after the announcement.

Claudio Kuenzler

Claudio has been writing way over 1000 articles on his own blog since 2008 already. He is fascinated by technology, especially Open Source Software. As a Senior Systems Engineer he has seen and solved a lot of problems - and writes about them.