Blacklisting vs Blocking an IP address

Xeams has options on what to do for IP addresses, including blocking or blocking. This page goes over the different categories for blacklisting and blocking.

Category 1 - IP Filters - Black Listed IP

In Xeams, you can blacklist an IP address by marking a message as junk. You can also access the list by hovering your mouse over Filter Management, then go to IP Filters, then click on Black Listed IP Addresses.

These IP addresses are only used when filtering emails and assigning a score. Xeams will NOT reject incoming connections from these IP addresses. It will accept the message but will then assign a score to the email since they're blacklisted. Later, the message can be viewed and restored if needed.

Category 2 - Blocked IP under Intrusion Detection

You can block an IP address for Intrusion Detection. To do this, hover your mouse over Tools, then click on Intrusion Detection. Next, select Log Summary for the type of termination. Here you should see the IP addresses at the bottom. Click on the red circle icon to block the IP. This block will stay until Xeams is restarted.

These IP addresses are blocked, not blacklisted. In other words, Xeams will reject every connection from these IP addresses and you will not see any email, even in the Message Repository. This screen is sorted by the number of occurrences and only displays the top 50 offenders.

If a friendly IP gets blocked using this method, it becomes difficult to troubleshoot because you will not see any email coming in from it. Therefore, we recommend you exercise caution before blocking them.

Category 3 - Blocked IP for Incorrect Passwords

These are the IP addresses that tried sending incorrect credentials more than five times. Once this happens, Xeams will always reject their passwords, even if they are correct, for the next 10 minutes.

To view the current blocked IPs, hover your mouse over Server Configuration, then click on Manage Alerts. There will be a red box on the left side where you can view the addresses.

Additionally, you can check the logs to confirm if someone has entered an incorrect password. To do this, hover your mouse over Tools then click on View Logs. Next, select the InvalidPasswordAttempts.log to view the invalid password attempts.