Puzzle for me

kdmiller61

Here is the situation, I lived in Germany for 3 years and therefore a fritz.box was used
I am now in the States and my HELO is showing the following
72.196.xx.xxx 2026-10-01 02:00:00 pbs.fritz.box
72.196.xx.xxx 2026-09-29 16:25:00 pbs.fritz.box
72.196.xx.xxx 2026-09-26 02:00:00 pbs.fritz.box
72.196.xx.xxx 2026-09-13 22:00:00 pbs.fritz.box
72.196.xx.xxx146 2026-09-08 17:00:00 pbs.fritz.box

My mail server was not installed while living there only Proxmox where could the Fritz.box have gotten into my pfsense firewall or does anyone have suggestions on where I might find the entry
Ver: 2.9.0-RELEASE (amd64)

It is causing my mail server to be listed on spamhaus

Keith Miller

Bob.Dig

@kdmiller61 said in Puzzle for me:

my mail server to be listed on spamhaus

I doubt that. Also why should that come from pfSense, it looks like it comes from proxmox.
You kept that IP-address 72.196.xx.xxx146?

kdmiller61

@Bob.Dig I am a new at this, I will check further into proxmox and that IPis from the states, you can't transport IP's from one country to another

Keith

SteveITS

@kdmiller61 None of this seems pfSense related, to be honest.

For the PBS issue you should probably ask in the Proxmox forum. Did you use pbs.fritz.box in the hostname of the PBS? Mail servers often send their own name. You would need to do a reverse lookup on your IP to find what name your ISP is resolving it as. For example the Reverse Lookup tool at https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx.

@kdmiller61 said in Puzzle for me:

causing my mail server to be listed on spamhaus

How, specifically? (which list) My guess would be the "policy" list which is a list of home/dynamic/consumer IP addresses from each ISP that say should not be sending mail. The fix there is to send mail out through a smart host/external SMTP server.

Gertjan

@kdmiller61 said in Puzzle for me:

my HELO is showing the following
..... pbs.fritz.box

Your mail server, living at "72.196.xx.xxx" (your WAN IP, or your dedicated server IP) was told to say that when a connection is incoming.
Who told the mail server to use that host name ? Easy : the mail server admin ^^ That's probably you.

Example : I use a Debian host, and connect to one of my mail servers "test-domaine.fr" :

debian@mail2:~$ telnet test-domaine.fr 25
Trying 2001:41d0:2:927b::15...
Connected to test-domaine.fr.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 mail.test-domaine.fr ESMTP Postfix
HELO hey-its-me.tld
250 mail.test-domaine.fr
quit
221 2.0.0 Bye
Connection closed by foreign host.
debian@mail2:~$

I introduced myself with some random host name "hey-its-me.tld".
My mail server said it was called "mail.test-domaine.fr".
Here's my postfix smtp deamon (port 25 TCP setup ) :

postfix binds to an interface (IP), not a 'host name' like mail.test-domaine.fr, so before postfix starts a smtpd, it will resolvemail.test-domaine.fr fisrt (it will find 2 IP addresses, see below) and then bind (listen) to both of them.

Btw : these two checks are very important when it comes to mail servers :

debian@mail2:~$ host test-domaine.fr
test-domaine.fr has address 5.196.43.182
test-domaine.fr has IPv6 address 2001:41d0:2:927b::15
test-domaine.fr mail is handled by 10 mail.test-domaine.fr.

The first IP, the IPv4 , exists for legacy reasons (Remember, I'm in France, IPv6 close in to 90 % coverage)
The most used IP is the IPv6, 2001:41d0:2:927b::15.

And now the reverse of the MX : (the mail server) :

debian@mail2:~$ host 5.196.43.182
182.43.196.5.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer mail.test-domaine.fr.
debian@mail2:~$ host 2001:41d0:2:927b::15
5.1.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.b.7.2.9.2.0.0.0.0.d.1.4.1.0.0.2.ip6.arpa domain name pointer mail.test-domaine.fr.

You can assign yourself the reverse of the IP you use (IPv4 or IPv6) on your own equipment.
For me, the registrar that assigns my IPs (IPv4 and IPv6) gives me the possibility to assign a host name for them.