Migration from Spamhaus Legacy Public Mirrors to Blocklists via DNS Query

If you have been restricted from querying our public mirrors due to querying through an open resolver, unidentifiable DNS or query volume, moving your queries from Spamhaus’ Public mirrors to our Blocklists via DNS Query delivery method requires a few changes to your configuration that can be made quickly and do not require a significant amount of engineering time to accomplish.

  1. Complete the Free Blocklists via DNS Query Account Form if you meet the Fair Use Policy or if a commercial company sign-up for a 30 day trial by filling out the Commercial Form

  2. Verify your email address and setup your account

  3. Receive your query key, that is unique to you.

A query against the public mirrors looks like the following (using zen as the example):

2.0.0.127.zen.spamhaus.org

This is, on the other hand, what the equivalent query against Blocklists via DNS Query looks like:

2.0.0.127.<query-key>.zen.dq.spamhaus.net

In other words:

  • Put your query key at the very beginning

  • Add the zone you want to query (such as zen, xbl, dbl, …)

  • Add dq.spamhaus.net at the end (note it’s .net, not .org)

These configuration changes will have to happen for any Spamhaus DNSBL zone you query in your configuration. The following are all of the zones you can query on the public mirrors and the corresponding Blocklists via DNS Query zones and how they should be formatted.

ZEN

Public mirror:
zen.spamhaus.org
Blocklists via DNS Query:
<query-key>.zen.dq.spamhaus.net

SBL

Public mirror:
sbl.spamhaus.org
Blocklists via DNS Query:
<query-key>.sbl.dq.spamhaus.net

XBL

Public mirror:
xbl.spamhaus.org
Blocklists via DNS Query:
<query-key>.xbl.dq.spamhaus.net

PBL

Public mirror:
pbl.spamhaus.org
Blocklists via DNS Query:
<query-key>.pbl.dq.spamhaus.net

SBL and XBL

Public mirror:
sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org
Blocklists via DNS Query:
<query-key>.sbl-xbl.dq.spamhaus.net

DBL

Public mirror:
dbl.spamhaus.org
Blocklists via DNS Query:
<query-key>.dbl.dq.spamhaus.net

Refer to the documentation in these pages to find out about the additional zones available only to Blocklists via DNS Query users.