MXToolbox

MXToolbox.com has a series of tools that I use frequently. The site is focus toward email based needs. When I was the Abuse Specialist for an national ISP, I lived in this tool. It stayed loaded as a series of tabs. I had each of my mail servers being monitored for their landing on a blacklist in case a customer was naughty, or more often than not, were compromised due to malware.

Common tools and their use:

  • Header analyzer – Here you are looking for the source IP and the mail host
  • IP lookup – This will give you the Abuse Point of Contact so you can file a complaint if you choose
  • Domain lookup – Perhaps the email was webmail based
  • Blacklist tool – See if this is a chronic problem or perhaps a one off
  • Ping – Are you unable to reach a site and want to see if you are blocked? Ping it from here and see
  • Trace – Maybe you are chasing down a possible routing issue, run their trace and see

I may add more to this list over time, but these are the main tools that I use on MXToolbox

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