Server "blacklisted"

[Russ]

Last night I was having problems with emails that were being sent from my domain. I could receive emails form other domains (for example, my earthlink account and my work account), and I could send emails back and forth between accounts on my domain, but emails generated from my domain were not getting thru to outside accounts (for example, my earthlink and work accounts). I submitted a help desk ticket, and they said that it was because the server I am on was "Blacklisted." They said that a request had been made to "Whitelist" the server, and that could take up to 24 hours. I am curious, what does that mean? What causes a server to be "Blacklisted"? Was it something I did? Or something that someone else on the server did (I presume that I am on a shared server)?

 

Sorry if this isn't the correct forum to post this question. If it isn't, please let me know which one is appropriate.

 

Thanks.

[TCH-Bruce]

It means someone on the server sent out spam emails to people and got the server blacklisted.

[OJB]

Bruce is correct. If you are considering sending thousands of emails, it is probably worth looking at getting a dedicated box and then getting senderscore certified (senderscore.com) which involves having to jump through a load of hoops for them, but it means you can effectively be added to whitelists and hit actual inboxes rather than spam boxes, or getting blacklisted as you seem to have done.