Introduction: The First Step to Fixing Problems
If you're having trouble sending emails or visiting certain websites, you might have a reputation problem. But how do you actually find your "number"? Security companies normally charge expensive monthly fees for this data, but there are several professional-grade tools that allow you to check your individual IP Reputation for free.
In this guide, we'll show you how to use the best reputation lookups to find out how the world sees your connection.
The Top 3 Free Reputation Tools
1. Cisco Talos Intelligence
This is the gold standard. Cisco manages a massive amount of the world's internet traffic. Their Talos search allows you to see if your IP is categorized as 'Web Spam', 'Email Spam', or 'Malicious' and gives you a simple Poor/Neutral/Good rating.
2. MXToolbox SuperTool
Excellent for email issues. It will check your IP against hundreds of blacklists and also tell you if your server is configured correctly (checking things like SPF and DKIM).
3. BrightCloud (Webroot)
BrightCloud is a major provider of reputation data for firewalls. Their 'Lookup' tool is fantastic for seeing if your destination or source IP has a history of hosting malware or botnets.
Conclusion
Checking your reputation is a critical part of maintaining a healthy digital identity. Once you have the data, you can start the process of fixing any underlying security problems. Check your reputation here.