# Microsoft SNDS Walkthrough — Outlook IP Reputation in AcelleMail Context

> Microsoft's Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) shows per-IP reputation for outlook.com / hotmail.com / live.com. This guide walks the SNDS signup, wiring AcelleMail's sending IPs in, and daily-checking the panel.

- Canonical URL: https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/microsoft-snds-walkthrough
- Author: Lena Hart, Email Deliverability Editor
- Category: Sending & Deliverability — SMTP setup, bounce handling, sender reputation, IP warmup, throttling
- Content type: tutorial · Difficulty: intermediate
- Tags: Acellemail
- Published: 2026-07-04 · Last updated: 2026-08-15
- Reading time: 7 min
- Publisher: AcelleMail Knowledge Base, https://acellesend.com/kb

---

## Why SNDS matters

Microsoft's email properties — outlook.com, hotmail.com, live.com, msn.com — combined are ~15% of consumer email worldwide. Their reputation engine is independent of Gmail's: an IP that's High at Google Postmaster Tools can simultaneously be Red at Microsoft SNDS. You need both signals.

SNDS = Smart Network Data Services. Free. Microsoft-run. Shows per-IP:

| Signal | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| **Reputation** (Red/Yellow/Green) | Microsoft's aggregate verdict on the IP |
| **Filter result** (% Inbox / Junk / Blocked) | Where Microsoft routes your mail today |
| **Complaint rate** | Mark-as-spam clicks from Microsoft mailbox users |
| **Trap hits** | Sent to spam-trap addresses (red flag) |
| **Sample HELO + body** | What Microsoft sees — useful for debugging authentication |

## Sign up + register your IPs

### Step 1: Find your AcelleMail sending IPs

In AcelleMail, open the sending-server detail:

![Server detail — find your sending IP](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/sending-servers/02-server-detail-full.png)

For SMTP relay servers (SendGrid, Mailgun, Postmark, etc.), the sending IP is the vendor's shared pool — you usually don't have a dedicated IP. SNDS only gives meaningful data for dedicated IPs.

For Amazon SES with a dedicated IP / IP pool, get the IP from the SES console → Configuration → Dedicated IPs.

For self-hosted SMTP (e.g. Postfix on your own server), the sending IP is your server's outbound IP — run `curl ifconfig.me` from the host.

### Step 2: Sign up at sendersupport.olc.protection.outlook.com

URL: https://sendersupport.olc.protection.outlook.com/snds/

Click **Request access**. Microsoft asks for:

- Your Microsoft account (create one if needed — free)
- Each IP / IP range you control (one IP per line, or CIDR like `192.0.2.0/24`)
- Ownership verification — Microsoft will email each registered IP's `abuse@` and `postmaster@` accounts for confirmation

Within 24-72 hours, Microsoft confirms ownership and grants SNDS access.

### Step 3: Daily SNDS check

Once active, log in daily. The dashboard shows per-IP rows with:

```
IP            Reputation   Filter result    Complaint rate   Trap hits
192.0.2.10    GREEN        Inbox 98%        0.02%            0
192.0.2.11    YELLOW       Inbox 84%        0.18%            1
192.0.2.12    RED          Junk 100%        0.45%            7
```

Green is target; Yellow means watch; Red means PAUSE sending from that IP until you've fixed the underlying issue.

## Daily SNDS-driven action

| SNDS state | What it means | What to do in AcelleMail |
|---|---|---|
| Green, Inbox 95%+, complaint <0.1% | Healthy — full speed | Continue normal volume |
| Yellow, Inbox 70-85%, complaint 0.1-0.3% | Warning — reputation degrading | Hold current volume; do NOT add new segments; audit recent campaigns |
| Yellow, complaint >0.3% | Imminent block | Immediately PAUSE sending; investigate content + list source |
| Red | Already filtered out | PAUSE that server entirely; restore reputation via re-engagement track |
| Trap hits >0 | You hit a spam trap — bad list source | Audit imports; never buy lists; trap hits are reputation poison |

## Wire SNDS state back to AcelleMail
### Open the sending-server detail

In AcelleMail's sidebar, click **Sending → Sending servers**. The list shows every server connected to this account with its status chip, sending limit, and last activity:

![Customer sending-server list](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/sending-servers/01-customer-server-list.png)

Click into the row you want to configure. The detail page surfaces Connection settings (host / credentials), Configuration (server name, default from, sending limit, bounce + FBL handler), and the **Test connection** / **Send test email** buttons in the toolbar:

![Server detail — Connection + Configuration](https://acellesend.com/plugins/acelle/landing/images/help/kb/sending-servers/02-server-detail-full.png)

When SNDS flips a server's IP to Red, the appropriate AcelleMail action is to **Disable** that server temporarily — preventing further sends from a poisoned IP while you investigate.

In the sending server detail toolbar, click **Disable**. The server status flips to *Disabled*; the dispatcher routes around it.

After fixing the underlying issue (e.g. bad import purged, content audited), re-enable and ramp back up via the warmup pattern.

## Common SNDS confusion + fixes

| What you see at SNDS | What it actually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Yellow" but Inbox 90%+ | Microsoft sees mild concern (volume spike?) but mail still inboxes | Monitor closely; usually self-resolves |
| "Green" but complaints in AcelleMail spiked | AcelleMail's tracking captures different complaints than SNDS | Trust both signals; act on the alarming one |
| New IP shows no data | IP not registered with SNDS, OR <72h since registration | Confirm registration; wait for data |
| Filter result "Junk 30%" but you have no complaint signals in AcelleMail | Microsoft filtering for content reasons, not engagement | Audit subject line + body content |
| Trap hit count = 5 | Five separate spam-trap hits | This is a list-source problem. Audit imports. |
| Sample HELO shows unfamiliar domain | Authentication misalignment | Re-verify domain in AcelleMail sending-server detail |

## What SNDS DOESN'T show

| Signal | Where to look instead |
|---|---|
| Aggregate Microsoft mail delivery | AcelleMail campaign report bounce log + Microsoft Junk Email Reporting Program (JMRP) |
| Authentication results (SPF/DKIM/DMARC) | DMARC aggregate reports + AcelleMail server config chips |
| Per-recipient block | AcelleMail bounce log (DSN code 5.7.x patterns) |
| Yahoo / Apple / Other ISPs | Yahoo / Apple have their own (mostly retired) postmaster tools |

<details>
<summary><strong>Advanced: programmatic SNDS polling + automated server-disable on Red</strong></summary>

SNDS doesn't have a public API. Microsoft provides an opt-in IP-data feed: log into SNDS, then on the "Data Selection" page select daily CSV download. The CSV is published to your account's storage URL daily.

**Daily automation pattern:**

```bash
# Pull yesterday's SNDS CSV (you'll need to handle the login flow once, persist
# a session cookie or use SNDS' email-attachment delivery mode)
curl -sH "Cookie: $SNDS_COOKIE" \
  "https://sendersupport.olc.protection.outlook.com/snds/data.aspx?date=$(date -v-1d +%Y%m%d)&output=csv" \
  -o snds-yesterday.csv

# Parse + auto-disable any RED-reputation server
while IFS=, read ip reputation filter_pct complaint_pct trap_hits; do
  if [ "$reputation" = "RED" ]; then
    # Find the AcelleMail server for this IP
    server_uid=$(curl -sH "Authorization: Bearer $ADMIN_TOKEN" \
      "https://acellemail.com/api/v1/admin/sending-servers?filter[sending_ip]=$ip" \
      | jq -r '.data[0].uid')

    if [ -n "$server_uid" ]; then
      # Disable + alert
      curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $ADMIN_TOKEN" \
        -d "{\"server_uid\": \"$server_uid\"}" \
        "https://acellemail.com/api/v1/admin/sending-servers/disable"

      # Slack alert
      curl -X POST $SLACK_WEBHOOK \
        -d "{\"text\": \"🚨 SNDS RED on IP $ip — auto-disabled AcelleMail server $server_uid. Complaint rate: $complaint_pct. Trap hits: $trap_hits.\"}"
    fi
  fi
done < snds-yesterday.csv
```

Run daily at 04:00. SNDS catches reputation issues before AcelleMail's own bounce/complaint signals — earlier intervention = faster recovery.

**Per-IP rotation playbook when SNDS flips Red:**

```
Day 0:  SNDS shows IP X = Red. AUTO-DISABLE in AcelleMail.
Day 1:  Audit recent campaigns from this IP. Identify root cause:
        - Content issue?  → Edit copy; flag the template
        - List source?    → Pause that list; re-verify
        - Engagement gap? → Re-engagement campaign first
Day 7:  Re-enable IP at 10% of pre-incident volume.
        Send ONLY to engaged-last-7d segment.
Day 14: If SNDS back to Yellow, expand to engaged-last-30d at 30%.
Day 21: If SNDS Green, resume normal ramp.
Day 30: Full volume.
```

**JMRP (Microsoft Junk Email Reporting Program)** — companion to SNDS. Microsoft sends feedback loops (FBL) for every Mark-as-Spam click from Microsoft mailbox users.

Sign up: https://sendersupport.olc.protection.outlook.com/pm/junkmail.aspx

Once active, every complaint generates an email to your `feedback@yourdomain` address. AcelleMail's bounce/feedback handler can parse these automatically — set up the FBL handler in your sending server config. See [Feedback loops FBL setup](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/feedback-loops-fbl-setup) for the full setup.

**SDDS — Sender Score Display** (deprecated) — older Microsoft signal; no longer maintained. Use SNDS + JMRP exclusively.

</details>

## Related articles

- [Sender reputation monitoring](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/sender-reputation-monitoring)
- [Gmail postmaster tools walkthrough](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/gmail-postmaster-tools-walkthrough)
- [Feedback loops FBL setup](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/feedback-loops-fbl-setup)
- [IP warmup by ISP](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/ip-warmup-by-isp)
- [Deliverability incident runbook](https://acellesend.com/kb/articles/deliverability-incident-runbook)

---

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