OT: spammers are using my domain again

Phillip T. George me at PhillipGeorge.com
Sat Oct 9 21:51:31 UTC 2004



Chris Hewitt wrote:

>On Sat, 2004-10-09 at 17:23, Thomas Zehetbauer wrote:
>  
>
>>On Sam, 2004-10-09 at 10:34 -0500, Phillip T. George wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Its becoming more and more common each day, and I think its not that
>>>much of a sacrfice to make, so that there is less spam in the world
>>>(or at least less spam sources).
>>>      
>>>
>>How could this possibly reduce the amount of spam in the world?
>>    
>>
>
>I have a static IP address and run a smtp server. My isp puts all the
>static ip addresses into the dns blackhole lists. I use my ISP's mail
>server as a smart host and send mail through it. If a user such as
>myself misconfigures their smtp server to act as an open relay then
>(hopefully) a receiving mail server will check the dns blackhole lists
>and refuse to accept the email.
>
>Thus users misconfiguring their own email servers should no longer be
>used as a source of spam.
>
>  
>
>>>ALSO, most ISPs that offer a businss service remove this restriction.
>>>      
>>>
>>THAT is indeed a good point, first remove functionality and then make
>>customers pay extra.
>>    
>>
>
>Unfortunately this seems a common business tactic, but perhaps it is
>thought that business customers are less likely to misconfigure smtp
>servers?
>
>Regards
>
>Chris
>  
>

Chris,

Thats exactly what I was trying to say about spam.  I believe you're 
correct in your theory about misconfiguration.  However, if it is 
misconfigured and it is used for spam, they WILL shut it down immediately.

Most ISPs realize that A LOT of people use windows...unpatched and don't 
use virus scanners -- which is why it is very understandable that ISPs 
will disable residentals customers from using alternative SMTP servers.  
Businesses are just the opposite, since they have money, they NORMALLY 
will pay someone knowledgeable to take care of any problem of that sort.

-Phillip




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