[TheForge] MORE OT - spamming, and such troubles

[Mike Spencer]

gabriel>    2.  Many valid providers are listed in spews.

The claim is that a netblock associated with a spamming entity is
listed by SPEWS when SPEWS' owners get spam from that entity and the
responsible ISP is unresponsive to complaints.  If further spam is
received from that source, the listed block of IP addresses is
expanded.  Rinse and repeat if spam continues from that source.  The
result is that all of the spammer's ISP's net block, then part or all
of that ISP's upstream provider's netblock, may be progressively
listed.  As this process evolves, individuals, small or large domains
or whole companies (who are cistomers of the ISP or its upstream) may
find themselves the proprietors of net blocks that fall within the
listed block.  Their only sin (if any) is to have failed to do
sufficient homework to determine that thier chosen ISP and its
upstream provider do not have a track record of being lacksidaisical
(or worse) in dealing with spammers.

This appears to be how SPEWS works but I have never carefully tracked
a case throught the SPEWS process to verify it.

gabriel> IIRC, the only way to get ahold of them is through
gabriel> "news://news.admin.net-abuse.sightings".

news.admin.net-abuse.email.  .sightings is for posting copies of spam
for the record.

gabriel> Well, for a while, my system was blocked by them.

Was dreamingcrow's own net block listed or would that be because you
get part of your connectivity from blarg.net and blarg's
206.124.128.0/19 block was listed?

The latter would be an example of getting cought by an expansion of
the listed netblock from the spammer's to the ISP's.

My own spam-trasher script, when I take it from test to operational
mode, will consult a whitelist, then a draconian private blacklist,
then an online DNSbl that includes SPEWS.  But that's just for me, not
for numerous paying users.

Oh, wait, this isn't nanae, its TheForge!

OB FORGE: The mechanical lapping rig worked fairly well to even up the
A&O hammer's anvil face.  Picture Real Soon Now.  Just have to make a
key and a wedge for the lower die and I can start putting it back
together.

- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                 						   /V\ 
mspencer@tallships.ca            						  /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/						  ^^-^^

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