TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Anti-Spam Tool Going Out of Business

Re: Anti-Spam Tool Going Out of Business

Scott Dorsey (kludge@panix.com)
30 Dec 2006 12:14:00 -0500

Gordon S. Hlavenka <nospam@crashelex.com> wrote:

> ORDB and various blackhole databases have been the bane of my email
> existence since they were invented. Much as I hate spam (and I do) I
> hate having strangers filter my email even more.

The problem is that people DO filter their email. They either do it
manually, or they do it automatically. Sometimes the automatic
systems have false positives. Sometimes the manual systems have false
positives too ... when I was getting a couple thousand spam messages a
day and only a dozen or so legitimate messages, I was routinely
missing the legitimate traffic in the flood. Now I use blocking lists
that keep it down to a couple dozen spam messages a day, which I can
deal with.

> Many times I have had emails I sent bounced, just because someone
> else at my ISP had an open relay or was infected with something, or
> perhaps was actually evil. But why is that _my_ problem? Yet these
> lists make it my problem; I get my emails bounced back, through no
> fault of my own. I don't choose my IP address, nor do I choose my
> IP neighbors.

You _do_ choose your IP address and you _do_ choose your IP neighbors,
when you choose your ISP. If you get service from an ISP with a bad
reputation, people will refuse to accept your traffic.

Twenty years ago, if a site had a problem, it would just get
disconnected from the upstream, and the problem would either be fixed
or the site would stay offline. These days the large backbone
providers are not willing to do this, so the disconnection is being
done in a more crude fashion.

> And it breaks in the other direction, too -- emails sent to me may
> simply never arrive, just because some sanctimonious so-and-so decided
> to "fix" spam. Bleah. A pox on them all.

It's not a fix, it is a desperate measure employed because the problem
is so far out of hand. I do not have a better one.

> Before various ISPs decided to help me with my spam problem, I used
> to get around 300 to 400 emails daily, about 50 of them legit.
> Today, thanks to the efforts of misguided do-gooders worldwide I get
> about 50 emails daily, with maybe 6 or 10 of them spam. At first
> blush this seems to be an improvement, but in fact I'm losing a
> handful of emails _every_ _day_ which did not happen when I was
> getting all the spam.

So, if you don't LIKE the blocking lists, don't use them.

> Spam? Sucks, no question about it. But let ME decide what is spam for
> myself; the rest of you keep your paws out of my mailbox.

If your ISP doesn't allow you to select how your mail is filtered, why
are you using it?

--scott
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: Associated Press News Wire: "China's Internet Out of Order Until January 15"
Go to Previous message: Scott Dorsey: "Re: FBI Taps Cell Phone Mic as Eavesdropping Tool"
May be in reply to: Anick Jesdanun, AP : "Anti-Spam Tool Going Out of Business"
Next in thread: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com: "Re: Anti-Spam Tool Going Out of Business"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page