[ On Tuesday, January 29, 2002 at 15:47:12 (-0500), Shannon wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: OT: orbz.org - help needed
>
> I seek 100% accuracy knowing I cannot get it. Using Orbz in the past
> blocked an inordinate amount of email I needed to get. That's the only
> reason I said that about accuracy. You've read far too much into this.

I think you still don't clearly have the distinction made about who is
blocking what.....

No DNS "black-list" blocks anything whatsoever at all.  _YOU_ do the
blocking _IFF_ you use the lists in that way.

> > Sorry if your freinds choose to use known open relays.....  :-)
> 
> They don't choose. They use the only ISP available to them in most
> cases. Same for me. If mine ran an open relay, about all I could do
> would be report them and hope that convinced them to fix things.

That's simply not true at all, especially not in this day and age when
even the most lame of MUAs available to the average person is capable of
doing SMTP AUTH.  Nobody is ever forced to use their connectivity
provider as their e-mail provider.  If your friends are under this
impression then you should try to inform them of the many alternatives
they have.  Perhaps you yourself could offer them secure and safe e-mail
services!  :-)

Of course sometimes this means running POP (or IMAP) and SMTP on
non-standard ports, since some ISPs do restrict their users rather
drastically, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem to deal with.

> The problem though is that some major sites still run open relays and
> refuse to fix them. Many of them even claim that they cannot run without
> them being open. A lot of this is due to them using some Windows server
> software that is broken by design.

Don't use their services then.  Don't let your friends use them either.

> I'm really, really surprised that more spammers aren't going the direct
> route. You can get by a lot of filters like that.

When the DNS list at dul.mail-abuse.org was truly freely available it
was very effective at stopping directly delivered spam.  There are some
similar lists elsewhere, but they are not quite so complete.....

> I got a spamcop account to see how well it works. Mail from my upstream
> hosts is forwarded there, and I fetch mail from there instead to my
> local LAN.

I use the DNS list at bl.spamcop.net.  It is very effective. 

In combination with the other black-lists I use I only get about one
directly addressed and delivered spam per day now.

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098;  <gwoods@acm.org>;  <g.a.woods@ieee.org>;  <woods@robohack.ca>
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