OT: mails bouncing back?

[Richard Gaskin]

Tim Jones wrote:

 > On Apr 3, 2012, at 7:19 AM, Richard Gaskin wrote:
 >
 >> I've had domains caught up with sloppy blacklisting schemes myself.
 >>
 >> It's not a problem with RunRev, or their host, but with the lazy
 >> nature of a few blacklisting systems.
 >
 > Actually, in this case, it is their host.  GoDaddy needs to tighten
 > up their "secureserver.net" environment to eliminate the spamming
 > that occurs.  Their servers are high on the list of even the most
 > legitimate blacklist maintainers (Barracuda, for instance).

I'm no fan of GoDaddy so it wouldn't surprise me if they've been willing 
to turn a blind eye to illegal activity to maintain that income until 
they're absolutely forced to do the right thing.

They wouldn't be alone on this:  a few years ago it was well known that 
some 30% of global spam was originating from three regions in Florida, 
but neither the feds nor the downstream providers did anything to 
enforce the law.  Ultimately a few upstream providers got tired of 
carrying all that wasteful traffic and blocked it all in the backbone 
themselves, only after which the feds finally decided to show up for 
work and make an arrest.  The local hosts never explained why they'd 
never taken care of it themselves, and sadly the reprieve was 
short-lived as that traffic eventually moved to the Ukraine, where it 
flourishes in an apparently lawless environment today.

But back on topic:

Blocking entire IP ranges is not a responsible way to blacklist, since 
it can - an inevitably does - affect legitimate users.  It's simply 
lazy, a ham-fisted scorched-earth way to solve a problem that requires 
more surgical methods.

In fact, it seems On-Rev.com may be a very good example of how this gets 
out of hand so easily, since AFAIK their servers aren't on GoDaddy at 
all, but on SoftLayer:

<http://on-rev.com/hosting/our-data-center/>

And even if some accounts were host by GoDaddy, unless those specific 
servers are used for illegal activity there's no excuse for any 
responsible blacklisting service to block them.

Spam is indeed a serious problem, but when attempts to stop it shut down 
legitimate businesses the "cure" is every bit as bad as the problem 
itself, arguably worse.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
  LiveCode Journal blog: http://LiveCodejournal.com/blog.irv