gawab.com
web.de
Why? Because some ill-guided sysadmins have compiled or have subscribed to some blocking list that has our IP on it, even though we have never sent spam, no spam has ever originated from our mail server, there are exactly five users that have @belchfire.net email addresses, three of whom are me, it is a static IP that I have had for years and is not an open-relay.
Here's the deal with blocking lists: they don't work. Everyone is under pressure from their user base to do something about spam. So in the
absence of any cognitive reasoning, system admins read a few newsgroups and figure blocking lists are the way to go. Well they're not. Here's why:
- The accuracy of a given blocking list is only as good as those that maintain it.
- Many blocking lists blindly add entire subnets or CIDR blocks of IPs deeming them 'dialup' or 'dynamic' IPs (which, arguably, much spam originates from). Sure, go block some AOL IPs, but do some research first. One does not have to have a direct IP assignment from ARIN/RIPE/APNIC/JAPNIC to have static IPs. Many ISP incorporate technology that assigns static IPs based on the MAC address of one's NIC card (or cloned MAC on a firewall device). So long as one's MAC address never changes, neither does the IP.
- Many blocking lists blindly add IPs without ever investigating spam reports (thanks spamcop!)
- The maintainers of many blocking lists do not publish or make easy available
(if at all) information on how to get removed from their lists. - Even after all the hassle of getting one's mail IP removed from a given blocking list, it can very easily be re-added the next day by some of the very reasons outlined above, starting the cycle over again.
It's moronic. Utterly. Stepping outside the issue at hand for a moment, there's the scenario - tell me if this sounds familiar:
You send email to x@somedomain.com. You get email back saying your message could not be delivered because it was blocked by the recipients mail server due to being on somedomain.com's blocking list. You contact your ISP complaining that you can't send mail to x@somedomain.com because your ISP's mail IPs are on somedomain.com's blocking list. Your ISP says something to the effect of 'We have no control over what blocking lists other companies subscribe to'. If you have a good ISP, they will attempt to contact the maintainers of the blocking list your email recipient's ISP subscribes to. But there are no
guarantees that your ISP's IPs will be removed from that blocking list. And indeed, many times the IPs are not removed.
Who's to blame? Your ISP? In some cases, maybe, but usually not. Yet they take the brunt of the complains. Does spam originate from your ISP? Perhaps. But consider this. For every step your ISP takes to try to curb spam, the more restrictive their email systems become, and the more complaints they get from their users. You can't send more than 50 messages at a time... You can only send mail once ever 15 minutes... You can't run a list server... Etc., etc., etc. Eventually their users get pissed off and cancel their service to move to another host. ISPs don't want to lose customers, so their hands are somewhat tied as to what they can do technically and what they will
economically, based on user impact and customer satisfaction.
So what's the answer then? Well it certainly isn't blocking lists. Sure, block email from well-known, large commercial spam operations. But the cons to blocking IPs on a more granular level far outweigh the benefits. A far better solution is to block by open relay. Block by invalid reverse DNS (if you can't configure your DNS properly, you shouldn't be running a mail server, in my opinion). Then leave it up to the end USER to DECIDE who they wish to receive email from.
You see, by nature, all traditional methods of blocking or filtering email is to 'ALLOW all mail that is not
explicitly blocked', and that is the every root of the problem. An effective system will 'BLOCK everything that is not
explicitly allowed'.
A few folks have finally figured this out, and those lucky enough to use a mail system that uses this
methodology have it made (you know who you are!). I've been using this type of methodology for years. I used to get 500 - 1000 pieces of spam a day, even with spam filters setup. In the three years I've been using the new methodology, I can count the amount of spam I've received since on two hands.
For those of you who have had it up to here with spam, dump your current email provider and check out:
- mailblocks.com - webmail and works with your existing email
- Spamarrest.com - webmail free, email program integration paid
- Hushmail.com - webmail - free and paid services available
- Qurb.com - software - works with your existing email program
- MindSpring.com - best US ISP now offers spamBlocker service
Run your own mail server? Get TMDA and be happy :)
* Belchfire is not affiliated with these companies and makes no money by referring our members to these third-party services.
So, if you're on gawab.com or web.de, don't bother registering on Belchfire.net. Your host doesn't accept our email so you will not be able to validate your membership.
I have contacted both of the above hosts and requested that our mail IP be removed from their blocking lists so that our members using their systems can register. And if not, to at least provide info as to why our mail IP has been blocked and contact information for any third-party blocking lists that they subscribe to. I'll post updates here so stay tuned. I don't expect timely responses or action from either. I've been down this road hundreds of times... Now I'm off to play Doom 3 ;)
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Edit: It is not our intent to associate AOL with large commercial spam operations. It is well known in the industry that, historically, a considerable amount of spam originated from the AOL network. However, AOL has been taking measures to reduce the amount of spam that originates from their network, and we praise their efforts.
