On 22 Jun 2004 22:33:35 -0400, (DoN. Nichols)
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

I had a fax AND email from them G

Their web site host has been under fire from hackers, they are saying,
and has been down a lot lately.

They have reported the Australian disconneection to their ISP.

So we shall see..


Funny I just sent them an email via my ISP's online email site, and it
has not bounced.


O.K. This makes it look as though their spamblocking has gone
wild, and they are considering everything in OZ as potential spam or a
potential system cracker.

I just took your current IP --203.59.191.63 (taken from the
"NNTP-Posting-Host: " header), and ran my script to see whether it is
in any blocklists. It is currently in one -- blackholes.five-ten-sg.com,
which lists more entries than many of the others. They are more stable
than spamcop, where entries appear and vanish in the blink of an eye.

The comment which they have associated with the entry is:

"Miscellaneous address blocks which have sent spam here."

Dolores just checked it, and it is also in block.blars.org, and
that one blocks by class-B or class-C IP blocks, not just individual
IPs. (That is, 256 at a time, or 65,536 at a time.)

So -- someone has sent a lot of spam from somewhere in the same
class-C or class-B block (likely several addresses within that range),
and this could block e-mail *to* the company, if the company's ISP uses
one of those blocklists.

This _could_ be why my ISP's online stuff may be getting through. It
probably has a completely different address.

These guys are "backboned" by another company, with whom I have had
many discussions (you were involved in that thread too, IIRC) about
spam and hits on my firewall, so far without much success.

I reckon the "culprit" here is that every time I log on I get a
different IP..no? Therefore I can "inherit" some other scumbag's dirty
laundry.


However, it should *not* block access to their web page, unless
they have a seriously draconian firewall set up somewhere in there.
This could be the ISP, or the company -- or conceivably the router.
Note that all of Australia (along with China, Korea, Japan, and many
other countries) are in APNIC, and it is possible that the blocking is
against all of APNIC's address space.

I'm afraid that the only way to be *sure* of reaching them (for
you) is a phone call -- or perhaps snail-mail.

Fax has worked, as I said. Phone would soon run up any savings in
chain, and there is the time difference.


Or *perhaps* you could get a free hotmail account which you
could access from OZ, and mail as though from in the USA.


Hehe! I hope only good ears are reading this stuff! G

Anyway. I live and learn. Thanks for all your interest.

In article ,
Old Nick wrote:
On 22 Jun 2004 22:33:35 -0400, (DoN. Nichols)
vaguely proposed a theory
......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

I had a fax AND email from them G

Great!

Their web site host has been under fire from hackers, they are saying,
and has been down a lot lately.

That could explain a lot.

They have reported the Australian disconneection to their ISP.

O.K. I hope that cleans up.

So we shall see..


Funny I just sent them an email via my ISP's online email site, and it
has not bounced.

Perhaps a different IP block. Also, did you get an actual
bounce from the previous? If not, was it just a disappearing into the
bit bucket of your e-mail (e.g. no indication of *anything* happening?

[ ... ]

So -- someone has sent a lot of spam from somewhere in the same
class-C or class-B block (likely several addresses within that range),
and this could block e-mail *to* the company, if the company's ISP uses
one of those blocklists.

This _could_ be why my ISP's online stuff may be getting through. It
probably has a completely different address.

Agreed.

These guys are "backboned" by another company, with whom I have had
many discussions (you were involved in that thread too, IIRC) about
spam and hits on my firewall, so far without much success.

Yep.

I reckon the "culprit" here is that every time I log on I get a
different IP..no? Therefore I can "inherit" some other scumbag's dirty
laundry.

And it is not just the scumbags, but also those made victim by a
virus infection. The infection installs a backdoor, which a scumbag
somewhere else use to turn that victim's machine into a spam engine,
until the victim runs a virus scan because the machine seems so slow
whenever it is connected to the net.

[ ... ]

I'm afraid that the only way to be *sure* of reaching them (for
you) is a phone call -- or perhaps snail-mail.

Fax has worked, as I said. Phone would soon run up any savings in
chain, and there is the time difference.

Yes -- it all depends on how desperate you are to get the
information.

Or *perhaps* you could get a free hotmail account which you
could access from OZ, and mail as though from in the USA.


Hehe! I hope only good ears are reading this stuff! G

The bad ones already *know* about free hotmail accounts. And I
think that hotmail does a good job of blocking sending of e-mails direct
from/to port 25 on client machines, so the spam software is forced to go
through hotmail's own mail servers, which can (and probably do, by now)
filter for virii and spam.

Apparently, at least one of the large ISPs in the US has
*finally* started blocking port-25 traffic from DSL accounts. It has to
now go to their mail server via PPP (which is purely a
client-to-mail-server protocol, and can't be used to bypass the ISP's
mail server and push spam (or virii) out without any controls.

Only business accounts have direct port 25 access, now, on those
ISPs, and those who use that for spam can be detected and shut down.

Anyway. I live and learn. Thanks for all your interest.

Best of luck,
DoN.
--
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