Please do not use spamcop to block email

[B Briggs]

RW wrote:
> On Saturday 21 October 2006 01:13, Joe Holden wrote:
>> Bo Briggs wrote:
>>> I received this, and
>>>
>>> Reason: Service unavailable; Client host [205.152.59.64] blocked using
>>> bl.spamcop.net; Blocked - see
>>> http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml?205.152.59.64
>>>
>>> this is the bellsouth.net mail server.
>>>
>>> I respect the rdnsbl's, but please use spamcop as a filter, use
>>> cbl.abuseat.org if you want accurate results. Anyone can place an IP on a
>>> blacklist with a couple of reports to spamcop, and as I remember, it
>>> takes 24 hours before the block is in place.
>>>
>>> I've run a few mail servers before, and I do use the rdnsbl's, but
>>> spamcop is only used as a filter.
>>>
>>> Please reconsider using this as an absolute block.
>> Valid points, however you should be asking your isp why they're on there
>> in the first place.  I know its not as simple as that as I run several
>> mail clusters myself, but its not the responsibility of mailing lists to
>> ensure mail isn't blocked from what is listed in the rbl's.
> 

It might have been unclear, but this message was intended for this 
mailing list using the blocking list. Do all of the freebsd mailing 
lists use the same set of block lists?

Why were they on there in the first place? I don't know, but it probably 
was for a very short time, because I was able to post this message. I do 
know that the bellsouth.net dns servers were changed today or yesterday, 
and possibly the mail server IP was changed as well. You have a valid 
point, that it's not the mailing list's responsibility. I am only one 
person making a request. The request is to use spamcop to tag, not 
block. I like spamcop and I use it for tagging.


> Well, should they be blocking with a list that's intended for scoring 
> purposes?
> 

Thanks. I think that even spamcop.net states this, or they used to.

>> Alternative 
>> is to use your own mailserver, and not a widely abused isp mailserver.

Bellsouth residential customers can only connect on port 25 to 
mail.bellsouth.net. There is no way any more to run a pure home 
mailserver, (You can forward through the smarthost, mail.bellsouth.net) 
Very unfortunate for people like me who know how to run one responsibly, 
but it stops the windows users with Owned boxes. How you come to the 
conclusion that it is a widely abused isp mailserver, I don't know. If 
you mean a widely abused isp, the port 25 issue is gone now. And it was 
never as bad as comcast or pacbell. The issue was with windows users.

> 
> He can't really win. The normal advice these days is to relay though a 
> smarthost to avoid dynamic address blocklists, which are considerably less 
> aggressive than spamcop. 

Don't you mean more aggressive? YMMV, but that seems to me to be the 
easiest to block. (dynamic, I mean).

-- 
B Briggs