Re: META: aol.com is blocking all mail from extropy.org

From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Fri Jul 04 2003 - 20:57:08 MDT

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    Dossy wrote,
    > David needs to contact Spots InterConnect and ask them what mail server
    > he should be using as a relay host.

    This is a good idea, actually. Routing through Spots InterConnect's mail
    relay would prevent us from being seen as directly sending mail. This might
    actually work and be what AOL is trying to force.

    > > This is apparently a common problem for all mailing lists. AOL not only
    > > blocks certain type of addresses as above, they also block on keywords
    > > indicating messages that are sexual, extremely political, violent,
    racist or
    > > subversive.
    >
    > Do you have proof of this? Do you have a sample message that will
    > trigger this block?

    No, I don't. (See below:)

    > An individual customer can always report an email they receive as
    > offensive, but I don't think they actually block email that a customer
    > hasn't flagged as coming from a sender they don't wish to receive mail
    > from.
    >
    > I think if enough customers report the same sender as sending offensive
    > messages, then yes, that sender may be blocked from sending messages to
    > any OTHER customers.

    This may indeed be what is happening. On a large e-mail list, it is
    possible that offensive posts cause enough people to block it that the
    entire list gets blocked. I understand that blocking offensive posts might
    be desirable to some people, but I think overkill can end up blocking more
    mail by mistake than it blocks intentionally. AOL blocks not only the
    sender, but the entire list, the ISP used by the list, etc.

    --
    Harvey Newstrom, CISM, CISSP, IAM, IBMCP, GSEC
    Certified InfoSec Manager, Certified IS Security Pro, NSA-certified
    InfoSec Assessor, IBM-certified Security Consultant, SANS-cert GSEC
    <HarveyNewstrom.com> <Newstaff.com>
    


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