Hi Matthias, Of course, you raise valid examples where bad WHOIS data would cause a problem. My point was that the original sender went OUT OF HIS WAY to post an example WHOIS to the list which had a phone number that looked valid, but didn't actually work.
How would you discover this except by dialing the number, and why would you care to waste the time unless you had a specific problem like you describe in your email? And, honestly, contacting the owner of a domain is but one way to stop the mailbombs that you describe. At least nowadays, it's not that big a deal to simply block the offending IP address. As for contacting domain owners about offsensive contact, I would contend that the site itself should list valid contact information. The WHOIS *should* be valid, but realistically, more people would consider the site itself to be up-to-date than the WHOIS. Regards, Eric Longman Atl-Connect Internet Services +-------------------------------------------------------+ | Atl-Connect Internet Services http://www.atlcon.net | | 3600 Dallas Hwy Ste 230-288 770 590-0888 | | Marietta, GA 30064-1685 [EMAIL PROTECTED] | +-------------------------------------------------------+ -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, May 10, 2002 1:47 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Accurate Whois info You know, the only question I have is Who the heck has time to sit around and dial what appear to be perfectly valid phone numbers in WHOIS just to see if they actually ring through to the expected party??? Which leads, of course, to the other, more pressing question... Who the heck cares?!!? I do care a lot. For ex. at Christmas(!) 1997 somebody had sent about 10.000(!) emails to my domain before I noticed it. So I had to sit down over Christmas, writing a script for blocking these emails and had to hire a second programmer to check the code (in 1997 emails script where less easy to handle than the actual scripts, at least my scripts) The domain owner had been testing a new mass mailing script and had an endless loop in it. Again, the day after Christmas I received another 3000 emeil before I could change my script. The domain owner had also other domains and did now a testing with these other domains. So I was happy to be able to sent a fax at Christmas (his office closed of course) and that I was able to phone the man the day after Christmas to get it stopped. Also, at least in Europe, all Internet sites are treated similar to a publication (journal) and there must be an 'editor' how is responsible for that. I think this is absolutely necessary, you may think of child porn or even about less severe cases, f.ex. I will write at my homepage 'Eric Longman is doing bad business'. You will want to be able to contact me. Matthias
