Hi all,
The List hasn't been overwhelmingly busy in the past week so perhaps you
won't object to reading a somewhat baffling tale that could be of mild
interest only to the like-minded and enlightened members of the List.
Recently, I decided that it was necessary to find some free web space. It
seems to be a generally accepted practice to throw in an e-mail address
along with the necessary MB for a website. I naturally assumed that these
e-mail accounts would be web-based.
Being in a tropical frame of mind, I was lured by the palm tree and
sailboat graphics at Crosswinds.net and so staked a claim to a modest space
on the web. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I explored the
e-mail service offered by Crosswinds, while a distant bell rang quietly in
my mind. I seemed to have wispy recollection of trying to sign up for a POP
account with this organization a long time ago without any success. The
memory was hazy so I dismissed it.
Still firmly convinced that the e-mail service was web-based only, I set up
the account and sent the first test message from the web and then used one
of my most reliable POP/SMTP accounts to send a message back to the new
account. While I received the message sent **from** the account, the
message **to** the account never arrived. A few hours later I received an
"undeliverable" notice from the 'postmaster' at "suisse.net". I tried
sending from Mochamail; that e-mail bounced as well.
It became time to ferret around the Crosswinds site. On one of the forums I
noticed a post entitled "Outlook Configuration Problems". Clangorous bells
began to peel - no one needs Outlook for a web-based service. In a response
to the forum question were the POP/SMTP settings for Crosswinds.net.
Suddenly, the bouncing e-mails became much more pressing since I had
inadvertently acquired a new POP account.
After properly setting up Crosswinds.net in the old "Bat!", I sent off a
message using the new account (no POP before Send, no SMTP authorization).
It arrived at its destination (the suisse.net account) almost
instantaneously. However when I tried sending a message **to** the
Crosswinds account (using "in-box.net") it failed to arrive.
Beavering once more around the Crosswinds site I came across a help forum
with a flurry of e-mails complaining about this very situation - bounced
e-mails. Apparently, the guy in charge of the e-mail side had recently
implemented tightened spam filters for incoming mail with the result that
many members were not receiving legitimate messages. The general tenor of
the complaints was more or less "I'll put up with the spam, as long as I
can get **all** my e-mails."
Becoming increasingly curious as to what would actually slip through these
now "high security" filters, I tried sending messages from a Hotmail
account and one at USA.net, operations not exactly renowned for their
ability to deter spammers from using their services. Imagine my
astonishment when e-mails originating from these sources were received at
my Crosswinds account without a hitch.
Feeling a bit giddy and bemused by now, I went wild in the streets and set
up a couple of new web-based e-mail accounts (Canada.com and Freeze.com)
and tried sending messages from those. These too, were undeterred by the
high security filters and came sailing into to the Crosswinds account.
Working through my arduously acquired collection of POP accounts, I have
found so far that only Yahoo, NewMail and Zonnet can slip past the new
filters. My paid ISP, NBNet, also manages to elude the filters and get
through.
I am trying to determine some sort of pattern in the Crosswinds filters.
When mail from Hotmail and Yahoo can get through (Is there anyone who
**hasn't** received spam originating from these services?) but e-mails from
suisse.net (Anyone ever had spam where "suisse" appeared to be used?) are
bounced, what exactly are they filtering for? Granted, Yahoo and Hotmail
have so many millions of customers that they simply can't be blocked or
thousands of legitimate e-mails would not get through.
Obviously, the intention is laudable -to block spam from reaching users of
Crosswinds accounts - but perfectly innocuous services like "Laposte.net"
and "Xipmail.com" are being caught in the filtering system as well. The
other element is the fact that Crosswinds own SMTP server is wide open -
without even a POP before send constraint. Surely that would allow access
for those wanting to send Unsolicited Commercial Mail (although there may
be a limitation on the number of messages that can be sent in one session)?
Apparently, the "e-mail guy" is attempting to write a utility that would
allow Crosswinds users to set the filters to a 'lower' level on an
individual basis but until then Crosswinds has turned into Bounce City.
I would welcome any comments and observations from the list members about
this and if you would like to check if your e-mail account can pass muster
at Crosswinds, please feel free to give it a go, using my address:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
I would appreciate any reports of bounces.
A - watching the turbulence - in Canada
