Nathan J. Mehl [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] wrote:
[snip]
> Hi, my name is Nathan J. Mehl. I run qmail on my home system,
> blank.org.
>
> I also happen to be the Senior Systems Administrator for Mail.Com.
>
> Let me state this for the record:
>
> MAIL.COM DOES NOT, NEVER HAS, AND NEVER WILL BLACKLIST SERVERS BASED
> ON THE http://maps.vix.com/tsi/new-rlytest.cgi SCRIPT.
>
> I'm afraid that the message sent by the abuse staff at Mail.Com to Mr.
> Bell was somewhat unclear. iq-ss5.iquest.net was blocked because we
> received an unexpectedly high volume of mail from it. Period. The
> speculation that it was an open relay was just that, speculation, and
> we provided the pointer to the vix.com relay tester as a courtesy to
> Mr. Bell.
>
> Here is the crux of the matter: we would have blacklisted the server
> even if it had "passed" the TSI Relay Test.
[snip]
I've been hearing that one the list for the past day or two, and I have come to
believe it. However, I only really believed it _after_ I wrote the original
e-mail to your help desk which I posted to the list.
But the reason I have not spoken up and retracted my complaint is this: _The
fact that your blacklisting was not based on any kind of relay test scares me
even more._ What happens when an ISP sets up a mail server with tends of
thousands of legitimate mail users sending you legitimate mail? What about a
list-serv handing out gobs of e-mail specifically requested by your users? Do
you black list them too?
I don't care particularly _how_ you came to blacklist a legitimate server...
but the blacklisting of legitimate servers is what poses a threat to the
Internet mail system and what offends people.
You sound like you got a large negative reaction to blacklisting the server
based on the TSI relay test (which we all thought you did). However, don't just
discount this negative reaction. If it had been apparent from the beginning
that you blacklisted the server solely on the mail volume, I expect that the
reaction would have been just as large.
A legitimate mail server got blacklisted. Complaint still stands.
- David Harris
Principal Engineer, DRH Internet Services
bcc: "mail.com corporate address" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
