Eric Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> I can't comment on this latest battle of wills between MAPS and ORBS,
> because I know nothing of BGP routing.
Short version: ORBS's upstream ISP is intentionally asking AboveNet to
advertise a netblock that includes ORBS despite AboveNet making it clear
precisely what will happen when they do that. AboveNet is just obeying
their contract with their customer, essentially. ORBS's upstream is
trying to solve the problems they're creating themselves by not dealing
with this some other way by advertising separate routes to ORBS space,
which should work fine, except that they can't seem to do it competently.
The contention that AboveNet is somehow intentionally attracting ORBS
traffic is hogwash; they're advertising what their customer is asking them
to advertise and have made very public precisely what their internal
blocks are. The even more outrageous claim is that AboveNet is somehow
making the separate routes flap, which from all the available independent
evidence appears to be nothing more than either a pure lie or complete
ignorance.
ORBS has plenty to complain about with their immediate upstream, and in
fact the list of addresses on their web page to complain at (said web page
otherwise being full of horribly distorted misinformation) includes a
bunch of people at their immediate upstream. But they're all bundled
under the category of MAPS people, when of course they have nothing to do
with MAPS at all, or AboveNet either for that matter.
And, of course, there's the minor point that I'm pretty sure AboveNet has
been blocking ORBS since long before they bought MIBH and aquired Vixie as
a VP.
> But in the last one, when ORBS listed in the RBL, ORBS was totally in
> the right. I saw grown men, (admins!) trying to defend the position
> that by ORBS sending up to 16 messages through their servers a few times
> a _year_, ORBS was abusing the email system.
You're aware that some machines *which didn't relay* were being tested by
ORBS as frequently as once a *day*, aren't you? Or are you just going by
Alan Brown's account of what he does, which tends to be a little...
sanitized?
You're also aware that ORBS continues to spam the postmasters of machines
which have never relayed in their entire existence?
You're also aware that ORBS provides a service to spammers, providing a
downloadable database of open relays and essentially inviting spammers to
please use them? That, all by itself, is entirely and completely within
the domain of spam support services and should get them put directly on
the RBL. I think it's actually rather inconsistent of the RBL that
they're *not* on it for doing that, although I can understand the
political reasons for not doing so given that Alan Brown seems to have an
endless capacity for duping people like yourself who aren't looking at
what's actually going on and are buying his stories hook, line, and
sinker.
--
Russ Allbery ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
