At 10:36 AM -0700 7/17/01, Global Homes Webmaster imposed structure
on a stream of electrons, yielding:
>MAPS seems to already be cutting off access, whether intentionally or due to
>problems beyond their control. For the last two days I have not been able to
>load <http://www.mail-abuse.org/>. Also, every time I look at the Communigator
>SMTP monitor for my SIMS server there's at least one, if not several,
>connections waiting for a blacklist DNS response (I'm only using the MAPS
>lists). All of this brings a few questions to mind.
>
>Given that www.mail-abuse.org seems to be MIA, can anyone tell us where to
>find information about the new policies and getting a MAPS subscription?
>
>What does SIMS do if a blacklist query times out? Does it allow or reject the
>SMTP connection (assuming it didn't time out waiting for the blacklist DNS
>response)?
It allows the connection.
>If MAPS is having trouble with connectivity, is it wise to start paying them
>$200/yr for an uncertain level of service?
I'm not in a position to know the details of MAPS' outage, but it
looks from here to only be impacting the website, not DNS. Back when
I worked for MAZPS, the website was on a single old PPro box running
BSDi and the nameservers were multiple boxes of diverse architecture
with diverse connectivity.
There is no such thing as certain service on the Internet. Anyone who
tells you otherwise is lying. At the top of MAPS are the President of
PAIX and the man who wrote MRTG and was the original network
architect and long-time CTO for AboveNet. While it is terrible timing
for the MAPS website to be down right now after they have made these
changes to policy, I cannot think of anyone more likely to be able to
keep an online service up and available.
>On 07/17/01 at 08:56, Bill Cole wrote:
>
>> I suspect that it is MAPS' only option. In April MAPS eliminated half
>> of their jobs (including mine and my entire department) for financial
>> reasons. I don't see any reason to believe that MAPS' financial state
>> has improved since, and they still have 3 lawsuits pending, which
>> means bleeding money extra-swiftly. (i.e. to lawyers)
>
>This and the performance of the MAPS servers over the last couple of days
>makes me a little nervous about recommending to my employer that we should pay
>any sort of subscription fee for a service that my boss has been blissfully
>unaware of to this point. Although, if he starts to see an increase in the
>amount of spam that gets through to him, he may be willing to shell out some
>dough to make it stop.
I certainly understand. I wish it were possible to operate online
these days without doing business with anyone who is near bankruptcy.
It's not.
My understanding is that small commercial sites shouldn't find the
cost of access too high. You WILL see the results of not useing the
MAPS lists on 8/1/01 when they are supposedly going to start
restricting access.
>Is there some place other than the www.mail-abuse.org site where we can see
>what the new policies are?
Not that I know of.
--
Bill Cole
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
#############################################################
This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to
the mailing list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To switch to the INDEX mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
