Hi Ryan, I don't know if hotmail ranks as #1 anymore. I get a lot of 
trash from gmail nowadays ;)

pls see additional comments below...

Ryan Ghering wrote:
> We had to subscribe to the Smart Network Data Services Program.
> https://postmaster.live.com/snds/
>
> Then follow the rules listed. I hated doing it but we actually started
> loosing customers due to not being able to send to the largest spam host in
> the world...
>   


As a result of abuses which more often than not occur from these 
anonymous and free email services funded by advertising blitzes and 
such, there is actually a very active movement tied to databases that 
block access from services such as hotmail or yahoo type addresses, 
including blocking all incoming SMTP traffic originating from these 
providers.

I'm sure all of us have received SPAM from gmail, hotmail, yahoo, and a 
wealth of other so-called free email services, and these sort of, 
"reverse RBL services" are very effective in blocking emails from these 
providers - categorically.

It's controversial, for obvious reasons, but no more than the 
controversy originally surrounding the regular RBL databases out there, 
and even ARIN, a couple of years ago, forced everyone to change their 
email addresses if they used a hotmail or some other "free" email service.

These types of email accounts are dubbed, "DEAs", or "Disposable Email 
Addresses", and one plugin that I used quite successfully at one point 
for a client is located here for Joomla! sites with the Community 
Builder extension: 
http://interactiveonline.com/joomla/block-disposable-email-addresses

If someone is serious about their online presence, aside from some 
conveniences of using an anonymous email provider service such as yahoo, 
hotmail, gmail, mail.com, etc., the suspicion that is raised by the 
recipient of someone sending through those services is often raised and 
one has to wonder why they don't brand themselves with their own 
company's domain name in their emails or for the average joe, why they 
don't just use their ISP's mail account provided to them by virtue of 
their subscription with the ISP.

In certain applications, I too, block users of these services, 
especially with respect to registering for services I provide or 
websites that require user registration for access. I maintain a small 
database of the most popular DEAs and block them, adding new ones as 
they popup on my radar as hosting problematic bots and SPAMmers. Much of 
this has been alleviated now via the use of 'captcha'  schemes, that 
bots can't readily read, yet one of the biggest problems of blocking 
DEAs is the irony that the same folks who are trying to avoid getting 
SPAMmed from bots and Pr0n people are also migrating toward DEAs to 
secure their privacy and avoid SPAM - or at least, so they can identify 
who sold their email alias to the SPAMmers ;)

Here's a short list of services intended to empower and protect the user 
for these purposes, although SPAMmers love them too!: 
http://email.about.com/od/disposableemailservices/tp/disposable.htm

Years ago we all ran open relays, there wasn't any discernible amount of 
SPAM. then SPAMmers started using open relays and nowadays we all 
configure our MTAs to just simply refuse mail from open relays. It's 
really a shame.

Bottom line, if you're paying me for a service, I already have your 
credit card and address info so there's no reason to obfuscate your 
origin by using an anonymous email service. You can usually do it, since 
I don't block DEAs myself (yet) as a matter of standard practice, but it 
always seems to raise my eyebrow just a bit.

About the only two things I use DEAs for personally, nowadays, are job 
search engines while I'm looking for new contracts and such, because 
that can generate a lot of traffic and also has the potential for 
getting your private address out there where it can be sold to SPAM 
databases.

The other is a couple of pseudonyms I use when I have to go into a 
support forum and ask the very occasional extremely stupid question - 
coz I don't want people googling my name and seeing those questions on 
an email archive ten years from now LOL!

There is intense (spelled w/all caps) pressure upon these DEA RBL 
services from the SPAM Community too, as these databases are perceived 
as a direct threat by the professional SPAMmers. One such service at 
http://undisposable.net doesn't seem to be operable anymore, the domain 
forwards somewhere else.

But when an RIR such as ARIN.net refuses DEAs, it's a sign of security 
issues extending beyond simple SPAM related matters.

I'm not really 'quick' to block someone, but it is much easier to simply 
block a /11 or /16 from some remote ISP on the other side of the planet 
where I'm not seeking business than to go through todays n00bie admins 
who don't understand that the Tech Contact record in WHOIS, or the 
address ab...@sld.tld is meant to accept incoming requests from other 
admins who are being scanned, attacked, DDOS'd or SPAMmed by those 
provider's subscribers.

Rarely - and I mean rarely, do I EVER unblock something once it is 
blocked, and I carry that list of IP blocks w/me from domain to domain 
and site to site. When I launch a new site or server, anyone who has 
ever messed with my boxes is already in my firewall and /etc/hosts.deny 
as well as portsentry.

It ain't kewl when you get rooted, and with all the insecure Php sites 
out there needing constant patching to alleviate (discovered) 
vulnerabilities, I just start from scratch with a suitcase full of 
blocked domains and IP CIDRs.




> On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 11:57 PM, Marlon K. Schafer 
> <o...@odessaoffice.com>wrote:
>
>   
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Hotmail has put us on some kind of black list.  Messages from my servers to
>> anyone with a hotmail (or affiliate) address is being sent into oblivion.
>>
>> Contacting Hotmail has been nearly useless.  They've simply told me to go
>> join a special program that they have and that'll get my system ok'd again.
>>
>> Sorry, but I'm NOT giving them customer information or money in order to
>> fix
>> this.
>>
>>     

-- 
Bradley D. Thornton
Manager Network Services
NorthTech Computer
TEL: +1.949.544.1931
http://NorthTech.US



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