Spam Notes

[John Howe]

I have received a couple of messages from the folks on this list regarding
the recent spam events.

A couple of things, I have banned relaying from vahoo.com, please note the
"V". vahoo.com appears to be hosted by fairnet.com, a new ISP will little
info on their website ( and thus suspicious to me ). Tracking the logs,
the spammer bounced his e-mail off a couple of foreign servers that allow
open relaying. Though the multiple e-mails I received from this entity
alwyas came from the same Outlook mailer and had various bogus FROM:
some_user at vahoo.com. Since I filter FROM:, it is easy to kill file sends
from this person.

I do run pretty strict network checking on mail that is relayed through
arashi, you basically have to be reversed addressed and not on the Real
Time Blackhole list. I figure if they do connect, I can track `em and bag
`em. One less spammer. 

Somebody recommended that I restrict mail list posts to those subscribed
only. In a way I have been resistant to this. My thinking on this matter
was that curious folks may be perusing the web mirror of the list and may
wish to comment. Some of our new members come from this venue.

So I will be moving to this solution in the immediate future.

Pax-o-mania!

John Howe
<Dragon at arashi.com> <http://www.arashi.com/>

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