Hello, we are currently having a problem with a vigilante block list
in the netherlands... I figure this is as good a forum as any....
The boilerplate:
Please see <http://selwerd.cx/xbl/>, xbl is a *local* list, it would cost
us time to check whether we can whitelist your IP.
Upon contacting this individual we get:
I listed the netblock(s) of your ISP because we get spam and
autoreplies from it and sometimes, if at all, mail that is readworthy.
Of course, he can't produce -any- spam, or autoreply's,
from our range.. or much of anything, really. Probably hit
by a NIMBDA worm, or something. But, he has
one of those "Unix Admin from H-ll" attitude's.
Unprofessional, and Vigilante.
How would one approach -this- ?
I would ignore the fool, but his list is mentioned at
Relays.OsiruSoft.com.... and some consider them as a valid source
of data....
It's his own personal block list - it's not meant for use by other
ISP's. Ignore it - unless you really need to send them mail. I don't
know of any other ISP's actually using it as a block list.
>The boilerplate:
>Please see <http://selwerd.cx/xbl/>, xbl is a *local* list, it would cost
>us time to check whether we can whitelist your IP.
[snip]
I would ignore the fool, but his list is mentioned at
Relays.OsiruSoft.com.... and some consider them as a valid source
of data....
* sigh *
Idea's ?
Perhaps you could contact those that "consider them as a valid source of
data" and see if you can convince them to put in an exception for your
mailserver. This should not be difficult if they want your mail.
Actually, I did... I doesn't seem too on the level.
<shrugs> It seems pretty typical of the pages that most black-list
maintainers have, albeit with slightly fractured English. (Which is not
to insult him - his English is dramatically better than my nonexistant
Dutch.
With lines like:
Even we don't block, we just send a 471
reply and let the monkeys determine whether the e-mail looks legitimate or spammy.
However, after explaining all this about 127.0.0.2, there is a little
note on the bottom:
What does 127.0.0.4 mean?
Not much, it's the only code we return,
"not whitelisted" is perhaps the most accurate description.
Guess the number returned for us ?
Well, if he doesn't want to accept mail from your business, that's his
right & there's not a lot you can do about it. If it's one of your
customers complaining they can't send mail there, you should probably
explain to them that it's the target domain's policy that's bouncing
their email, then point them directly at him & stop worrying about it.
The guy's black list is a private list for his domain. He explicitly
states that you have to be white-listed to get mail through to there. He
also states explicitly that no other lists are picking up his
black-list, so you're really complaining about a non-issue.
This bit of the page seems pretty clear to me: " Also note that while http://relays.osirusoft.com/ cgi-bin/rbcheck.cgi does also check our
blocklist, the data from our blocklist are not incoporated into their
blocklist."
