Open Replacement For MAPS?

quackPOT asks: "Is there anyone with an open database similar to the MAPS DUL list? Now that MAPS charges for service, I either have to pay (which ain't gonna happen) or deal with the spam from direct client connections from crappy dial-ups. One of MAPS excuses for charging was the overhead cost of network bandwidth/etc/whatever. Why not distribute mirrors to other networks to reduce the amount of strain on their servers?"

Comments

Re:A centralized blackhole list is important.

[duffbeer703]

There is no such thing as an unbiased opinion.

Let me explain again.

We were not running an open relay. ORBS probed us for an open relay and their script encountered some sort of problem that caused it to repeatadly probe our server. We blocked their netblock and found ourselves on the RBL.

Whether or not ORBS calls you a spammer is irrelevant. Being on the RBL puts the public under the impression that you are a spammer.

When we attempted to correct the situation, we were treated very rudely.

A centralized blackhole list is important.

[Nonesuch]

Use of blocking lists does help cut down on spam.

The primary benefit of something like the 'Realtime blackhole list' (RBL) was that it was a centralized resource for the blocking and unblocking of actively exploited open relays.

If a site maintained an open relay, that relay would rapidly end up on the blackhole list, and ISPs using the list would immediately (the whole point of 'realtime') start rejecting spam relayed through that specific host.

More importantly, when the site fixed their open relay, and proved this to the list maintainer, they would immediately be removed from the list. This is a vast improvement over the old way doing things, where each of thousands of sites would manually add known open relays to their own private blocking list, and might never be removed from some of them, depending on the whims of individual admins.

Obviously you are biased due to ORBS having blocked your site. IIRC, ORBS doesn't call you 'spammers' for blocking their probes, they have a distinct category for sites that cannot be tested... if they called you spammers, it was because you sent spam.

Re:Do you need MAPS?

[RevDigger]

I don't know if that is typical. When MAPS closed up, I had about 500 mail accounts and I was blocking about 100 messages per day.

More importantly perhaps, when I first turned MAPS (RBL + RSS) I had about 200 accounts, and I was blocking about 1000/day. After about a week with MAPS lookups on, it trailed off as the spammers realized they were RBLed, and gave up trying, I would assume.

I'd really like to find a reasonable replacement. Not only is MAPS priced a bit beyond my budget, but how current are their lists going to be now that no one actually uses their service?

- H