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Spammers Land Optusnet On spews.org Blacklist
downundarob writes: "In Australia there are essentially only two major backbone suppliers; eventually all traffic either rides on Telstra (Part govt. owned) or OptusNet (part of C&W Optus). According to this page OptusNet has gotten itself on spews.com blacklist, potentially causing issues for a large percentage of Australian Internet users." Update: 09/30 12:01 GMT by T :DanielS writes: "Looks like Optus did indeed back down; according to the SPEWS listing & delisting info page, Optus were removed after shutting down the DNS service."
spews.com is a porn site for sale.... spews.org on the other hand. Might want to change that link before 18 year olds go to it.
Note that this is only for people who subscribe to Optus's OptusNet dial-up service. If you use Optus@Home, an account through another provider that uses C&W's bandwidth, or even if you use another Optus dial-up service besides OptusNet (Dingo Blue?), you won't be affected.
from www.spews.org:
Optusnet.com.au, reports they have shut down the dynamic-DNS spam service run by the Dean Westbury gang on their network. In response, the SPEWS listed network addresses were removed from the list.
When did this happen? I actually like the new icon. The old one was a little disparaging to Hormel.
I could never stand SPAM anyway. I guess I'd eat it if I were trapped in a fallout shelter. Maybe.
Hormel's official policy is that they object to the use of their logo to refer to junk -mail. It was only a matter of time before Slashdot changed it (either voluntarily or involuntarily).
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
The ISP can easily take the defense that they have the right to protect their network from abuse, and an RBL is an acceptible means to help do that. I'm sure the fine print allows them to do it; if you're not sure, read your contract again.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
1. OptusNet is owned by Optus which is owned by Singapore's SingTel. Cable and Wireless sold Optus some time ago.
.au ultimately goes through them is a lie. For example, UUNet is a very large backbone provide in Australia. (Probably bigger than Optus)
2. Optus and Telstra aren't the only backbone providers in Australia, to say that all traffic in
I think we can mark downundarob down as +1 Troll.
Even though I support any move against spammers, as would most /.ers, does it worry anyone how much influence these groups can freely wield over the net? We complain about ICANN being undemocratic, but when it comes to spam... argh, between a rock and a hard place :).
If that situation did perpetuate itself, would there be any legal liability on behalf of either Optus or spews.org for the intentional breach of service to the rest of Optus' customers? You would think that after a while the customers would start suing either or both parties to the dispute.
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A few minor facts.
#1. Spews has very minor penetration. Going via
the optusnet mailservers I can't find anywhere
that actually bounced my mail while the block
was in place.
Consequence of which is that basically no-one
would have noticed the spews block.
#2. 'half of australia's traffic is unmitigated
nonsense. 'Optusnet' is the dial-up arm of
Optus and it currently ranked as the #3 (or #4
depending on who's counting) ISP in australia.
Their market share is nothing like 50%. 10% maybe.
#3. 'won't be able to reach large parts
of Europe and the US' is sheer junk. As mentioned
about, the number of sites that use spews appears
to be near zero. Does anyone know a major site
that actually _uses_ spews? I couldn't find one.
Has all the coolest spam songs.Q :w ww.orca.bc.ca/spamalbum/+spamalbum
l in k.txt
n k. mp3
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:9uo5LNULpn
My favorite lyrics
http://www.orca.bc.ca/spamalbum/lyrics/pacific-
and Favorite acompanying song
http://www.orca.bc.ca/spamalbum/256k/pacific-li
Enjoy! Laugh! Be Happy!
Death to spam.
There's a big debate on the news.admin.new-abuse.email newsgroup about Spews and their policies about not allowing contact from blocked people except for a newsgroup which isn't their own, NANAE. I have mixed views on it. Frankly, as far as I'm concerned, not accepting mail to abuse@ and postmaster@ for a given domain is a blatent violation of the RFCs. I reject around 32k pieces of spam a week. Abuse@ and postmaster@ always accept mail, even from blocked domains. There should be some reliable way of contacting these people if I get listed. My $.02 anyhow. Night all.