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E-Mail spam submittals blocked by your ISP


Wazoo

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Have the people who are having difficulties submitting by email found any workarounds? Other than one at a time cut-and-paste?

If your email can be POP'd (downloaded/accessed) to any other network, I would recommend finding a free account somewhere that lets you POP the account you're having trouble with, and then submit to SC from there. I'll not plug here, but I'll throw a post with recommendations over in the Geek/Tech things forum.

edit:

Link to Freeshell post: http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=4666

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Yes, copying and pasting each full message source into a new email for SpamCop is slow and cumbersome.

At first I researched other possible email solutions such as FastMail. With a paid account, they would let me point all my mx records to one of their domains so I could send and receive email through their servers using Thunderbird or any other email client (also known as a mail user agent or MUA). For most people, Fastmail or a similar email service provider (ESP) would probably work just fine and would let you submit to SpamCop via .eml attachments.

For me though, I was beginning to discover that the type of hosting account I have was too restrictive. Not just because of the way they were processing my email through their servers, but also because of the limitations I began to see with regard to my ability to run my small e-commerce site.

Up til now I've had a shared hosting plan. These are very common of course, and you can find any number of good plans at AllCheapHosting. One of the limits of any shared plan though is you only have acess to the server via the host's chosen 'control panel'. No secure shell (SSH) access, no access to the SpamAssassin configuration file, no ability to choose a mail server program, etc. Also, there's no ability to really get inside a MySQL database or osCommerce shopping cart and really configure them the way I need.

I found myself searching fruitlessly for a shared host that offered all the features I need. I could have complete control with a dedicated server, but the $100+ monthly cost is more than I can pay now. A dedicated server is when you rent an entire internet-connected server in a colocation facility or data center.

Instead, a virtual private server (VPS) seems like a good middle ground for me. For anywhere from $8 to $60/month, I can rent a set portion of an entire server. I can install whatever operating sytem (OS), mail server (such as qmail), and e-commerce tools I want. Am finally ready to take the plunge into Linux. My primary search and screening tool for this has been FindMyHost, but there are any number of review/comparison services on the net that will let you make an informed decision. For now, I'm going with either Advantagecom or WestCoast.

The real kicker though, is that I can configure SpamAssassin however I want, so I can submit to SpamCop using .eml attachments or even more automated means. I can also use any or all of the real-time block lists (RBLs) to cut down the amount of spam that gets through to my inbox

For the past couple weeks I've been researching these options and making sure things will work togetther. It'll take a few more days to get things transferred over and set up the way I want. Soon, less spam will be coming in, I'ill be a lot happier about that, and I can concentrate on growing my business.

Cheers ~

Sean

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...

I have Comcast for my ISP. Before I signed up with Spamcop, I reported about 30-40 spams to Comcast every day. Now they have the nerve to block anything from Spamcop? My daughter has been trying to send me emails from her Yahoo and Juno account and Comcast blocked her emails and deleted them. When I reported this to them, Comcast told me to tell her to disable both of our security software and for me to contact her ISP.

What a bunch of idiots.

Joyce

:angry:

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I have Comcast for my ISP.  Before I signed up with Spamcop, I reported about 30-40 spams to Comcast every day.  Now they have the nerve to block anything from Spamcop?  My daughter has been trying to send me emails from her Yahoo and Juno account and Comcast blocked her emails and deleted them.  When I reported this to them, Comcast told me to tell her to disable both of our security software and for me to contact her ISP.

What a bunch of idiots.

38635[/snapback]

Indeed, comcast, which are now unfortunately my ISP as well, are idiots. Not only they do nothing about spam but when you complain to their abuse desk they start probing your ports. I have to work hard to keep them from breaching my firewall.

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...Hope you Comcast victims can (and will) find an alternative! I'm almost fed up enough with their failure to control spam that I think about canceling my cable TV service (but then I'd miss Star Trek reruns and pro wrestling on Monday nights and the rest of my family would be really pissed at me! :) <g>).

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...Hope you Comcast victims can (and will) find an alternative!

38642[/snapback]

So do I.
I'm almost fed up enough with their failure to control spam that I think about canceling my cable TV service (but then I'd miss Star Trek reruns and pro wrestling on Monday nights and the rest of my family would be really pissed at me! :) <g>).

38642[/snapback]

You may not know it yet, but you might also miss Monday Night Football, which will move to ESPN next season. The last airing of it for free on ABC was three days ago. :(
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<snip>

You may not know it yet, but you might also miss Monday Night Football, which will move to ESPN next season.  The last airing of it for free on ABC was three days ago. :(

38650[/snapback]

...No biggie -- we haven't had a professional big-league football team for years here in the Detroit area.... :) <g>
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I am on the phone with Comcast's corporate office.  I was told that a supervisor from their tech support would research the issue and get back to me sometime today.  Yeah right.

38681[/snapback]

Your levels of sarcasm and cynicism seem about right. You might want to add some paranoia by getting as much contact info as you can for the people you talk to. Good luck with that! :)
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ISPs: There appears to be no need for any ISP to filter outgoing email messages that contain spam sent to the following subdomains:

  1. spam.spamcop.net (Submissions of spam received by your Customers/Members/Users, sometimes not via your network, sent by Customers/Members/Users you have in common with SpamCop)
  2. reports.spamcop.net (Replies to aliases of SpamCop Reporters who sent SpamCop Reports to your Customers/Members/Users, sometimes not via your network)

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Your levels of sarcasm and cynicism seem about right.  You might want to add some paranoia by getting as much contact info as you can for the people you talk to.  Good luck with that! :)

38686[/snapback]

Jeff, I was on the phone with Comcast for almost two hours. From now on, I am going to refer to this company as the idiot factory. I was told that spamcop is a third party email program and for me to find out what type of mail software Comcast, Yahoo, Juno and Outlook Express uses.

I was also told to have my daughter to call to find out why I am not receiving her emails.

:blink:

What a bunch of morons.

Joyce

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Jeff, the idiots at Comcast has added NetTemps as a list of spammers.  My daughter is ticked off big time.  Here she is looking for a job and Comcast is preventing her from finding one.

38877[/snapback]

This dialog has been posted into a Forum described as;

SpamCop Reporting

How to Instructions Only - Problems and issues belong in the other specific Forum sections

The Topic was started to deal with some ISPs running some filters that ended up blocking some outgoing e-mails from some folks attempting to report their spam. This latest turn of complaining about ComCasts's selection of other items for filtering action probably needs to be moved to the Lounge area, as the "how-to" part of the dialog seems to have been lost.

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My ISP should be added to the list of those blocking incoming SC reports and outgoing spam reports.

Outgoing: the bigger (number of attachments) the email the more likely the filter will see something to trigger the spam block. Also a large number of similar emails (TO:, subject) will also trigger the block. Some times it seems to trigger a tarpit, but with the problems with spam.spamcop.net this can not be confirmed. I was also told that a TO: address like the reporting addy (submit.xx8cuU [at] spam.spamcop.net "Looks like a spam address." (God help us all)

Incoming: Lots of spam submitted with quick or submit emails result in lots of emails from SC with similar TO:, Subject: and From: this triggers the incoming block.

By watching the "Past Reports" tab I was able to keep track to the outgoing emails blocked and reports coming back. But lately the logistics of keeping track of 100+ spam going and coming with up to a hr delay showing up on SC and 6 hrs getting back is to much.

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My ISP should be added to the list of those blocking incoming SC reports and outgoing spam reports.

You are posting from a radix.net IP address, but ... this doesn't state that this is the ISP that you may be talking about.

Outgoing: the bigger (number of attachments) the email the more likely the filter will see something to trigger the spam block. Also a large number of similar emails (TO:, subject) will also trigger the block.  Some times it seems to trigger a tarpit, but with the problems with spam.spamcop.net this can not be confirmed.  I was also told that a TO: address like the reporting addy (submit.xx8cuU [at] spam.spamcop.net "Looks like a spam address."  (God help us all)

The troubleshooting procedure of sending CC: copy of these submittals to another off-ISP account can be used to verify/analyze any such triggering.

Incoming: Lots of spam submitted with quick or submit emails result in lots of emails from SC with similar TO:, Subject: and From: this triggers the incoming block.

This was recently brought up somewhere else. Guess I need to add this possibility to the inital post/explanation of things. Thanks for the reminder.

By watching the "Past Reports" tab I was able to keep track to the outgoing emails blocked and reports coming back. But lately the logistics of keeping track of 100+ spam going and coming with up to a hr delay showing up on SC and 6 hrs getting back is to much.

38879[/snapback]

And as seen today, the story goes that some reports were in fact sent, but due to JT's system going down, there were some 4xx errors introduced into the stream, and some number of spam submittals were re-sent (some numerous times) .. introducing even more errors into your tracking mode <g>

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Yes, Wazoo, radix.net is my ISP.

After beating them for several days they finely figured out how NOT to block reports. I haven't gotten any reports from SC that reports are being bounced (well for 2 days). Finely today as of 0900 -0500 all spam sent by email yesterday has been matched by reports received back from SC. longest delay between my time sent and time I (ISP) received was about 5 hrs. This is the first day incoming matched outgoing sense the first of the year as reported in other threads.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

It looks like Hughes.net using cp.net as their mail processing service needs to be added to the clueless list. HughesNet is the new name for the DirecWay Satellite Internet service.

Connection log:

·[ Wrote ]

·[ Wrote ]

·[ Wrote ] .

·[ Read ] 554 Message refused

·[ Wrote ] RSET

·[ Read ] 250 RSET

·[ Wrote ] QUIT

·[ Read ] 221 n126.sc0.cp.net QUIT

What is going to be needed at some point is another way of quickly submitting spam reports, bypassing clueless ISP's mail servers.

BlueSecurity.com is working on a HTTP based spam submission method using plugins for your mail program. FireTrust.com uses a spam submission method that avoids SMTP for thier FirstAlert spam blocking service.

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There is already the HTTP paste in box at http://www.spamcop.net.  Historically, SMTP was added later to ease the process.

41888[/snapback]

That does bypass the SMTP server problems but it sure isn't quick, submitting a couple hunderd spams that way isn't possible unless you have a bunch of free time.

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That does bypass the SMTP server problems but it sure isn't quick, submitting a couple hunderd spams that way isn't possible unless you have a bunch of free time.

41900[/snapback]

Indeed ... thanks for highlighting some options:
BlueSecurity.com is working on a HTTP based spam submission method using plugins for your mail program. FireTrust.com uses a spam submission method that avoids SMTP for thier FirstAlert spam blocking service.

41884[/snapback]

I note InvisiBill's post: http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?...indpost&p=40959
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