[Resolved] Not a routeable IP address

[MyNameHere]

I've been paying more attention to what the parser is saying about URLs in spam messages.

I've noticed a lot of "Not a routeable IP address" messages when parsing URLs, but when I paste the URL into Netcraft's "What's That Site Running?" search, it almost always finds the server and an actual IP address. I can then run the IP address through the SpamCop parser and get a reporting address.

So why can't SpamCop's parser do this?

[SpamCopAdmin]

>- So why can't SpamCop's parser do this?

Usually, it's a time problem.

There is no time in SpamCop's day for waiting on slow responses to lookups. If SpamCop doesn't get an instant response, it moves on.

- Don D'Minion - SpamCop Admin -

- Service[at]Admin.SpamCop.net -

[MyNameHere]

Yep, I imagine Netcraft is waiting a while because the response times seem a lot slower than the SpamCop parser's. I know it might be apples and oranges and subjective as well, but that's my impression.

Thanks!

[MyNameHere]

New idea: It seems that if I'm reporting a message and the parser says "Not a routeable IP address," I can just not report the message (click instead on the "Report spam" tab), wait a few seconds, and click the "Report Now" link again. Sometimes the parser will then find the reporting addresses for the website the second or third time I try.

Does that cause any problems for the reporting system?

[Farelf]

Should be no problem - people have been forcing re-parses for similar reasons since "day one" (mostly just by refreshing the parse page, though allowing a little more time between re-tries could be "better" when variable-slow DNS resolution is the issue) - and the parser can evidently handle much greater volumes of work than it is currently processing most of the time, considering the "historical" statistics.

I seem to recall other reporters sometimes expressing alarm when some mentioned just continually refreshing until SC "got it right" but I don't recall SC staff sharing in such concerns. Pointless if the address has actually "dropped off the internet" but that's rare/momentary and is easily tested, as you described earlier or by running nslookup on the associated domain.