OT: Email BOMB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Steve Lamb]

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Tuesday, December 05, 2000, 5:36:27 PM, Dr. wrote:
> With respect I disagree vigorously and absolutely.

> My business suffers constantly from spam emitted by UU.NET and its customers.

    You're missing my point.  A lot of people, and software, will track
spammers back to uu.net when it is not a uu.net customer doing the spamming.
You must understand that uu.net resells POP (Point of Presence) space to other
ISPs.  They control the phone lines and the hardware the people connect to but
those people authenticate and get their service from other ISPs.

    So what happens in most case is this.  Ma & Pa decide to start an ISP
called "FooNet".  They decide that maintaining a bank of modems throughout
their metro area to provide local service to several different calling areas
is right out.  They instead strike a contract with uu.net for uu.net to
provide the tone and the basic connection equipment.  They set up their radius
server, take a call, and sign up a spammer.

    The contract is between the spammer and FooNet.
    The spammer authenticates with FooNet's radius server.
    The spammer pays FooNet for the services he obtains.

    In no way is that uu.net's problem.  In no way can they really track
/other people's/ users.  In the vast majority of the cases where a spammer is
tracked back to uu.net the chances are it is not a uu.net customer and is
rather a customer of an ISP to whom they sell dial-up space to.  It is to that
ISP that one should complain and it is that ISP's responsibility to take
action against the spammer.

    Trust me, you really can't tell who is a uu.net dialup customer or who is
a dial-up customer of an ISP who leases space from uu.net from the received
lines.  I made that mistake many times.

    To be pedantic on the point from <http://www.uu.net/products/wholesale/>,
"UUNET's customer base includes some of the most well known Internet providers
in the world such as AOL, CompuServe, EarthLink Networks, GTE and The
Microsoft Network (TM)."

    So, when you see an IP, do a reverse lookup on it and it says uu.net, is
it an AOL member, a CompuServe member, an Earthlink member, a GTE member or a
Microsoft member?  They will /ALL/ reverse to who own's the IP, uu.net, but
that doesn't mean the person on the phone is a customer of uu.net.

- --
         Steve C. Lamb         | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
         ICQ: 5107343          | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
- -------------------------------+---------------------------------------------

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