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Frequently
Asked Questions
Mail
Filtering FAQ
Does
our Network filter my e-mail?
Why does our Network filter my e-mail?
What is Spam?
How do Spammers get e-mail addresses?
How does my e-mail get filtered?
What are Realtime Blackhole Lists?
Which Realtime Blackhole Lists does our
Network use?
How do Realtime Blackhole Lists work?
What is an Open Relay Mail Server?
Why is having an Open Relay Mail Server bad?
What is the error a blocked mail server would receive?
I host my own mail server and get the bounced
back messages, what can I do?
Where can I get more information?
Q.
Does our Network filter my e-mail?
A. Yes.
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Q.
Why does our Network filter my e-mail?
A. To prevent Spam e-mail from
being sent to our Network customers.
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Q.
What is Spam?
A. Spam is the "junk mail"
of the Internet. It is unsolicited, meaning the recipients did not
sign up for the e-mail but received it anyhow.
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Q.
How do Spammers get e-mail addresses?
A. There are a number of ways
that an e-mail address can fall into the hands of a Spammer. Lists
of e-mail addresses can be purchased, just like many bulk mailing
companies purchase lists of people's addresses. Giving out your
e-mail address through a form on a webpage is another way, as is
going into chat rooms on the Internet. In some cases, Spammers have
gotten ahold of e-mail addresses by looking in the "From"
field of a forwarded message, which often contains the e-mail addresses
of everyone who has received the message.
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Q.
How does my e-mail get filtered?
A. our Network is provided
with lists of mail servers from around the world that have been
known to send Spam e-mail. These lists are often refered to as Realtime
Blackhole Lists. When mail is sent to our servers, the
incoming messages are only blocked if they originate
from a server that shows up on one of the Realtime Blackhole Lists
that our Network is provided with.
When the blocked
server tries to connect with our Network's mail server, we prevent
them from sending us mail right then, in addition to sending back
an error message that we will not accept mail from the "black
listed" server. The blocked messages are bounced back to the
sender by the black listed server along with the error
message that we provide. Blocked messages are never deleted
by our servers. You may still send mail to servers that
are on the Realtime Blackhole Lists.
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Q.
What are Realtime Blackhole Lists (RBLs)
A. Realtime Blackhole Lists
(RBLs) have the IP addresses of e-mail servers that have been known
to send Spam. Most of the Spamming mail servers are a type of server
called an Open Relay Mail Server. These lists of "black listed"
mail servers are provided by a number of mostly nonprofit organizations
that are committed to ridding the Internet of Spam.
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Q.
Which Realtime Blackhole Lists does our Network use?
A. our Network has chosen
to use the Realtime Blackhole Lists from the following organizations:
- relays.osirusoft.com
- dialups.mail-abuse.org
- relays.mail-abuse.org
- blackholes.mail-abuse.org
Relays.osirusoft.com
and relays.mail-abuse.org list
Open Relay Mail Servers that have sent Spam. As soon as the Open
Relay is closed and the RBL is informed, the mail server is tested,
and if the connection is truly closed, they are removed from the
RBL.
Dialups.mail-abuse.org
is an RBL that lists the IP addresses of dial-up, cable and DSL
networks. Spammers will sometimes use dial-up accounts from the
listed networks to send Spam. our Network does not accept e-mail
from the networks with the blocked IP addresses.
Blackholes.mail-abuse.org
lists closed relay servers that send Spam. These could be mail servers
whose sole purpose is to Spam people or Internet Service Providers
who do not stop their customers from Spamming.
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Q.
How do Realtime Blackhole Lists work?
A. The organizations that compile
the lists use a special web search tool that looks at e-mail servers
to see if it is an Open Relay Mail Server. The organizations
also research which of those mail servers send Spam, either on purpose,
or because other people can "high jack" the mail server
to send Spam.
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Q.
What is an Open Relay Mail Server?
A. Open Relay Mail Servers allow
anyone from anywhere in the world, connected to the Internet by
any means, to send mail through a mail server without having an
e-mail account, or any other company or customer account with the
mail server.
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Q.
Why is having an Open Relay Mail Server bad?
A. Spammers are the ones who
most use other servers to send mail, but Open Relay Mail Servers
can also be used to spread computer viruses. Spammers do not own
the servers they send most of their mail through, nor do they contribute
any money or labor to the upkeep of the servers. This amounts to
theft and is sometimes called "high-jacking" the
server. Not only does the Spammer use a piece of equipment that
is not theirs, but they also hog network resources as the massive
amounts of mail sent through the servers require processing time
and bandwidth.
Many of the
stories you have heard or read about "Denial of Service Attacks"
are Spammers who use a company's mail server to mass e-mail the
Internet. So much mail is sent through at once that the mail server
finally crashes, disrupting a service that others pay for. And
mail sent through Open Relay Mail Servers is largely untraceable,
so even if you detect that your mail server has been used to Spam
people, your chances of catching the person or people responsible
is slim to none.
Not all Open
Relay Mail Servers are guilty of sending Spam, but the potential
is there.
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Q.
What is the error a blocked mail server would receive?
A. TO: email@address.com [550
Open Relay Detected, Msg Blocked, See http://relays.osirusoft.com/]
This is an example
of the error message that our Network sends back with the blocked
messages. The error will appear in a message that is bounced back
from the black listed server to the original sender, along with
the contents of the sender's original e-mail.
The last part
of the error message displays which Realtime Blackhole List or lists
that the mail server is on and gives a web address that people can
visit to get more information. People who get this error message
need to contact their Internet Service Provider of their network
administrator to have the problem cleared up.
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Q.
I host my own mail server and get the bounced back messages, what
can I do?
A. If you have a Domain Hosting
account with our Network and repeatedly get bounced-back messages
saying that your mail could not be delivered because it was rejected
due to it being on an RBL, your mail server could still be configured
for Open Relay. Even if you do not participate in sending Spam yourself,
you may be a victim of someone using your server to send mail without
your permission. Relays.osirusoft.com
has a search page that allows you to enter the IP address of your
mail server and search their database to see if your mail server
is on the "blocked" list.
To find out
what IP address your mail server has, follow the instructions below:
1. Click
on your Start button.
2. Click on Run.
3. Type command and click the OK button.
4. A black screen should open up, that is the Command Screen.
Type ping mail.yourdomain.xxx and hit the Enter key on your
keyboard. Replace the word yourdomain with the domain name
that you have registered with our Network and replace the three
x's with the proper suffix (com, net, org...). The IP address
of your mail server will appear in [straightedge brackets] and will
be a series of four numbers separated by periods (Ex: 64.7.161.11).
When you want to close the Command Screen, type exit and
hit your Enter key.
Now that you
have the IP address of your mail server, go to http://relays.osirusoft.com/cgi-bin/rbcheck.cgi
to find out if your mail server is being blocked. If it is, you
will need to disable and/or get rid of Open Relay on your server.
After you have disabled or uninstalled Open Relay from your mail
server, you will need to visit www.mail-abuse.org
and http://relays.osirusoft.com,
or any other Realtime Blackhole List that your server may be on
and report that your mail server has been protected against Spammers
and to take your mail server off their list.
The Realtime
Blackhole List will then test your server again to make sure it
is a Closed Relay Mail Server, and if indeed it is, the IP address
of your mail server will be taken off their list.
For advice on
how to fix an Open Relay problem, visit http://mail-abuse.org/tsi/ar-fix.html.
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Q.
Where can I get more information?
A. http://www.mail-abuse.org
http://www.mail-abuse.org/rss/.
http://mail-abuse.org/tsi/ar-what.html
For a more technical explanation of Open Relay Mail Servers, the
affects and cures, read the information gathered by the UNIX
Workstation Support Group at Indiana
University.
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