Re: IMRSS

["J.D. Falk" <jdfalk () cybernothing org>]

On 09/09/99, Daniel MacKay <Daniel.MacKay () Dal Ca> wrote: 

> The IMRSS open-mail-relay-protection service has listed one of my machines,
> 129.173.1.10, as an open mail relay, I dunno why, coz it ain't.  Several
> regular mail peers have called me about this.
>
> www.imrss.com has been down for the last several days, and none of the
> phone numbers listed on the NSI contact page for imrss.org work.
>
> Is anyone running this thing?  or is it an unattended dinosaur causing more
> problems than it solves?

        Apparently, IMRSS is totally automated and unattended.  Ron
        Guilmette, who runs it, has a very long history of not taking
        criticism very well, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he
        just ignores your requests.

        It's really sad to see so many people implement IMRSS, ORBS,
        or other such things without doing any research on 'em first.

        For open relays, I'd tend to trust Al Iverson's RRSS list at 
        http://relays.radparker.com/ , because by all accounts it
        lists exactly what it says it does -- open relays which have
        been used for spam.  The IMRSS and ORBS maintainers have both
        listed non-relay sites in the past, in violation of their
        stated purposes.  RRSS's FAQ says "by being honest and open
        and public with our goals and methods, we hope to gain the
        respect of our fellow internet users."  By contrast, IMRSS's
        FAQ doesn't appear to exist right now (site is down.)

        And, of course, there's the Mail Abuse Protection System,
        now at http://mail-abuse.org/ .  They, also, comply with their
        own stated goals and methodologies...and it works.

 ---------========== J.D. Falk <jdfalk () cybernothing org> =========---------
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