Is the .to (Tonga) domain completely rogue and should be removed?

Wed Sep 30 20:08:24 UTC 1998

On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, Barry Shein wrote:

> We've been having increasing problems with one or more porn sites in
> the .to domain promoting itself by massive spamming of AOL customers
> using one of our domains in their From: header thus causing both
> complaints to us and thousands of bounces from AOL due to bad AOL
> addresses in their spam lists.

I am seeing this more and more with .com too. Lets go ahead and remove
it.

> Looking at the .to domain I can't help but notice it's heavily laden
> with what appear to be porn sites (sexonline.to, come.to,
> xxxhardcore.to, etc.)

www.porn.com

> 1. Performing traceroutes and other analyses seems to indicate that
> this domain is NOT being used for communication with entities
> legitimately located (legally, not only geographically) within the
> sovereignty of the Kingdom of Tonga, as intended.

So? Is that now a requirement of using a ccTLD or is that just your
opinion?

> 2. Clearly criminal and malicious activites are arising from sites to
> which Tonga has provided comfort and sanctuary.

?

> 3. Therefore, I call for a process whereby it can be determined as to
> whether or not it is appropriate to decommission the Tongan domain due
> to negligence, mismanagement, and having allowed it to become an
> attractive resource for criminal activities. I do not believe the
> Tongan domain serves any legitimate purpose as an internet resource.

Remove .com for it too is mismanaged and has allowed itself ot become
an attractive resource for criminal activities. I do not believe the .com
domain serves any legitimate purpose as an internet resource.

> world% telnet sfconsulate.gov.to 25
> Trying 209.24.51.169...
> Connected to sfconsulate.gov.to.
> Escape character is '^]'.
> 220 colo.to SMTP ready, Who are you gonna pretend to be today?
> VRFY postmaster
> 500 Bloody Amateur! Proper forging of mail requires recognizable SMTP commands!

So they customized the messages? What would your point be?

Barry, I'm not sure what your purpose is. But if the Tongan goverment is
happy with the way their domain is being abused/used/operated/cheated,
then so be it. 

Sam