Wired mag article on spammers playing traceroute games with

Thu Oct 9 22:00:40 UTC 2003

> 
> Actually, running a web server on 8290 isn't as easy as 80. SpamAssassin
> tests (WEIRD_PORT) for this, as do many other filtering packages.
> Forcing spammers to use non-standard ports will greatly increase their rate
> of detection, and in turn help to solve the spam problem.
> 	-Mike

*sigh*  Unfortunately, due to the evils of Code Red, 
Nimda, and other worms out in the wild, I've ended up
moving our personal web servers off port 80, just so
the logs don't fill up with useless probes from
infected boxes.  So in the ever-escalating war against
spam, this means when I mail out to my friends telling
them the correct URL for my site (including the port),
I now have to worry about those messages being improperly
tagged as spam, due to the inclusion of URLs that
reference specific port numbers.  We seem to be slowly
transforming the network into more and more just a network
of port 80 boxes.  :(  Perhaps the Internet really is
going to end up being just the Web, not through evil
intervention, but by our own well-intentioned efforts.

Matt
(starting to feel more and more like a Star Trek redshirt
 frantically rotating shield frequencies to try to stay
 one step ahead of the attacking aliens...)