what the heck do i do now?

Mon Feb 5 21:09:19 UTC 2007

Matthew Sullivan wrote:
>
> Andrew - Supernews wrote:
>>>>>>> "Warren" == Warren Kumari <warren at kumari.net> writes:
>>>>>>>             
>>
>>  Warren> Sure, but if we could all agree that 127.255.255.255 (or
>>  Warren> something) means that the BL has been shutdown then in the
>>  Warren> future this sort of issue could be mitigated.
>>
>> You don't need to agree on something - it's already possible to apply
>> automated checks to a DNSBL that detect all known methods of shutting
>> it down.
>>   
> You could also say if it returns anything outside of 127.0.0.0/8 then 
> it's dead - that would stop it the moment it is wildcarded.
>
> In any case the software writers would need to be persuaded to alter 
> it in code.
>
> / Mat

No amount of good software can make up for a bad administrator.  The 
question is how much notice is appropriate on both a legal and practical 
measure.  Sadly, as we all know, there are plenty of unqualified, or 
apathetic (e-mail) administrators on the Internet, some of whom have 
their systems configured such that they cause damage to the 
Internet-at-large (The Dlink NTP fiasco comes to mind, among others), 
some of which damages only certain domains (this particular case, the 
Osirusoft case, and others).  According to The Internet Archive, Paul 
posted a notice on October 11, 2001 that maps.vix.com was replaced with 
the following notice:

"MAPS.VIX.COM is no longer a valid URL

MAPS is no longer associated with Vixie Enterprises, and the 
MAPS.VIX.COM URL has long since been replaced by http://mail-abuse.org/."

This notice was taken down on or after August 8, 2002.  It was posted 
for almost a full year, this posting period ended almost 5 years ago.  
Is there a point where enough is enough?  When do I as a RBL 
administrator/owner stop being responsible for the incompetence of Joe 
Blow postmaster?

Andrew