From owner-freebsd-isp Fri Apr 18 03:36:57 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id DAA23511 for isp-outgoing; Fri, 18 Apr 1997 03:36:57 -0700 (PDT) Received: from axe.cablenet.net (axe.cablenet.net [194.154.36.65]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id DAA23504 for ; Fri, 18 Apr 1997 03:36:37 -0700 (PDT) Received: from axe (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by axe.cablenet.net (8.6.9/8.6.9) with SMTP id LAA02001; Fri, 18 Apr 1997 11:32:59 +0100 Message-ID: <33574DDA.1CFBAE39@cablenet.net> Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 11:32:58 +0100 From: Damian Hamill Organization: CableNet Ltd X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (X11; I; SunOS 4.1.4 sun4m) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Michael Dillon CC: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org, chair@ispa.org.uk Subject: Re: News... References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-isp@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Michael Dillon wrote: > > Rather than just targetting alt.binaries.* and zap everything, target any > message that is in a binary encoding format. In other words, USENET is for > messages, discussions, etc. so zap anything that is abusing USENET by > using it as a file transfer medium. Don't accept UUencoded messages or > Base64 or any other recognizable binary format. Text is OK and so is HTML > because these are message formats, not file formats. > IMHO the solution is to clean up binaries from USENET and force people to > use file transfer protocols (FTP, HTTP, DCC, FSP) to transfer files. Yup this would be a good thing to do, just think of all the traffic that would dissapear from the net and the relief on ISPs news servers. We can't do it unilateraly of course so maybe this is where ISPA (at least in the UK) can help. I would block all non-text articles if other UK ISPs do the same, otherwise I'm just putting myself at a competetive disadvantage. Only a small proportion of customers read the news groups now anyway. regards damian -- * PIAB - PoP In A Box - the total solution for ISPs, with more features * than a Constable landscape, and very cheap too!! * http://www.cablenet.net/cablenet/popinabox/ * Damian Hamill damian@cablenet.net