From owner-freebsd-isp Wed Apr 28 10: 8:29 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Received: from rheingold.navi.net (pdx-pm-p014.navi.net [209.188.52.64]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7EEAF15010 for ; Wed, 28 Apr 1999 10:08:18 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from wcooley@nakedape.navi.net) Received: from localhost (wcooley@localhost) by rheingold.navi.net (8.9.0/8.9.0) with ESMTP id KAA13346; Wed, 28 Apr 1999 10:05:56 -0700 Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 10:05:56 -0700 (PDT) From: "W. Reilly Cooley" X-Sender: wcooley@rheingold To: Stuart Henderson Cc: Veaceslav Revutchi , freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: please advice how to solve a spam problem In-Reply-To: <37273DE7.14D1BE87@eclipse.net.uk> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Wed, 28 Apr 1999, Stuart Henderson wrote: > Trouble is, it's fundamentally flawed. You can't tell whether that was > a real address or whether it was because someone is connecting through > an open proxy (in which case you might be able to use headers added by > the proxy for better tracking), or an obfuscating proxy (for example > anonymizer or a crowds proxy), or even someone who left a personal > proxy (wingate, webwasher, or whatever) open to public use. If you > rely on that you could well put the blame onto someone who is > innocent. Sure you can tell; you contact the admins who admin that block of IPs and ask them, or you probe yourself. > (Of course some proxies would even let you connect to a mail server > directly and hide your address, or you could be telnetted in through a > chain of shell accounts, etc... Basically: if someone really doesn't > want to be tracked you will have a very difficult job to find them). Yes, but you've left something out: if someone really doesn't want to be tracked *and* has a clue about how to hide themselves, then what you say applies. For example, some nut got pissed with me once and started sending me ugly messages through HotMail. In this case, he was going through his ISP's proxy, which made it easier to figure out whom the message was from (as if I couldn't guess). Wil -- W. Reilly Cooley wcooley@nakedape.navi.net Naked Ape Consulting http://nakedape.navi.net Internet Meta-Resources: http://nakedape.navi.net/meta-res/ "All the Net you need to be a geek" To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-isp" in the body of the message