tlug: Bulk mailers

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

--------------------------------------------------------
tlug note from "Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>
--------------------------------------------------------
It looks like the (professional) bulk email thing is shaking out.  The
last few times I've complained, I've found a couple of domains with
"on hold" status in the whois database.  :-)  What this means is that
professional bulk mailers are starting up who "cloak" their locations
somehow; I suspect it involves name servers which only answer when you 
look them up while they're connected to your SMTP.  Tricky, huh?  They 
don't generally anwer mail, nor do they provide a listserv by which
you can unregister arbitrary addresses.  (I can understand that; I
personally would be tempted to unregister everybody I know.  Some
people on the net would use ml/news filters and unregister every
address that can be found on the Web!)

Anyway, they need to be registered with InterNIC, so you can find out
who they really are.  The biggest one seems to be Cyber Promotions,
with IP address blocks 205.199.212.* and 205.199.2.*.  I'd like to
simply refuse all connections from them ....

Do I need a firewall, or are there mailers that can be configured
(like wu-ftpd) to reject certain hosts?  Or can I do this with
"hosts.deny"?  (I guess that requires a TCP wrapper, tcpd?)

Inquiring minds want to know!

-- 
                            Stephen J. Turnbull
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences                    Yaseppochi-Gumi
University of Tsukuba                      http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/
Tel: +81 (298) 53-5091;  Fax: 55-3849              turnbull@example.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
a word from the sponsor will appear below
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The TLUG mailing list is proudly sponsored by TWICS - Japan's First
Public-Access Internet System.  Now offering 20,000 yen/year flat
rate Internet access with no time charges.  Full line of corporate
Internet and intranet products are available.   info@example.com
Tel: 03-3351-5977   Fax: 03-3353-6096