>...
>
>Quoting List Mail User <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>
>> Try a Google search on 88puppydog. com, then look at who owns and
>> operates it (just "whois") and decide for yourself.
>
>Midphase is bulk hosting provider for both end-users and resellers. Nothing
>more. A WHOIS on "CoolRunningConcepts.com" will show you the exact same
>information, but I can guarantee you that midphase does not own or operate
>CoolRunningConcepts.
>
>> Anyway, if they get off of whois.rfc-ignorant.org, then your messages
>> will go through fine - there is no DNS or HELO issue - just a slimy service
>> provider issue who decided to turn off their contact line while spamming
>> mailing lists!
>
>I'll let them know about the issue there, but I still think if your anti-spam
>rules think I'm a spammer, then its YOUR rules that are at fault. Its simply
>wrong since my message isn't spam. Its a false positive.
>
>Second ... Slimy? I don't know the details of the contact line issue, but I
>highly doubt they turned it off so they can send spam. Midphase is hardly a
>spammer - perhaps 88puppydog.com was doing something stupid, but from their
>website, it doesn't look like that domain really knew any better. Looks like
>some mom&pop operation to me. I'm sure if midphase was told what was wrong,
>they would have warned the owner of the domain to stop before pulling their
>account. They don't look like a big commercial spam-gang operation to me.
>
>I'm not associated with 88puppydog.com in any way. Nor am I associated with
>midphase.com except that I'm a customer because I can't afford a more
>expensive
>hoster right now.
>
>> So anyway, there is no DNS, HELO, rDNS or related issue here - just
>> need to clean my fingers after typing midphase. com too many times.
>
>I haven't had too many problems with them considering how cheap they are.
>
>-- Evan
>
>
Evan,
My machine will gladly accept mail from CoolRunningConcepts.com,
but not from midphase.com. The only things I have in my logs that say
your domain name are posts to the list. All mail from any machine in the
domain midphase.com is refused - simply they had their telephone contacts
purposely unavailable for a period of time during which a customer was
spamming; The reason may be simply coincidental to the spam episode,
but I don't care. My machines do not label you or even midphase as
spammers (they will do that for other domains and IPs); They just refuse
to talk to them! If they were to clear the rfci "whois" listing, not only
would they "talk" you'd have to go pretty far to get labeled as a spammer
from their machines. I get mail nearly every day from "free" services and
even companies like Microsoft, to whom my machines assign more "points" to
start off - And with one exception (a Microsoft out-sourced contractor,
relaying through MS servers who mentioned a "spam" company in his mail), I
rarely have FPs marked as spam - I do refuse non-spam mail from legitimate
people like you who are sending through companies I choose not to accept
mail from. The distinction may be lost on you - after all, the result is
the same, you can't send mail to me from your account - but in my mind,
they are separate issues; I am not a commercial email provider and only
have accounts for myself, my business and a few friends and family - there
are much larger fish than midphase who I refuse to talk to (though I have
been castigated before for refusing most cable Internet services, and I do
now allow them - I did just refuse any domain that bounced "postmaster@"
but now I just assign a few (partial) points for bouncing "postmaster@" or
"abuse@" and a bunch more if the domain bounces both, which many "free" or
"cheap" service providers do - as do a few large companies).
Often a service is cheap because they don't spend the time and
effort to keep customers accountable - It costs an ISP, registrar or any
service provider a very significant amount of time and money to deal with
just a few problem customers. If you use a "cut-rate" service, that can
happen. I have a good friend who started using a "cheap" provider who got
blacklisted because of another customer - I ended up spending nearly 20
hours of my time help their staff "clean-up" and get off of blacklists,
because in general I'm will to help somebody "get clean", but will not make
exceptions for companies that choose to ignore problems (and I was willing
to help his hosting company, but not willing to "whitelist" them). In
general, I only make exceptions for people who pay me money (i.e. my clients),
but as SA has gotten better, I *have* loosened the rules I enforce about
what domains my machine will talk to (and I only have a single exception
for a company which pays me).
Paul Shupak
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
P.S. It just a opinion, but 88puppydog.com looks like someone I wouldn't
want to do business with - mom&pop or not, even if they hadn't spammed the
mailing lists (which does seem very amateur - they do not look like pro
spammers - just someone who was sloppy); But having worked for a pet store
for 5 years as a teenager and also working for a dog trainer for 3 years,
they are the kind of company I would not deal with - nothing to do with
spam about that, but it seems "in character" that they would make exactly
the kind of "mistake" that they did. BTW. It probably will only make you
feel worse, but my machines *would* accept mail from 88puppydog.com (just
like from CoolRunningConcepts.com - as long as it doesn't come from midphase);
They had a different telephone number listed and a person did answer the phone
when I called to complain (and it probably was a midphase employee) :-)
