Starconnext

[tourist43]

Unable to correspond with a friend in the USA, I managed to learn that Starconnext is running what is called an "open relay." This is improprer practice that means spammers can use Starconnext freely to distribute their messages. As a consequence, Starconnext is on a blacklist that has resulted in my messages being blocked by my friend's ISP. I don't know how likely it is that other ISPs will also block all messages sent from Starconnext, but I can't imagine that it is not going to happen.

The blacklist:

http://dsbl.org/listing?203.155.18.14

Those numbers after the ? are the IP address of Starconnext's mail service.

There is general information on http://dsbl.org/ . Just poke around.

Why is Starconnext an "open relay"? Some say it's merely sloppy work, others say less complimentary things. Whatever the cause, Starconnext is the spammer's delight. I have been trying to get Starconnext to do something about this, but as always, silence.

It's ISPs like this that make life more difficult for everybody -- except the bad guys. My response to that whine is to say that in my experience Starconnext is often incompetent, but at least the download/upload times are maddeningly slow. Every cloud has a silver lightning bolt that is about to put you in Intensive Care, in other words.

Suggestions solicited. TIA.

[sweetchariot]

Can't imagine it's much use to the spammers anymore if it's blacklisted.

We have similar problems with CAT sometimes, certain ISP's won't accept incoming mail from a dynamic IP.

[RKASA]

It must be comcast they block most everything and if you really try to get it fixed they send you to norton which try to sell you spamware. I was on only on 8 of 100 listed monitors for spammers and of those eigth everyone tryed to sell me windows software to install and protect my linux OS  from spambots which I never had.  Most ISP's have good servers and gmail even failed to work.  We had to move 

every family member to a form of web based mail and out of comcast completely in

 order to use email.

open relay won't work for sure but comcast is way overboard and impossable to work with.  They don't even send rejection notice on most blocked mail in order to save bandwidth.

[tourist43]

Can't imagine it's much use to the spammers anymore if it's blacklisted.

Sorry I was not more clear. If an ISP has been put on a blacklist because it is an open relay, that does not mean that everybody in the world blocks messages it transmits to other ISPs. It means the blacklisted ISP's service has been tested and found improper. As far as I know right now, Starconnext has been blocked by only one ISP, which means that it can still function as a medium for spammers to reach all the other ISPs in the known universe.

The idea of the blacklist, as I understand it, is to warn the offender that his practices are substandard, and put pressure on him to do something about it. He can ignore the listing. Whether messages relayed through his ISP are blocked is entirely up to each receiving ISP. I can still send messages to all my other correspondents.

Edit: to make proper quote

Edited February 7, 2008 by tourist43

[tourist43]

It must be comcast they block most everything

This is a new one on me. Every so often, Starconnext blocks sites at random, or so it appears. For example, the other day I could not get to a site that gives the time in the world's cities! That and other totally harmless sites have been blocked by a bit of software called SmartFilter, which comes from a US outfit. Eventually I was able to get Starconnext to tell me that it is used by KSC to prevent Thailand from connecting to various sites not permitted by Thai law. Starconnext told me that they get their feed from KSC, and that it was the folks at KSC who were asleep at the switch. Can't say I believe that, as it seems the problem would not be unique to Starconnext if KSC were at fault, but then I'm no expert. I don't know a thing about Comcast...but detecting which OS you are running is quick and easy, so Comcast should know not to pester you about the problems native to Windows. (Spoken like another Linux user? Guilty.)