NTL email and SORBS (Spam and Open-Relay Blocking System)

nedsram · 14-10-2005, 23:08

It appears that NTL are discarding any emails received from - or via - any host registered in the SORBS database. Currently we are unable to receive any email from beeb.net or lycos.co.uk. I understand that this is happening with webmail.co.za as well.

I have made a strong complaint to NTL about this, as it is causing my wife severe inconvenience. She is secretary of a choir, and all emails to her from the musical director and another member of the committee are being silently discarded.

Personally I think that this heavy handed policy stinks, and now that NTL have spam detection software it really isn't necessary anyway.

If/when I receive a reply from NTL I'll try to remember to post it here.

Brian

patrickp · 14-10-2005, 23:36

Brian, I somewhat agree with you about this: since, as you say, ntl now have effective spam detection software in place, there's no need for a heavy-handed SORBS-based approach.

In addition, it's somewhat ironic, since ntl as an ISP have been discriminated against in this way themselves, and probably will be again.

However, that's the way it is. Have you thought of trying to be more proactive in this situation and contacting the ISPs whose emails are being blocked, with a view to encouraging them to get themselves removed from the SORBS lists?

After all, there's a reason they're on the lists - because their servers have been used for the dissemination of spam. I would say that they're as much, if not more, to blame for this as ntl is.

Matth · 14-10-2005, 23:51

Is this selectable, from the web interface - eg. forward spam tagged as spam, instead of discarding?

patrickp · 15-10-2005, 02:41

No, Matth, these are messages that are simply dropped wholesale by ntl (other ISPs do this too) because they come from servers that are on the SORBS lists as spam originators.

Doesn't matter how you configure your spam settings - they won't get through.

Chrysalis · 15-10-2005, 03:49

I agree by the way, but best way to proceed for now is to do a responsetek on the issue.

Toto · 15-10-2005, 10:53

Not the best solution I agree, however it does catch a serious amount spam, for example prior to ntl launching their Brightmail spam filtering system, they were blocking a massive amount of connections to their mailserver, using SORBS and Spamhaus.

Its a sledge hammer to crack a nut, but overall the system works, and appears to be the best option out there.

You will get problems, but trust me, these are mirrored in other ISP systems too.

nedsram · 15-10-2005, 11:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrickp

Have you thought of trying to be more proactive in this situation and contacting the ISPs whose emails are being blocked, with a view to encouraging them to get themselves removed from the SORBS lists?

After all, there's a reason they're on the lists - because their servers have been used for the dissemination of spam. I would say that they're as much, if not more, to blame for this as ntl is.

As for the first comment, I have suggested that the senders affected contact their ISPs, and I know that one of them is doing so. I can't see that a complaint from some third party with no connection to the ISP is likely to have any effect.

As for the second comment, I also read somewhere that it may not be the mail host itself which is blacklisted, but some intermediate relay which the email is routed through. Certainly I have heard of one instance where email from a particular ISP was getting through to NTL users in one part of the country but not another - because a different relay was involved. That would seem to add another layer of opacity to the problem. There's a recent post about this on one of the NTL discussion forums (either cm or stb - can't remember which).

Brian

nedsram · 21-10-2005, 11:55

I raised this issue with NTL and this is the reply I received:

Quote:

Hi and thank you for your feedback

It is the repsonsibility of the ISP listed on Sorbs to get themselves removed from this blacklist. This issue needs to be escalated to Beeb.net and lycos for them to request removal from the list.

Sorbs offers us the greatest protection for our customer base and we will not at this time remove this from our email platform

Regards
John

Brian

nedsram · 21-10-2005, 23:18

I've just received an email from the person on beeb.net who was being blocked. So it would appear that 50% of my problem is solved - for the time being at least. In fact the offending host was lon1-mail-2.visp.demon.net, which was removed from the database earlier today.

Neither the pop nor smtp lycos.co.uk server is in the Sorbs database, so again it looks like a relay is the culprit.

Brian