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TELECOM Digest Wed, 20 Apr 2005 18:43:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 174 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AOL to Block Identity Theft Sites (Lisa Minter) Fox News Going Mobile with Sprint (Lisa Minter) ID Thief Wins Constantly! TRUE Story (Cheryl Rudow Pope) VCs Target Mobile Phone Tech Companies (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: PPC Advertising, Click Fraud; Effect on Search Engines (jmeissen) Re: PPC Advertising, Click Fraud; Effect on Search Engines (Robt Bonomi) Re: SprintPCS Lousy Web Interface (Steve Sobol) Re: The Other Telecom Bidding War (Robert Bonomi) Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam (Dan Lanciani) Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam (Robert Bonomi) Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam (Scott Dorsey) Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam (news01@jmatt.net) Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam (Paul Vader) Re: New Technology Poses 911 Peril VOIP and Emergency System (hancock) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 20 Apr 2005 08:09:43 -0700 From: <ptownson@cableone.net> Reply-To: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com> Subject: AOL to Block Identity Theft Sites NEW YORK (Reuters) - America Online on Wednesday is expected to unveil plans to block identity theft sites and monitor suspected Web sites around the clock. The online unit of Time Warner Inc. partnership with Cyota, a New York-based online security company, to help identify and block sites imitating legitimate companies, such as banks that are suspected of soliciting personal information, or "phishing." "Phishing and identity theft are the fastest-growing security threats online," said Tatiana Platt, an AOL senior vice president said in a statement. "By limiting our members' access to suspected phishing sites, we're trying to cut the lines before a phisher can reel them in." Platt said AOL also plans to release other products aimed at curbing junk mail and other online scams. AOL has implemented a number of subscriber security measures in recent months, including a keychain-sized passcode generator needed to log into an account that provides password security on par with corporate computer users. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters Limited. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: 19 Apr 2005 22:29:54 -0700 From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com> Subject: Fox News Going Mobile with Sprint By Chris Marlowe Fox News Channel announced a deal with Sprint on Tuesday that will let audiences view the network live on mobile phones from anywhere in the U.S. This is is the first time FNC has made its content available in the wireless medium. It also is a first for Sprint, because the new Fox News Channel Live is the first live news programing on the Sprint network. "These are great firsts for us," FNC director of digital media Jeremy Steinberg said. "This deal positions Fox News Channel to become a significant player in the wireless industry and is a great opportunity to expand the brand and reach our loyal audience outside their homes." The three top-rated shows in cable news -- "The O'Reilly Factor," "On the Record With Greta Van Susteren" and "Hannity and Colmes" -- can be viewed via mobile at the same time they're shown on television screens, as can all other FNC programing, complete with interstitials and advertising. The quality of FNC Live is equivalent to 15 frames per second, about half as good as the in-home version of FNC. All Sprint TV subscribers can watch FNC Live at no additional cost. Sprint TV is available to those using Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Phones on the Sprint Nationwide PCS Network for $9.99 per month in addition to their existing Sprint PCS Vision plan. Sprint, working with Idetic, pioneered live television to the U.S. mobile consumer sector in 2003. Sprint TV, which launched in August, offers 17 channels of video content on demand. Owned by News Corp., FNC is available in more than 85 million homes. Reuters/Hollywood Reporter Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Discuss this report and other telecom news items in our conference area: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/chatpage.html ------------------------------ From: Cheryl Rudow Pope <cgjrpope@msn.com> Subject: ID Thief Wins Constantly! TRUE Story Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 08:50:55 -0500 Why The Courts Work For The Criminal and NOT The Victims! Illinois Now they send her on Vacation?? I am a victim of Identity Theft committed by a convicted felon who has done this to me several times. She was let off because of claims of medical conditions?? Like she can't be treated in prison? What is wrong here? So she can rob and steal from people and all she has to do when the Court system catches up with her is to just claim she has cancer, MS or some other staged up claim and she is FREE? That is what she used in both counties below to get off! Just think how much money these thieves can get away with! Like Probation is going to do a darn thing? ONLY IN AMERICA! She is no different from someone that robs a bank! I am OUTRAGED AT THE JUSTICE SYSTEM PERIOD! What exactly will stop her from doing this to me again? In 95 she stole my Identity and there were NO laws to prosecute her. NOW here we are in 2005 and have laws and alls they do is give her probation? PLUS she is a prior convicted FELON with a Criminal Background that does NOT stop! The felon now has 8 Current Identity Theft Charges/Check Deception Charges in 2 Counties, Will and Dupage. Six charges in Will and 2 charges in Dupage. She also did prison time in 95 For Embezzelling and Employee Theft in Dupage County. I cannot believe the Judge gave her probation??? In DUPAGE COUNTY Dupage County Case Numbers: 04 CF 2875 04 CF 1193 February 2, 2005 she faced sentencing of the above cases. 1 Identity Theft and 1 Check Deception. I was the Identity Theft Victim. The Judge AGAIN gave her probation because Will County did and also she is claiming to have a Medical Condition? I don't care she can be treated in PRISON! ALSO why is she given the ROYAL treatment of being on Probation ?? SHE has a very LONG criminal background with drug conviction charges, Identity Theft charges and many more. How can a person on Probation for 3 years in 2 Different Counties with 8 Current Convictions get to travel and go on vacation when SHE got Probation because she claimed a so called medical condition that kept her from going to Jail and now a month later she takes a ski trip vacation? Here is the reply I got from Will County State's Attorney: On March 18, 2005, the defendant appeared with her attorney. The defendant requested the court's permission to travel to the State of Colorado from March 23, 2005 to April 3, 2005. Over the State's objection, the court granted it, provided she have her court costs paid in full. They are, so she did. How did she get away with this? She is Cured, FREE and Taking Vacations on Stolen Money! The Courts sure work for the criminal here! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Will County and Dupage County are both in the metropolitan Chicago area; Will being south/southwest and Dupage being west of Cook County/Chicago respectively. But, Ms. Pope, you seem to infer she was due back in court or probation on April 3, about two weeks ago. What has happened since then? Your story does not surprise me, knowing how the courts in that area operate. Can you bring us up to date? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 13:31:15 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA <usta@dailylead.com> Subject: VCs Target Mobile Phone Tech Companies Telecom dailyLead from USTA April 20, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=20973&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * VCs target mobile phone tech companies BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Verizon rolls out iobi for big business * Fox News Channel goes wireless with Sprint * Tropic, Scientific Atlanta team up * Judge may give Adelphia breakup fee to Time Warner, Comcast * MCI buys IP media firm * Sprint, Cingular report Q1 earnings USTA SPOTLIGHT * VoIP 101 Webinar Tomorrow! How to Integrate Wi-Fi and VoIP, 1 p.m. EST EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Verizon gears up to enter TV market * Analysis: Wi-Fi, VoIP combo may be inevitable * Ethernet users need to be educated Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=20973&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: PPC Advertising, Click Fraud, and Its Effect on Search Engines Date: 20 Apr 2005 07:51:57 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article <telecom24.173.9@telecom-digest.org>, Pat wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I guess not everyone takes the trouble, > as I do, to automatically run Grisoft AVG in the early morning hours > on my machines, and Ad Aware and Spybot Smash and Destroy once per > week or so. PAT] The reality is actually quite depressing. What I've experienced personally is that the majority of users don't care. As long as they can surf the 'net and do email/IM they're happy. It used to be the case that the load from viruses and spyware was enough to drag a system to its knees, but with 3+ Ghz systems they often hardly notice it. I've actually had people criticize me for "messing with their system" when I offered to help clean up and patch up their Windows boxes (which had never received any security updates, were running expired antivirus software, and were directly connected to cable modems). John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, but you see, perhaps I am an atypical user in that way. I have to work from here at home, and spend a few hours each day on my web sites, most often as not the Digest. I prefer to leave the cable connection up 24/7 since things like my weather station relies on it. My computers are all old, shabby, cranky things which work at very slow CPU speed, and I just cannot afford the time required to constantly clean out viruses and erase spam. I've got to have those automated virus checking/smashing/ destroying programs on hand and running daily. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: PPC Advertising, Click Fraud, and Its Effect on Search Engines Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 10:27:41 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article <telecom24.173.9@telecom-digest.org>, TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to T. Sean Weintz <strap@hanh-ct.org>: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As for myself, I cannot really picture >> 'five hundred thousand zombie computers scattered across three >> continents'. If so, under whose coordination? A gang of crackers all >> working in concert to cheat some advertiser's competitor, by running >> up his advertising bill? Seems sort of improbable to me. PAT] > There are easily that many zombies available out there. Doesn't need > any real coordination at all to use them -- there are automated > scripts available to find and use them. > I figure probably 1 in 50 home users' PC is "zombified" without them > knowing it. For the U.S. that might be only a little low. For some other locales, like South America and parts of the Pacific Rim, you're *under-estimating* the problem by an order of magnitude. I've seen numbers like 1 in *8* for some areas. *groan* > Anyway, my point is one bright 13 yr old could do the whole operation > alone. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I guess not everyone takes the trouble, > as I do, to automatically run Grisoft AVG in the early morning hours > on my machines, and 'Ad Aware' and 'Spybot Smash and Destroy' once per > week or so. PAT] That should be "obvious" -- given that there are fairly reliable estimates of 200,000+ 'zombie' machines on *one* large North American cable ISP. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One thing I really love about Cable One for internet is how they go to the trouble to sort email for their customers. I've quoted some stats here, and those stats are _only as they apply to massis and Telecom Digest_ . My personal email comes via Cable One, TerraWorld, and University of California at Berkeley, but Cable One picks it all up via POP for me and sorts it nicely, putting all the known viruses and the suspected spam into a separate folder called 'my spam'. Then it sends me email telling me to please check out 'my spam' when something arrives there (which is sort of an overkill; viri and spam arrive there constantly also.) When I go to look there, its all laid out nicely, 24 lines at a time with the subject, who it is from, the date, etc, and nice little convenient check boxes to one side and a box at the bottom saying 'check all'. As fast as I can scan those 24 lines and hit the 'check all' box, it all goes away. In the event there _is_ something there I want to keep rarely, I 'check all' then go back and uncheck the one I want to keep. Anything I uncheck to keep then is shown on the training page: do you want to have this sender/subject automatically approved henceforth? I just wish that SBC's DSL had been that courteous. Under some very misguided belief that "we do not get involved in our customer's email" they just dumped it, spam, viri and all into a common bin and left it for me to sort out. Of course, SBC does _not_ allow customers to run cgi-bin or any shells of their own, or any scripts, so I had to go through it all manually. Out of desparation once, I asked the SBC help desk (when I used to have DSL instead of cable) to please give me a shell. "Oh no," said the tech, "SBC does not let customers have shells to use. You are only authorized to use what software we give you." That's back when I was debating whether or not to stay with SBC for DSL only, if they had allowed such a thing. Cable One is such an improvement by comparison, and I have never seen any downtime. In addition to their own virus and spam detectors -- frequently updated -- they encourage people to run their own as desired also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> Subject: Re: SprintPCS Lousy Web Interface Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 21:13:53 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Joseph wrote: > On Mon, 18 Apr 2005 16:10:58 -0700, Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> > wrote: >> No one prints incoming phone numbers on customer bills except >> Cingular. > Steve, before you say "no one" you'd better check with someone who has > T-Mobile service. Their customers have *always* gotten incoming > numbers noted on their statements (if CLIP isn't blocked.) No one that I was aware of besides Cingular ... If you say T-Mobile does too, that's good enough for me ... Still not even close to all of the US carriers, though. :( JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: The Other Telecom Bidding War Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 10:47:01 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article <telecom24.173.3@telecom-digest.org>, > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If I am not mistaken, there is that one > stockholder, Slim (somebody) in Mexico who owns 13 percent of the > company, and the purchasers of MCI tried to (or were successful at) > cutting a different deal with him than with the other stockholders. Verizon _did_ purchase those shares. Interestingly, MCI subsequently refused to dismantle a 'poison pill' provision against any single shareholder owning more than 15% of the shares. > I thought that was illegal ... whatever was offered to one stockholder > had to be the same for _all_ stockholders; and the other stockholders > have been complaining mightily about Slim getting better terms. Does > anyone know more about this? PAT] You thought wrong. <grin> In certain situations, and *only* in those situations, is it required that all shareholdeers receive 'equal' treatment. See Carl Ichann's backgrounds for a *long* history of buying up 'significant' numbers of shares in a company, and then "greenmailing" them into buying those shares back at a substantial premium over the market value. A deal _not_ offered to the other shareholders of the company at that time. Fact: if you make a "tender" offer for shares in a publicly traded company, assuming that enough shares are proffered to satisfy the minimum quantity in the ender offer, you must either (depending on the terms of the tender offer) buy all the shares offered at the 'tender' price, or buy the maximum number of shares, as specified in the tender offer, pro-rated among the profferers, according to the relative proportion of the number of shares each profferer offered out of the total number of proffered shares. Fact: in the _execution_ of a merger or buy-out of a publicly traded company, you must pay the same price for all shares of a given class/type. Fact: there is *nothing* that prevents one from: (a) purchasing shares on the "open market", at _any_ price (higher or lower than a tender or merger price, or (b) making similar 'private' purchases. "Even if" you have a tender offer outstanding. "Even if" you have reached an 'agreement in principle' with the management of the company you're buying out -- until the purchase agreement has been approved by _both_ sets of shareholders it is not binding. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I guess I thought wrong once again, didn't I, Robert? I do know that the other 87 percent of the shareholders were quite annoyed that Slim got special service not available to them. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 00:11:07 EDT From: Dan Lanciani <ddl@danlan.com> Subject: Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) wrote: > In article <telecom24.171.12@telecom-digest.org>, Dan Lanciani > <ddl@danlan.com> wrote: >> Since you also now advocate rejecting possible spam with a notice, can >> you please explain exactly how you avoid the misdirected bounce >> behavior that you find objectionable? > Simple! _I_ don't send any "bounce messages" *AT*ALL*. Neither do I, but that isn't an answer to the question I posed. > It's all done by mail *rejection* _during_ the SMTP transaction with > the remote server that is trying to deliver the mail to me. That is how my system works as well. > This isn't 'procmail', I've never used procmail; that was somebody else's suggestion. > nor is it some form of "post-processing" of material > that has arrived in the server inbox -- it is "real time" processing > of the message *during* the transmission from the remote system. Real time processing is an obvious and worthwhile optimization; however, while it does reduce the incidence of misdirected bounces it by no means eliminates them. It only pushes the problem back one hop. I'm not hypocritical enough to criticize non-real-time challenge/response systems just because I do a little better by rejecting in real time. You are criticizing my system without even doing a little better ... > Thus, there are three possible scenarios:. > 1) The mail came to my _server_ from a legitimate, full-blown, > mail-server that knows the 'true identity' of the sender, > regardless of what the "from" line says. > 2) The mail came to my > server from dedicated spam-sending software that *doesn't* do > _anything_ with rejection notices. > 3) The message came to my server from a legitimate, full-blown, > mail-server that does *not* know the identity of the sender. > In scenario #1 the rejection notice -- generated by *that* mailserver > -- goes back to the _actual_sender_. > In scenario #2, the rejection date is bit-bucketed, and nobody gets > anything. > In scenario #3, what happens depends on "just how stupid" that 'open > relay' mail-server configuration is. We already *know* it's > __really_ stupid, or it wouldn't be an open relay in the first place. > *IT* may be stupid enough to be generating 'backscatter' spam in > those situations where the 'from' address is a valid email address "may be"? Returning an error log to the envelope from is exactly what a relay is supposed to do. > -- and the recipient thereof *should* bitch at that that system for > spamming them The system "spamming" them may not be the open relay (if in fact there is an open relay involved). This of course leads to the notion of trying to force relays to blacklist relays that fail to blacklist open relays. I'm sure such nonsense has been proposed. > Or if the from address is _not_ valid, then the > message ends up in the 'postmaster' mailbox *there*. on the > open-relay machine. It ends up on the last hop relay before your machine. That may or may not be the open relay (if in fact there was an open relay involved). > Along with all the other 'undeliverable' > notices. Hopefully this alerts the operator of that mailserver to > the problem and they secure their system against open relay. Your analysis is incomplete, but it doesn't matter: your system works in exactly the same way that mine does. It will provoke misdirected bounces in exactly the same circumstances that mine will. You do not have a solution to the misdirected bounce behavior; you are merely trying to downplay the problem and/or shift the blame to other relays. That would be fine if you refrained from criticizing those of us who have been using the same techniques that you have now discovered but who do not try to downplay the consequences. > Wanna see how it works? I'm willing to take your word for how your system works; however, I strongly suggest that you send my mail system some spam to see how it responds before you make any additional bogus assumptions. > You have a problem trying to do this kind of thing, because your > mail-server software is _four_ major releases, and 4 additional minor > updates, out of date, and it doesn't have the required capabilities to > implement this type of scheme _properly_. Let me see if I can translate your comment. Your system depends on some hooks included in recent versions of sendmail. You assume that any similar system must depend on such hooks. You looked at the version of sendmail on my mail server and noticed that it was too old to have such hooks. You therefore conclude that I can't possibly be doing anything close to what you consider acceptable. News flash. I was hacking sendmail code long before the program was even called "sendmail." My spam filter interface is integrated into the SMTP server code directly. It does not depend on any user or cf file hooks. Some of us are still capable of writing our own C code for such functionality rather than waiting for the latest version of sendmail (with the latest set of security holes) to offer an easy solution. Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 10:15:10 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article <telecom24.172.9@telecom-digest.org>, <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote: > Robert Bonomi wrote: >> Nope. it's because it is, quite simply, *NOT* ICANN's job to do so. >> Of the various organizations (ICANN, IAB, IETF, etc.) that are the >> 'authority' for specific functionalities of the greater Internet, >> _none_ of them have any authority with regard to the 'content' of >> packets. > Well then, who IS responsible to do the job? If no such job > exists, why isn't one created? When you figure out what the Internet is, you'll understand the answer to that question. The Internet is a _voluntary_ co-operative effort of *private* network operators. *nobody* 'owns' it. *nobody* 'controls' it. Everybody makes _their_own_rules_ for *THEIR*OWN* network. Unfortunately, "their" rules do not apply to someone who is _not_ on their network. When someone chooses to allow people "_not_ on their network" to access resources "on their network", they are 'extending trust' to those people to voluntarily obey their _unenforceable_ rules. The *only* 'enforcement' option available is to deny those 'scofflaws' access to the resources on their network. If you "don't like" the way YOUR NETWORK OPERATOR is extending trust (or not revoking it) to those who abuse that trust, either (a) find a different network operator, (b) bitch at your existing operator to get them to change _their_ operation, or (c) disconnect yourself. >> And *nobody* on the 'net wants it any other way. (Well, except for >> folks like the government of mainland China, that is.) > I don't know about that. Try to find anybody who wants restrictions on what _they_ can do/say/etc. On the Internet. Even among those who favor restrictions on what "other people" can do/say/etc. on the Internet. If 'officialdom' can proscribe sending one kind of message, they can proscribe sending _any_other_ kind of message. > I see the net as a great POTENTIAL tool, but one that is fraught > with risk and problems. Yeah. So? If you're not prepared to deal with the risks, "don't play in the street." applies. If the benefits for you don't outweigh the risks then *UNPLUG*THE*COMPUTER*. Problem _solved_. > Between hackers, spammers, perverts, and thieves, I are extremely > hesitant to do much of anything on the Internet. The newspapers > have articles constantly about how people have been fleeced from > Internet troubles -- either stolen identity, "phishing sites", > or fraudulent sites. Don't count of the authorities to go > after anyone unless it's a very major deal. (Let me know > IF any of the principals in the Norvergence collapse are > called to task -- under oath -- to account in detail for that. > I am not holding my breath.) At present, there is no > deterrent. > I am savvy enough that I don't open email from any source > I don't know, and I never click on attachments. That has > protected me, but in doing so I have deleted many legitimate > emails that I merely didn't recognize. Many other users have > been badly burned -- whole companies shut down -- because of > malicious sabotage sent through email. > Are you telling me this is a good system -- where people have > to go sorts of trouble to protect themselves and delete > legitimate items? If you use "good quality" software, for reading mail -- as opposed to the cr*p that Microsoft as foisted off on the world, most of those "problems" simply disappear. As for the 'getting fleeced' issue, there is *NOTHING*NEW* about that. "Ponzi schemes" have been around (by _that_ name) since the 1920s. The 'Spanish prisoner' con goes back even further. > When Pat T. brought up these problems, I noticed that almost all > responses were for things _Pat_ should do. In other words, he has to > make considerable effort to protect himself from malicious efforts > from others. > Why isn't more being done to stop the malicious work at the source? HOW? The -bad guy- *owns* the "source". He has -zero- interest in "stopping" his own activities. Shall we impose 'licensing' on every computer that gets connected to the internet? Including a requirement that the operating system and all applications be secure and un-exploitable? (Maybe that's not a bad idea -- it would get rid of *all* those d*mn virus-infected (and potentially infected) MS-Windows boxes. But, how many readers of Telecom Digest or the newsgroup would be left _that_ was done? ) > Why is it that most people just wring their hands and say "nothing can > be done". Because it is, quite simply, a _fact_. There will *always* be 'bad guys' out there. And, as long as they can control the 'sending' system, there is, bluntly, no way to force them to play by the rules. Want to require certain kinds of headers in e-mail? The bad guy sender can _forge_ those headers, just as easily as the good guy can put the right info in them. When _everybody_ is their own publisher/source, > If we can put a man on the moon using 1950 based computer technology, > we can make the Internet safe. Bullshit. Sorry, but its a fact, nonetheless.. We can't even make the _streets_ safe, and we've been trying to do that for what, 80+ year. something like 50,000+ people/year are killed in auto accidents in the U.S. alone. >> Not to mention that there is _nothing_ that ICANN can actually _do_ >> that would affect matters. They can't revoke the IP addresses MCI >> uses, those addresses were issued by ICANN to ARIN. > So de-issue them. "So sorry. *You* have been kicked off the Internet. Your addresses are in an address-block assigned to ARIN that has been reclaimed by ICANN, because some other user in that block misbehaved." Why do I think that that concept is doomed to failure in the real world. Not to mention that, _by_charter_, ICANN and the RIRs, e.g. ARIN, are _voluntary-participation_ *technical* coordination agencies only. Nobody *has* to go to a RIR to get IP addresses. As long as 'whomever' you buy connectivity from will "route" packets to those addresses to you, it doesn't matter _what_ the RIRs, etc. say. The only "good news" is that the "rest of the internet' _does_, in general, limit how _they_ will route traffic to the address-spaces that ICANN and the RIRs _have_ "authorized". >> They can't revoke the domain-name(s) MCI uses, those names are part >> of properly-executed _contracts_ between MCI and the domain registry >> operator. > Why do the contracts allow malicious behavior? Why can't > these contracts explicitly prohibit -- with penalties -- malicious > behavior? Who writes these contracts? Because, for starters, there is no 'universal agreement' on what constitutes "malicious behavior". There are multiple layers of contracts involved. ICANN, or some other TLD "issuing authority", enters into contracts with "approved registrars". Those registrars, subsequently, enter into contracts with "registrants" of a domain name. The 'issuer-registrar' contract specifies certain "minimum requirements" that the registrar-registrant contract must contain. The 'issuer' is *not* a party to the registrar-registrant contract, and, thus, _cannot_ act directly against the registrant -- they have 'licensed' the registrar to do certain things, and as a result of that licensing the 'issuer' *is* _legally_bound_ to certain performance, by the actions of the (licensed) registrar. Registrars *are* free to impose 'more restrictive' terms than those 'minimum requirements' in *their* contract with the registrant. There _are_ at least two 'significant' registrars who *do* include terms in their registrar-registrant contract that forbids using the registered domain-name for certain kinds of "abusive" actions -- notably sending junk e-mail. *AND*, they actually enforce those added terms, although the quality of the enforcement is somewhat spotty at times. There's a "real world" difficulty with this, however. When there is "more than one" registrar (as _is_ the case, today) then anybody who _does_ write more restrictive terms into their contract is at a "competitive disadvantage" to those who have only the 'required minimums' in _their_ contract. <rhetorical> If you're a "bad guy", _which_ kind of a registrar are you going to choose? </rhetorical> AND, obviously, the "quality" of the totality is only as high as the standards of the _lowest_quality_ operator. As to "who writes these contracts?", well, the registrar-registrant contracts are written by the registrars. The 'issuing authority' generally provides a "sample" registrar-registrant contract -- one that satisfies the "minimum requirements' of the issuer-registrar contract. *MANY* registrars adopt that sample boilerplate *without* making any changes/additions. >> And the operator's contract (with ICANN, or the appropriate >> 'national' authorizing authority) requires _them_ (the registry >> operator) to publish *all* properly contracted domains. > Again -- change the contracts! The word for that is "impossible". The existing contracts are *self-renewing* _at_the_same_terms_ (although in the case of one TLD, with an escalating fee schedule), as long as both parties fulfil their required acts. This is _expressly_ stated in the contracts. Changing such a contract requires either: a material breach of the *existing* contract by one party, allowing the other to exit it, *or* the _agreement_ of both parties to the changes. Are you really so naive as to think that the bad guys *will* "agree" to a contract change -- which provides *no* benefit to _them_ -- and that would allow the opposite party to harm them (the bad guy) at will. I take that back, 'naive' is inappropriate here. "What color is the sky on _your_ planet?" is more accurate. >> Those are the *only* aspects of the Internet that fall under ICANN's >> 'area of responsibility'. > > Sounds like there's a lot that could be done. If you ignore the realities of contract law, the difficulties of cross-border enforcement, and some other basic facts of life, >> Because: (a) there is *NO*ONE* 'in authority'. The net runs by >> anarchy. > Did it ever occur to anyone that this 'anarchy' is a very costly and > inefficient policy? How much does malicious efforts and protections > against that cost companies? How much traffic is flooding the system, > requiring increased servers and lines to accomodate malicious traffic? Hell yes, it's occurred to people. _Life_ is dangerous. "Mortality rate: 100%" Nobody _requires_ you to use the Internet. Yeah, it'd be "nice" if the various defenses were not necessary. But, in the 'real world' they _are_. Just like locks on your doors. Using the Internet is a _voluntary_ thing, but you do have to "take it as it is". If it's "too much trouble", then the decision is simple -- *don't* use it. There _are_ people/businesses who have made that decision. >> (c) last I knew, MCI had something like a _40%_ share of >> the U.S. Internet market. It simply isn't practical for >> any 'significant' player to write off that big a chunk of >> the potential customer base. > MCI, being part of a bankrupt empire (resulting from IIRC corrupt > accounting practices) has little sympathy from me. Perhaps it'd > better for everyone to dump MCI altogether. A fair number of those who can _afford_ to do so, *have* done so. For many, it is simply =not= a viable option. Like it or not, commercial business operations pay for most of the cost of of operating the Internet. A commercial business does not have the "luxury" of a blanket write-off of 40% of their potential customers. If they attempt it, they *will* lose that business to their competition who does not do it. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Now Lisa, do you understand the > politics of spam, and why it is such a problem? It amazes me that > this net could be (like at present) 85-90 percent spam garbage, most > of which comes via one source -- MCI -- Better check your facts. Comparatively little spam actually _comes_from_ MCI address-space. MCI is actually fairly good about stomping actual spam origination. What they _are_ excoriated for -- and *DESERVEDLY*SO* -- is continuing to provide *other* services -- be it web-server, _incoming_ mail, etc. -- to parties which are well-known for spamming. It's "the abuse didn't come _through_ *our* network, so we don't care" mind-set. For what it's worth: I just ran some statistics from my logs -- of the last 2137 unsuccessful delivery attempts, a whopping _41_ were from anywhere in MCI address-space. (BTW, more than 2/3 of look to be from "zombie" PCs; also more than half had forged AOL/YAHOO/HOTMAIL "from" addresses, making detection/rejection, 'trivial'). I get 80% of that number of messages from *ONE* ISP in Germany. I get almost 85% of that number of message that come directly from Nigeria. I get more messages than that from zombie PC's in Brazil. I get more messages than that from mainland china -- mostly in English, so I presume they're "U.S. based" spammers with off-shore servers. I get more than that number of messages from "above.net" address-space. I get nearly twice that number were from Verizon address-space. I get about twice that MCI number from 'LEVEL3" address-space. I get more than twice that many from Verio address-space I get more than five times that number were from AT&T address-space. I get more than _twelve_times_ that number were from a _single_ spammer getting connectivity from xo.com (He sends from his own server, always the the same machine, registered in his own name, so it 's *really* easy to block the "property.com" domain. One of these days, I am, however, going to file a lawsuit against him, for repeated attempted theft of services.) This isn't to say that blocking all of MCI is a bad idea if it fits your political agenda, just _don't_ expect it to make any significant near-term difference in the amount of spam in your inbox. [[.. munch ..]] > The contracts you suggest changing (I agree!) only got into place as > they are when netters rolled over when ICANN demanded it. A tragic > mistake is that no one seized root long ago and forced the issue. Some people have tried such things. There have been attempts at setting up "alternative" root nameservers. with other (non-ICANN recognized) top-level domains. Of course, for anybody to be able to _reach_ one of those alternate domains, they have to use a nameserver "resolver" that kicks the query 'upstairs' to that 'alternative root' _instead_ of the standard one. This means that -- for the 'alternative domains' to be universally accessible, *everybody* has to reconfigure their nameserver away from the default configuration. For some strange reason, *every* such attempt over the last 10+ years has fizzled into oblivion. One could say that "the masses" _have_ made their wishes known on the subject. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So Lisa, note how Robert is going to continue to fight against so many folks on the net who are detirmined to get rid of spam. No matter how far afield, how far off of first base he is, he is going to continue to respond as you (and I, and all the other readers) saw today. He talks about the contracts all of us who hold domain names had to sign, as though they were 'voluntary' (what a sad laugh) and as though it is impossible for ICANN (which is in fact the overall controller around here) to write new contracts since Robert does not understand what the term 'malicious' means in everyday language that everyone else with a lick of sense understands. And he insists that it is impossible for ICANN to build into new contracts such simple, humble concepts as 'no phishing, no spamming, no falsification of network addresses' because the contracts out there now are renewable in perpetuity, or until the savior comes again, whichever happens first. So, Robert would have us believe that ICANN (I use them in a generic sense) can't do anything because the existing contracts are written in stone, renewable forever, and anyway, Robert knows that there is no reasonable definition of 'malicious' in the context of our net. And although as I understand the law, it is generally there to provide for the weakest members of our society, Robert says if our brains are not as smart as his (I mean, can't any _real_ man configure his mail server to eliminate viri and spam?) then our alternative is to shut the computer down. I imagine he would love it if we did. So Lisa Hancock, I guess Robert has really explained quite well where we stand. Don't look for any laws or contracts to protect regular users, or anything like that, since Robert has explained that is all quite impossible. And above all, do not pick on poor little MCI, since Robert (who encourages me to check the facts) has explained that MCI does quite well in stopping spam which originates in their house, but as Robert explains it they don't do very well on spam throughput from other sources, as if there was some real difference between the two, other than the fact that Robert says there is. And before Robert starts muddying the water once again patiently explaining to us the differences in job responsibilities between the various technical agencies administering things here on the net, bear in mind he will quite likely explain to us once again that it is all one big anarchy, which by definition has no 'agencies' -- technical or otherwise -- in charge of anything. All I know is, I should receive hazardous duty pay for dealing with all this shit day after day. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam Date: 20 Apr 2005 09:33:25 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) In article <telecom24.172.9@telecom-digest.org>, > Robert Bonomi wrote: >> Nope. it's because it is, quite simply, *NOT* ICANN's job to do so. >> Of the various organizations (ICANN, IAB, IETF, etc.) that are the >> 'authority' for specific functionalities of the greater Internet, >> _none_ of them have any authority with regard to the 'content' of >> packets. > Well then, who IS responsible to do the job? If no such job > exists, why isn't one created? Individual ISPs are responsible. The notion here is that we're all supposed to be a community. If an ISP is doing something you don't like, you don't have to peer with them or accept their traffic. If they are doing something nobody likes, nobody has to peer with them or accept their traffic. For years this worked very well. But now large amounts of the main backbone are run by a small number of companies who don't really care about the net or about anything other than short-term profits. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you very much, Scott. Your last paragraph said it well. That's why I have requested before and will request again of John Levine do not peer me with MCI or anyone else on the Spamhaus list. Send them away. And 'main backbone, small number of companies who do not care about anything other than short term profits'. That is the reason I refer to Vint Cerf as a traitor. He knew damn good and well what he was doing when he sold the rest of us down the river. PAT] ------------------------------ From: news01@jmatt.net Subject: Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam Date: 20 Apr 2005 06:33:48 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Robert Bonomi wrote: > Thus, there are three possible scenarios:. > 1) The mail came to my _server_ from a legitimate, full-blown, > mail-server that knows the 'true identity' of the sender, > regardless of what the "from" line says. > 2) The mail cam to my > server from dedicated spam-sending software that *doesn't* do > _anything_ with rejection notices. > 3) The message came to my server from a legitimate, full-blown, > mail-server that does *not* know the identity of the sender. Robert ... thanks for that explanation! I'm a big fan of RBL blacklisting at the server, instead of filtering after delivery, for a number of reasons. This is one more reason I hadn't thought about: a better opportunity for a reasonable decision about whether to notify the (alleged) "sender" of the spam. I used to rant against "silent" blocking. I thought ALL email should be either delivered or returned to the sender, or at least an attempt should be made to return it. I thought it was very bad that legitimate email could be silently tossed with neither the sender or the recipient being notified. If it was really spam, the bounce would probably go nowhere, but if it was good email, at least the sender would know he needed to find another way to contact the recipient. Of course, as others have pointed out, this is a real problem now that spammers are forging valid return addresses. If the mail is filtered after delivery, the filter process can either throw it away or return it to an address which may be a real person who is not the source of the spam and doesn't need to be swamped with bounces from spam that he didn't send. As Robert points out, if the delivery attempt is immediately rejected by the receiving server, it's up to the sending server to decide what to do about notification. In the case of legitimate mail, the sending server should be able to deliver a legitimate notification to the real sender. If it's spam, the sending server is probably not going to deliver a rejection notice to anybody, unless it's an open relay, and I think those are getting scarce. It seems that most spam these days is being blasted out by special-purpose spamming software, often running on hijacked broadband customers' machines, and those machines aren't likely to generate rejection notices. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I still suggest returning undelivered email 'to the sender'. If some innocent person gets a jillion pieces of mail because *someone else forged his email address* then maybe that person will get angry enough to join the effort to try and clean up the net. Read my autoack sometime, it says if you sent the email, then thank you for writing; _if you did not send the email_ then welcome to the club the rest of us belong to. (or words to that effect.) PAT] ------------------------------ From: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) Subject: Re: Getting Serious About the War on Spam Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 15:02:41 -0000 Organization: Inline Software Creations hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: >> 'authority' for specific functionalities of the greater Internet, >> _none_ of them have any authority with regard to the 'content' of >> packets. > Well then, who IS responsible to do the job? If no such job > exists, why isn't one created? A) Why would anyone living in a free country want controls on what people can say? B) Do you really misunderstand the internet so badly that you think that there's any place you COULD create controls? C) Who says what's allowable or not? I vote for NOBODY. The internet doesn't exist - it's just a bunch of public ways connecting private networks. No website runs 'on the internet' - it's a peephole into private property that you get to look into. If you don't like what's going on inside, don't peek. * * PV something like badgers--something like lizards--and something like corkscrews. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh, sure as hell, Paul! And every public highway in the world has lots of private driveways attached to it, but there are still rules to follow in order to be on the highway. All, that is, except the internet, where Robert will tell you it is an 'anarchy' (when he is not patiently explaining to Lisa and whoever else will listen to his rot) the jobs that do not belong to the various agencies involved). Why didn't you instead claim that Interstate 70 does not exist; its just a bunch of little towns and small highways running through Kansas, and how we can turn our head aside if we do not want to look? Let me ask you this: In 1905, when automobiles were first beginning to show up in mass numbers (on the non-highways which connected the little towns and roads of America) were you also opposed to speed limits, license plates -- indeed driver's licenses -- and rules which pertain to hit and run, etc. A lot of people were, you know, seriously. More than one person in those early days of the automobile said the very idea of requiring license plates (so others could identify your machine) and driver's licenses (so that society assumed you were qualified to operate your machine) and rules about 'malicious' behavior (when operating your machine); were you as opposed to those as you seem to be now where attempts to deal with spam are concerned? PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: New Technology Poses 911 Peril VOIP Not Part of Emergency Date: 20 Apr 2005 08:51:14 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Jack Decker wrote: > My commentary follows the excerpts ... > http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-12/1113646231312020.xml > "If it wasn't the silliest thing, but the hang-up was I couldn't give > them an exact address, and he was in trouble," said Lawrence, who > ultimately had to run across Michigan Avenue to the Ypsilanti Fire > Department before help arrived. Note that the problem appears to be not knowing one's location rather than not being able to reach the 911 center. The caller did get through -- there was a connection. What didn't follow was an address -- but is that even offered in that area? The capability to transmit the caller's location to a 911 center and 911 service altogether is relatively new. It wasn't that long ago you had to provide your address, and not long ago you had to know a specific 7 digit number for your local police/fire/ambulance service. > I will just point out that if a life is ever lost because someone > cannot reach 911 ... One of the reasons enhanced 911 was developed was that people in the suburbs didn't know where there were. Historically, one dialed 0-operator and asked for help. But local operator service centers have been consolidated and may be many miles away and the operator won't know the area. Telephone exchanges overlap municipal boundaries. Also, 911 centers had their own problems. > Please understand what I am saying here -- if an ILEC is making access > to the 911 system difficult for VoIP providers because they think it > gives them a competitive edge, they are creating a condition where > someone might die, solely to enhance their bottom line. Actually, the ILEC isn't "creating" anything. It's the VOIP that is offering something new and different -- marketing as low cost -- and thus their responsibility to get properly connected. My county charges a $1/month 911 tax as part of the phone bill. Will a VOIP provider serving me also charge that fee? I doubt it because they're exempt from regulation. Seems to me VOIP wants a free ride -- no fee but full service. That's wrong. The issue of such fees "being wrong" is not relevant here. The fees exist and everyone has an obligation to pay them. > ... and are hoping for some type of FCC > action that will establish a nationwide standard ... That sounds like [gasp!] telephone regulation to me. We don't want regulation, do we? > I again remind you that the foundation for 911 was built while > the ILEC's were MONOPOLY providers that enjoyed government-protected > profit margins I don't believe that is historically accurate. At the time of divesture and allowance of competition, much of the country did NOT have any 911 service. What service there was did not have the sophisticated address transmission feature. By the time E-911 came along, it was a competitive marketplace with the appropriate foundations. Further, I understand that competing wireline local phone companies don't have any problem with 911 service. It's only VOIP because it doesn't use the telephone network. I suspect if VOIP had to establish a physical presence in each central office, like the competing wireline companies did, it would have full 911 service without any hassles. But that would be a tremendous expense and raise the price -- and ruin the whole low-cost attractiveness of VOIP. Again we see wanting full service but not wanting to pay for it. As to "govt protected profit margins", that's not true. If it was, whenever there was a telephone worker strike the company would merely give in to union's demands, but they didn't. Secondly, other regulated monopolies like railroads or telegraph companies lost big money year after year without sympathy from their regulators. If a phone company had a bad year, it had no guarantee it'd be able to make that up the following year, as the telegraph carriers found out. The telephone companies were and are forced to provide many unprofitable services where they lose big money -- obligations other carriers are free from. The old Bell System disappeared 20 years ago and can't be used an excuse anymore. Remember too the old Bell System was strictly limited in what services and products it could offer-- Bell wasn't allowed to offer cable TV, for instance. Your statement should have read "government _limited_ profit margins". > So now the 911 centers are stuck with technology that only works > really well with the existing wireline network, and yet nobody in the > press seems to want to blame the real culprits, which are the ILEC's > that set up such technologically-mediocre systems, and their > co-conspirators in local governments who saw an opportunity to bypass > the voters in the decision making process. Who says the E911 are "technologically mediocre"? You came along with something new and you want other people to pick up the cost of using your product so your product will be cheap. > No, it's much easier to lay all the blame on the VoIP companies, > which have only been in business for less than a couple of years (in > most cases) and who had no say at all into how the existing 911 > system was designed. You're contradicting yourself. You admit VOIP is something new, yet you expect the centers to redesign themselves--at their expense--to accomodate you when you're late. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Here in Independence, where we are a > little more backward in our telecom, it seems, the city has a phone > in the telecom area which is specifically designated for the job of > 'emergency, but not 911 equipped calls'. It is not some 'private line > in a back office somewhere' as seems to be the case in Ypsilanti or > Brooklyn, NY. The phone terminates in a place where experienced > professionals can deal with the calls, even though said calls do not > come through the equipment looking like 'regular' 911 calls. VOIP > carriers _have to take the word of the various agencies_ that a call > is being terminated where it can be best handled. Should the VOIP > carriers have to personally audit each community to assure this? Yes, the VOIP carriers should personally audit the service everywhere. That's part of the basic obligation of providing telephone service. Mr. Decker made a big point of the life-criticial aspect of 911. VOIP is the service provider to the customer, as such, they have the obligation to make sure they can connect to someone else as one would expect. Why should the subscriber have to do it? Almost all subscribers would have no idea how and where to check. If I buy a washing machine from a major dept store, they will deliver it, hook it up, and take it back with a full refund or replace it if there's any problem. If I buy it from a discount house I'll have to get it home and hook it up myself, if there's a problem I'm "SOL", but I've saved $100. Each person makes their own decision as to what's best for them to buy. It seems here that VOIP is the discount store, but wants to use -- free of charge -- the dept store's delivery and installation crews because "the dept store was always there and built up a trade". You can't have it both ways. When you go to the discount store you get discount service, pure and simple. VOIP's big selling point is low price--partly from freedom from regulated prices, partly from not having the overhead other companies have. That overhead appears to include the proper connectivity to E911 services (among other problems.) Please don't tell me my 911 tax on my phone bill shouldn't be there. It IS there and until it goes away, you have no argument. I don't think it's fair that people like me have to pay this tax while VOIP comes in, without paying such taxes, and demands a free ride. As far as VOIP goes, be honest with your customers and tell them you're running a discount store. You gotta schlep home the washer yourself, hook it up yourself, and get it serviced yourself. For some people, that's a great deal. Years ago discount stores made no pretense of being anything else. 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