Status of dnsbl.radparker.com: NOT A BLACKLIST

For a time, SORBS was found to be inaccurately referring to “dnsbl.radparker.com” on the mail server configuration pages over on the SORBS blacklist website. This appears to have been done in retaliation for DNSBL.com publishing data on the effectiveness of the SORBS blacklist. (Both domains are owned by me.)

The real problem was for potential SORBS users – if they followed the instructions verbatim, they ended up rejecting 100% of your inbound mail. Sadly, I've seen traffic, which implies that this has happened to some degree.

If you're going to use the SORBS blacklist, be very careful to make sure you've implemented it correctly. Both this, and SORBS' claim that dnsbl.sorbs.net is an unsafe zone to use, suggest that the SORBS' list may not be a wise starting point for those looking to simply, safely block spam.

More information on SORBS can be found here.

There has never been a blacklist with a zone name of dnsbl.radparker.com -- and if you type that into the DNSBL section of your mail server config, you will break your inability to receive inbound mail.

Changes at UCEPROTECT

Whatever your opinion of UCEPROTECT, hold on to your hat, as things are apparently about to change.

This posting to the USENET newsgroup news.admin.net-abuse.email indicates that Johann Steigenberger is no longer involved with UCEPROTECT. Going forward, Claus v. Wolfhausen has indicated that he is charge of the lists.

At first there was some concern that this post wasn’t true, that it was a deception. I’ve spoken to Claus via email, and that, along with other information, leads me to believe that this is in fact true and correct. (I’ve met neither individual in person, so I suppose this could be a giant hoax, but I’ve got no reason to believe so at this time.)

Claus indicates that UCEPROTECT will no longer list for backscatter and sender verification callouts. These two listing criteria were controversial and I am told that they resulted in numerous complaints of false positives relating to UCEPROTECT. These data relating to listings based on these criteria are being repurposed into a new blacklist at www.backscatterer.org.

He went on to say due to his intervention, UCEPROTECT has ceased publishing the controversial “anonymous” APEWS blacklist data, and that he is unsure if UCEPROTECT will again publish the APEWS data in the future.

APEWS, an “anonymous” list widely thought to be created as a replacement for the defunct SPEWS, has been regularly criticized by respected anti-spam advocates such as Steve Linford of Spamhaus and Suresh Ramasubramanian of ISP Outblaze. Controversy includes listing policies considered to be broad and inaccurate, and contact/removal policies perceived as cruel to listees (by deflecting all contact away from the blacklist and toward public discussion forums where listees are often subject to abuse from unrelated parties).

I have yet to write and post reviews of UCEPROTECT or APEWS for dnsbl.com. Look for this in the future.