[at-l] AOL Blocking problems - some 'tech' stuff

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 07:30 AM 2/20/2004 -0500, Martin Fors wrote:
>This is a bit of information and hopefully you all will show some grace to
>AOL users in their problem.  BTW, Jack my friend, COMCAST has been proven to
>be the highest Spam processing ISP in the world.  Most Spammers use COMCAST
>as their ISP and spoof their sending from address:
>
>The problem could be that ATL-L's particular IP got onto dnsbl.us.sorbs
>blocking list.  AOL uses this, I believe, in their anti-Spam software.  This
>might have happened because either the ISP itself or someone else reported
>the IP as a Spammer.  Someone who does not like this list may have done it.
>They also could've used a netblock - which is confusing because that kind of
>block refers to a range of domains rather than the act of blocking an
>individual IP, and ATL-L's IP got accidentally gobbled up by it.  I don't
>know if that has been the case.  It is used to block dynamically-assigned
>IP's.  If you're interested DNSBL gives a long blurb about justifying what
>they do.  It's quite hard to get off their s--t list.
>
>http://www.dnsbl.us.sorbs.net
>
>rusty

According to that you may be listed as a result of someone else hijacking 
your computer to send spam (this can happen without your even knowing it) 
or even because you 'inherited' an IP address that someone else had used 
for sending SPAM (see <http://www.dnsbl.au.sorbs.net/SpamDBFAQ.html>. 
Whether you are the guilty party or not you have to pay a "fine" to get off 
their list. It appears to me that switching ISPs or moving your email to an 
Internet mail account is the only real solution.