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Is it worth going into the several broad groups of DNSBL?:
Why does this entry warn that anyone who deletes one of the external links will be banned from Wikipedia for life? I tried the first 2 links and neither worked. I jumped in to edit and remove them and saw that threat. Seems very un-Wikipedia-ish. If the comment was added inappropriately, why was it left in by the senior Wikipeia editors? So, I'm leaving those links there, even though they don't work. Makes me distrust Wikipedia, though. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.19.184.200 (talk) 16:51, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
This class of DNSBL usually has a very objective policy about what can be listed, and they usually also run automatically or with very little human input. Examples of these lists: CBL, NJABL proxy, SORBS proxy, OPM, DSBL.
In reality, most of these just try to list anything which is domestic, dynamic, and not supposed to host mail servers. A very high proportion of spam comes directly from domestic broadband and dialup accounts, often via insecure proxies and other malware running without the users' consent. Using this type of DNSBL to reject email that comes directly from such machines is popular and effective, but can be problematic since there are many people who do operate their own mail servers and send legitimate email in this fashion. Examples of these lists: NJABL DUL, SORBS DUL, PDL
These lists can be useful for scoring, or for small-scale, specialist or personal use. For example, if you were running your own mail server and were not expecting to receive any email from China, you might find it worthwile to make use of china.blackholes.us, a DNSBL that attempts to document all IP ranges delegated to networks in China. The blackholes.us site contains many other examples of geographic and ISP lists.
The types of DNSBL mentioned above rely on a minimum of human input (or in some cases, no human input at all), but some of the most popular DNSBLs are based upon human-generated reports of spamming.
These are traditionally the most controversial types of DNSBL, because humans make mistakes. The fact that there is no widely-accepted definition of spam within the Internet and email marketing industries does not help -- spammers continue to redefine spamming as "that which we do not do", and many email recipients will mark as spam anything which they do not want, whether it is or not.
Some opinion-based DNSBLs attempt to list what they believe to be sources of spam, others attempt to document the activites and current hosts of spam gangs, still others list ISPs who they believe knowingly host spammers. Examples of this type include SpamCop, Spamhaus, SPEWS
There are many recommended technical practices for operating an Internet presence, especially when the presence in question is a large organisation, ISP, or even an entire country's Internet infrastructure. Very few of these recommendations are solid prerequisites for connectivity, so it is possible to communicate with the rest of the Internet even while going against these accepted BCPs.
Examples of widely-accepted Internet BCPs:
Although it is usually not possible to directly link non-adherance to BCPs with increased spam or other abuse, some people deem the matter important enough to create and use DNSBLs that list networks that do not conform. Because of the lack of an obvious link between abuse of the Internet and strict adherence to BCP, use of this category of DNSBL is often seen as more controversial and political. They can also be surprisingly far-reaching; one such popular DNSBL of this type lists the entire of the .uk TLD for not consistently displaying domain name contact addresses in its whois. Perhaps the best known set of DNSBLs of this type are supplied by RFC Ignorant - "rfc-ignorant.org is the clearinghouse for sites who think that the rules of the internet don't apply to them."
There are many DNSBLs which are created whimsically, and serve no useful administrative purpose. Some purport to exist in order to re-educate people who will configure any DNSBL they find, the idea being that after configuring use of such a DNSBL, a large portion of their email will be rejected based on some arbitrary process, and the user will learn to be more careful in future. GRIP is an example of one such DNSBL - it returns random results.
AndySmith 09:38, Mar 6, 2004 (UTC)
I feel that the Criticisms section of this article is a bit weak, and doesn't adequately address the potential harm to average e-mail users.
I've found that many ISPs have taken to using DNSBLs to discard incoming e-mails. I first ran into this when I found myself getting put into suspended status in various yahoo groups. On investigating the bounce message sent by yahoo when they again managed to get through to me I found that messages were getting rejected because random yahoo mail servers were on the spamcop.net list. Ironically, another problem this caused was an inability to sign up for various sourceforge mailing lists because their servers were also on the list. The confirmation e-mails, which are sent as an anti-spam measure!, were being blocked.
The spamcop list uses arbitrary reports of spam in a time-weighted scheme to place servers on the list. It takes very little to put a server on the list at least temporarily. In the case of mailing lists, users who don't know how to unsubscribe might resort to reporting legitimate mail from the list as spam in desperation.
Spamcop warns that they are very aggressive and recommend against using the list to block e-mails but rather to either quarrantine them or to use the existence of a server on the list as evidence in a spam filtering scheme such as Spamassassin rules[1]
Despite these warnings, some ISPs are quite happy to block e-mail in the mistaken belief that they are ONLY blocking spam, the problem is that if users don't know that legitimate e-mail isn't reaching them they aren't going to complain unless they find out by other means. My ISP also told me that they saw a reduction on their server load when then instituted the policy, so they were loathe to listen to the complaint that they were blocking valid e-mails.
Another irony is that I use my own anti-spam measures on my local machine, including spamassassin filtering, and a large number of actual spam e-mail was getting by the ISPs measures.
As much as I hate spam, I hate the collateral damage of losing valid e-mails even more. As a result I've gone to establishing my own domain, and my own e-mail server which does a better job of spam filtering than my ISP, while avoiding the problems of using DNSBLs for blocking. --Rick 15:58, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
1) Why is there absolutely no mention of the violation of freedom of speech by blacklists that indisciminately blacklist a whole IP range? If the IP range of an ISP gets blocked because one single user sends a lot of spam why is there no mention of that ALL other customers of that ISP become victims of wronfully getting blacklisted.
2) Why is there no mention of that the supporters of blacklists selfrighteously claim that they are working for the common good while completely ignoring the 'collateral damage' they cause on honest people who have their emails blocked?
3) Why is there no mention of that the biggest problem with a majority of blacklists is that the sender is NEVER informed that his/her mail has been nuked? Over the past 10 years I know of two job applications that never reached their destination because of the #$@^$#%# blacklists and, recently, as a small business owner I have had one case where I could not follow up on a potential client because the #$@^$#%# blaclists prevented me from communicating with him. I had to print my mail and send it by telefax, but I lost the client because the #$@^$#%# made me look unprofessional!
4) Why is there no mention of that #$@^$#%# blacklist supporters are arrogantly suggesting me and other victims that I can tell my ISP to implement X or Y software feature on their server or change ISP? What about mentioning that I, as a single ADSL subscriber, cannot force my ISP to do what the #$@^$#%# bliclist supporters suggest or what about my right to choose to subscribe to the ISP that has the best offer for me?
These objections are not neutral as my rights have been violated while I am powerless to do anything about it (as a principle matter I refuse to let a few #$@^$#%# bastards prescribe how I should live my life). It is not Wikipedia's fault that the #$@^$#%# blaclist bastards have the upper hand and can bully individuals with their arrogant stupidity, which is why I add my comments to the discussion here rather than editing the Wikipedia page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.209.214.189 (talk) 23:51, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
The folowing paragraph does not represent a neutral point of view:
"The proprietary term RBL is sometimes erroneously used in place of the generic DNSBL. RBL is a service mark of MAPS LLC. Some pieces of mail software have configuration parameters for the use of "RBLs" or "RBL domains", used to set the DNSBLs that the software should use. This may be trademark dilution."
The author is apparently expressing his own non-NPOV opinion that "RBL" is a service mark with legal validity and that the use of the abbreviation "RBL" may cause trade mark dilution. An alternative non-NPOV opinion would be that RBL is just an abbreviation of a descriptive English phrase that nobody can legally monopolize. See cases holding that "Lite beer" and "IM" and "Instant Message" could not get trade mark protection.
(added) Furthermore, trade mark dilution applies only to FAMOUS names. These would be names like Wendy's, Coca Cola, and Xerox -- names familiar to almost anybody. It is mere hubris to suggest that RBL is in the same class.
Either both non-NPOsV should be included or (preferably) neither.
Rahul
The following paragraph does not represent a neutral point of view:
"The most common mistake, which has led to a bad reputation of DNSBLs in general, was to use them as a single decision-factor on the MX-servers. Mistake because the receiving MTA hands the decision "to accept or reject the client" to a single 3rd party."
It would only be a mistake if such a decision were taken without understanding the implications. Many mail server operators make the decision in full knowledge of the results and hence it is not a mistake. It is a course of action that can be argued against, but at the end of the day the server owner makes the decisions, and not all such decisions are mistakes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.214.177.239 (talk) 18:37, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
There is nothing in the article telling why DNS is used instead of, say, HTTP. I suppose it's because DNS responses are cached by all DNS servers on the way. --Apoc2400 05:32, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
I recongize that for the last several years, there have been some people who have been pushing to redefine "DNSBL" to mean "DNS blocklist", or some other term that doesn't use "blacklist". I do not think that wikipedia is the appropriate place to try and push this point of view. Wikipedia is not supposed to be censored.
A quick check on google shows 48k hits for "DNS blacklist", 3k hits for "DNS blocklist", and 416 hits for "DNS blackhole list". The oldest reference to "DNS blacklist" on google groups dates from 1998, for "DNS blocklist" it is 2001, for "DNS blackhole list" there is a reference from 1999 but it appears to be referring more to MAPS's RBL and uses "DNS blacklist also".
I have yet to find an original definition or first use of DNSBL, but it is clear to me that wikipedia should primarily use "DNS blacklist". Wrs1864 05:36, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
In general, this article is poorly laid-out and has multiple style errors.
- Using phrases such as "Definition below" and "as mentioned below" are generally not required, as it is tacitly understood that further explanations will follow. Furthermore, by using such terms, the author is indicating that something is missing up to that point, which should have been clarified before the reader reached that phrase. Therefore, the explanation/description/acronym/whatever should have been given sooner, which would eliminate the need for such phrases. Also, since the reader should be reading from the top to the bottom, any phrases such as, "see above" are not necessary.
- The very first sentence is run-on, and should be modified, vis-a-vis punctuation and/or splitting the sentence. I would also argue that the phrase "by some people" is vague, if not sophomoric.
- Acronyms should be given near the top of the article as either "Acronym (definition)" or "Definition (acronym)" once, and not repeated throughout the article.
- The first line of "DNSBL operation" lists three items, but does not explain them or link them to any existing Wiki articles or other references. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Skaizun (talk • contribs) 13:51, 30 May 2008 (UTC)
As for "Definition below" and "as mentioned below", that is probably the result of using Indian English. Note that Indian English seldom says "following" and it seems common for Indian English to often say "below" even when other versions of English do not. Indian English also uses "which" more often than other words and phrases, it uses "different" when other versions of English say "various" and it says "in order to" when simpler words (usually just "to") are more common in other versions. Sam Tomato (talk) 00:12, 5 June 2016 (UTC)
The term "blacklist" is extremely common. The term "blackhole list" is rare. It does not sound right to me. It sounds like another term that someone came up with without really thinking about what they are saying. It is probably the result of someone's bad decision and the presence in Wikipedia is spreading that bad decision and that concerns me. Sam Tomato (talk) 23:49, 4 June 2016 (UTC)
J Kuola axel Faustin omolade (talk) 21:25, 13 August 2017 (UTC)
Kuola axel Faustin omolade
Kuola axel Faustin omolade (talk) 21:25, 13 August 2017 (UTC)
Kuola axel Faustin omolade (talk)
Kuola axel Faustin omolade (talk) 21:26, 13 August 2017 (UTC)
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