Subject: Re: pipex

From: Daniel Shimmin <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 12:40:30 +0100

> One thing that is common to them is the use of a Mailer called
> 'VTi' which AFAIK is the mailer used by Argonet users.

Correct (it was written by Tom Cooper IIRC).

> Pipex are Argonet's upstream provider if I'm not mistaken...

Also correct.  (Coincidence of the moment is that Pipex just
phoned me up about something entirely unrelated about ten seconds  
ago...)

(Actually, to be more precise Argo are a Pipex reseller - but they  
do have their own web server and other bits).

> One theory I had (which may be wrong) is that somebody is subbed
> to the list from Argonet, and has written a program to reap
> email addresses.

If they are, they're going to get stomped on in a big way.   
(Although it will take a little while to prod Argonet themselves  
into action).

> If they are, I suggest they stop now before
> I write to Argonet's abuse department.

Argo aren't clueful enough to have an abuse department - mail to  
[email-masked] will bounce (or at least it did last time I  
checked).

I've just spent a little while on the phone to Argo support in an  
attempt to inform them of the situation.  It wasn't an especially  
easy conversation - I normally expect "heads-up" warnings to be  
received with a bit more comprehension.  ("I don't understand what  
you mean; we can't do anything."  "Hmm. You don't have an  
acceptable use policy for e-mail, do you?"   "A what?").

The conclusion (after a bit of prodding) was that Argo /will/
act if one of its users is engaged in unreasonable activity;
and that if there is a problem you should forward the messages to  
[email-masked] (obviously you'll want to include all  
headers) so that they can look into it.

I'd recommend you (and everyone else who's received this stuff) do  
so as soon as possible.  (Although, not having received anything  
myself, I don't know how serious the problem is).

dgs
(An Argo subscriber in fact, but not in attitude...)

---

From: Russell King - ARM Linux Admin <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 21:16:22 +0100 (BST)

> myself, I don't know how serious the problem is).

Ok, I'll just send them the contents of my 'crap' mailbox, which
contains all these ACKs received so far...
   _____
  |_____| ------------------------------------------------- ---+---+-
  |   |        Russell King        [email-masked]        --- ---
  | | | |    http://www.arm.uk.linux.org/~rmk/home.html      /  /  |
  | +-+-+                                                     --- -+-
  /   |               THE developer of ARM Linux              |+| /|\
 /  | | |                                                     ---  |
    +-+-+ -------------------------------------------------  /\\\  |