On Fri, 11 Dec 1998 13:40:07 EST, you said:
> Last Saturday, the Warsaw server (plearn.edu.pl) apparently sent a SPAM
> message with the result that this address has been put on the "Realtime
> Black List " It has the effect that the PLEARN site is not pingable.

That's a crock.  Blame the nice people at Teleglobe.net.

> Has anyone heard of this - is it an official function or is this some kind
> of email crime or mischief?

Semi-official function, being misused.

> You can appreciate that there is grave concern at the moment through the
> gruesome murders of the British telecommunications engineers who were trying
> to restore telecommunications for Chechnya.
>
> I don't know if the RBL is a genuine system function or something else.

The *real* RBL is merely a list of sites that have spam problems.
The *INTENT* is that sites can *on their own* refuse to accept mail
from said sites.  Sites that do not use the RBL are able to communicate
with the site.

However, I think it's a gross abuse to shut off ALL IP connectivity
to such a site, which is what the people at teleglobe.net are doing.

> If I check tracert 148.81.18.1  a message comes up pointing to the RBL
> website - and tracking this ipnumeric address leads to the offending
> message.
>
> I complained to the "volunteers" who seem to run this operation who
> responded that this address will remain blocked until the security problem
> has been dealt with.

I suspect that the people at vix.com don't realize that a full IP
filter block is being used, and that they thought it was mail-blocking
only.

traceroute 148.81.18.1
 1  isb-7507-1.a1-0.3.cns.vt.edu (128.173.12.1)  10 ms  6 ms  4 ms
 2  isb-7507-2.a1-0.1.cns.vt.edu (128.173.100.8)  6 ms  3 ms  3 ms
 3  sprint-7507.a1-0.1.networkvirginia.net (192.70.138.193)  17 ms  9 ms  10 ms
 4  sl-gw1-dc-12-0-T3.sprintlink.net (144.228.77.225)  30 ms  28 ms  26 ms
 5  sl-bb1-dc-11-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.228.20.1)  137 ms  131 ms  134 ms
 6  sl-bb10-rly-0-3.sprintlink.net (144.232.7.129)  121 ms  135 ms  142 ms
 7  sl-bb11-pen-7-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.8.154)  131 ms  134 ms  131 ms
 8  sl-gw16-pen-0-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.5.94)  135 ms  134 ms  133 ms
 9  sl-teleglob-3-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.228.164.62)  129 ms  132 ms  137 ms
10  That.address.is.on.the.rbl.see.http.maps.vix.com (207.45.201.42)  135 ms  164 ms  169 ms
11  * * *

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                                Valdis Kletnieks
                                Computer Systems Senior Engineer
                                Virginia Tech