EVONET

EVONET takes drastic action against spam. Spam causes inconvenience, annoyance, incursions on one's privacy and threatens the existence of many newsgroups.

More and more internet users receive uninvited e-mail. In newsgroups the situation is even worse. Some newsgroups totally consist of spam and become completely useless in consequence. Estimates show that 40% of the newsfeed comprises spam.

EVONET has taken action against the ever-increasing and annoying spam. The objective is to reduce drastically the incoming spam as well as outgoing spam send by EVONET-customers. Some measures are purely techical, others consist of severe action against EVONET-customers who are guilty of distributing spam. Closing the account immediately is not considered to be an exception.

What is spam?

Posting unsolicited and totally irrelevant messages in newsgroups as well as sending unrequested e-mail to an unkown recipient can be considered spam.

Spamming newsgroups means posting innumerable copies of the same message in a large number of newsgroups simultaneously. Spam via e-mail is sending unasked-for and irrelevant messages to a large number of e-mail addresses. Whether it is advertising or a call for world peace, spamming has nothing to do with contents but everything with volume.

E-mail spam causes most annoyance and is also the sort of spam that is hardest to eliminate. Some postmasters choose resolutely not to accept e-mail from notorious domain names. EVONET does not consider this to be an option because it deprives the customer of the respecful possibility of choice. Additionally, one can never know for sure that all the mail coming from this particular domain can be considered spam.

How to avoid spam?

The ideal solution would be a service offered by EVONET that provides a list of potential domain names for blocking. Each EVONET customer would be able to activate or deactivate the service. However, it is not easy to develop such a system for numerous users.

Below you can find a schematic summary of the technical and organisational measures EVONET has taken. Furthermore, in the various FAQ's you can find answers to many spam-related questions and an explanation of technical terms. In addition, if you really want to have detailed information, you can read how EVONET applies the NoCeM technique to combat spam on Usenet.

EVONET spam Policy

Spam in newsgroups

Incoming Outgoing

Technical measures:

NoCeM cancel messages
A system of authorised cancel
Express cancel feeds
By doing so, spam cancels often reach EVONET earlier than spam postings
News software (Diablo) cancels automatically on Breidbart Index
EVONET uses the Usenet Posting Summary in news.admin.net-abuse.usenet to detect Usenet spamming. EVONET customers who post with a high Breidbart Index receive a warning the first time, but are unconditionally denied access the second time.

E-mail spam

Incoming Outgoing Relay

Not yet a practical solution

EVONET will not hesitate to take spam-related complaints of its customers seriously and consequently take the necessary steps to call to account the provider that allows internet access to the spammer. Via EVONET it is impossible to send e-mail with non-existing domain names in the 'from' field header. Besides, complaints from the rest of the world regarding spam that originates from EVONET is taken very seriously. Here also, the EVONET customer receives a first warning, followed by a denial of access in case of non-compliance. In the past, smart spammers could use the EVONET mailservers to distribute spam, so-called relaying. At present, this is impossible. The disadvantage is that the EVONET customer who logs on via a different provider, is no longer able to send mail via the EVONET mailserver. It involves choosing the lesser of two evils.

All you need to know about spam:

The Net Abuse FAQ - All about Usenet spam
The Email Abuse FAQ
Fight spam on the Internet! - Lots of information and links
FAQ: Current Usenet spam thresholds and guidelines - Hoeveel is teveel?
Cancelmoose en NoCeM - "the greatest public servant the net has seen in quite some time."
Figuring out fake E-Mail & Posts - Detect the origins spam
Address Munging FAQ - not a must, but if you try it out, then do it sensibly
Tools and techniques for limiting spam
NoCeM Now !

Suggestions and remarks to: postmaster@evonet.be.

Spam-policy Netiquette >>