SPAM Control Features Change August 1
Submitted by W3QA on Tue, 07/15/2008 - 11:59.
IMPORTANT - ATTENTION ALL WINLINK 2000 USERS - IMPORTANT
(A similar message was sent to all WL2K users on June 25.)
Guarding users from the effects of internet SPAM is an important and daunting task for any normal internet email provider. For a specialized service like WL2K, it takes a different twist because of limited bandwidth for radio circuits and legal regulations on content over the amateur airwaves. Even our brick-wall whitelist with option to switch it off, is failing to limit the SPAM that infects our system. We are swamped with unwanted messages, which number from 60-100 to each legitimate incoming message. Our quest (your quest) to eliminate SPAM from our airwaves is not only important, it is required.
The WDT has tried numerous approaches to control it using the top software and commercial services available. Our "whitelist" has been the most effective, yet too many users do not use it properly and nothing has yet worked to eliminate the offensive (and illegal on-air) messages that leak through. In urgent and emergency situations, isolated WL2K users can not afford to have clogged message queues on slow radio connections.
Beginning August 1, 2008 all users with amateur callsigns will have the whitelist (accept list) activated permanently. Turning your whitelist off will no longer be optional. Also, whitelist reject notices will no longer be forwarded to WL2K users. The whitelist will function in all other respects as it has, with the exception of a "whitelist bypass word". You should tell your correspondents about this.
To be delivered, any message to a WL2K user from an Internet address must be from an address or domain name listed in the user's whitelist or else the sender must include the character sequence //WL2K in the subject line of the message. If our message processor finds //WL2K in the subject line, the message will be accepted and forwarded to all of the recipients of the message with amateur callsigns.
If the sender's address is not in the recipient's whitelist and //WL2K is not found in the subject line, the message will be rejected with a service message back to the sender referring to a WEB page with instructions (http://www.winlink.org/Help). So in any case, anyone who has a message bounce can learn how to send it to you without your having to educate them. Hopefully, this will thwart most SPAM robots. If necessary, we may change the "whitelist bypass word" from time to time.
There will be certain exceptions. Messages from the saildocs.com, sailmail.com, and mwxc.com domains will be accepted unconditionally except where a recepient specifically blocks the domain name in their whitelist.
Keep in mind that the whitelist does not affect WL2K user-to-user messages or user-to-internet recipient messages. It only affects messages to WL2K users from the internet.
--The Winlink Development Team
Usage Tips
Include the //WL2K tag in the subject line of your original message so that someone clicking "reply" or "reply all" will likely have the tag remain in the reply message's subject line.
Also, you can include instructions for replying in any message you are originating to a new correspondent, if there is a chance they will reply from an address different than the one you are sending to.
Try doing this in your Airmail address book:
--Add //WL2K to the subject line of all address book entries
--Add the following as a standing message after a few blank lines in the "Message Text" field:
"If you reply from a different email address to which this message is addressed, include the tag //WL2K in the subject line so it will be accepted by the SPAM filters of this radio email system."
--Lor W3QA
Whitelist and bypass syntax
Hi Lor. Ur suggestion seems for me to be a very good one.
Would it be possible to make it included in a whitelist also an arrl.net or nrrl.no with a fysical place to enter the server and/or the adress from which such a message is sendt. F.ex me at the time beeing using arrl.net and nrrl.no sendt from a gmail adress called fo35fo at gmail dot com which can be found at qsl.net.
Nrrl.no could be operated standalone, but has a little storing place, so using it as a mirror and store and operating everything in gmail after some "setups" is handy.
The way yahoo has arranged different read outs, it is possible to get a write out showing all intermiediate servers.
I am aware of the intence discussion on the wl2kemmcom reflector. There might be something I am not aware of at the time beeing, been away for some time.
And priority 1 is to avoid spam. If no other solution, so let it be.
73 de la7um Finn.