SCOUG-General Mailing List Archives
Return to [ 21 |
January |
2005 ]
Content Type: text/plain
I'm looking for a local ISP that provides reliable email.
Must have:
1. Offer dialup and broadband service.
2. Send and receive all emails and attachments. Attachments may only
be restricted by size.
Nice to have:
1. Local company.
2. Support personnel based in the USA.
Background:
I'm currently using a dialup account on DSLExtreme. Recently I
encountered a problem with BootAble and emailed the author,
Hayo Baan, a description of the problem. A couple of days later
I received an email from Hayo with an attached "WPI" file
containing corrected code. An attached "ZIP" file containing the
same code had been deleted by DSLExtreme and replaced by the
following:
>
>This is a message from the DSLExtreme Mailgate Protection Service
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>The original e-mail attachment "bootAble3_6_1.zip"
>is on the list of unacceptable attachments for this site and has been
>replaced by this warning message.
>
>Due to limitations placed on us by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers
>Act 2000, we were unable to keep a copy of the original attachment.
>At Fri Jan 7 01:38:45 2005 the virus scanner said:
> MailGate: Batch files are often malicious (bootAble.cmd)
>
>--
>Postmaster
According to technical support at DSLExtreme, all attachments with
"EXE", "BAT", "CMD" extensions are deleted in incoming and outgoing
messages. There are other forbidden extensions, but they are not
listed anywhere on the website and there is no list available to customers.
Furthermore, if a zip file contains a file with a forbidden extension,
the zip file is deleted.
Basically, this does NOT work for me. I could accept deletion of files
known to contain signatures of known viruses based on techniques
similar to those used by Norton, McAfee, etc. I could accept
the inclusion of a warning that the attachment might contain malicious
code. I could work with a system that moved problem emails to
a Quarantine area for later disposition by the customer (me).
Anyway, that is why I started looking for an alternative ISP.
What I have found so far:
1. Linkline. Technical support told me that their practices are the same
as DSLExtreme.
2. ISPWest. The severity of Spam, Virus, and attachment filters are
controllable by the customer. Problem files can be deleted or moved
to a Quarantine folder. If desired, the sender and recipient can be
notified that an email has been sent to Quarantine. I could work with
this approach. In practice, however, sending notices to sender and
recipient put too much stress on the server, so that function has been
disabled. Files in the Quarantine folder are deleted in less than 24
hours. Good in theory, but not workable at present.
3. Pavenet. Emails and attachments are scanned for viruses using
techniques similar to Norton or McAfee. Those with identified signatures
are deleted and the sender and recipient are notified. I could live with
this, however Pavenet does not offer broadband service.
4. Verizon. According to technical support, emails and attachments
are scanned for viruses using techniques similar to Norton or McAfee.
Some filtering is done based on "filename" and I was directed to a security
email address for a full explanation of the policy. I received an auto-
responder email from security a week ago and no follow up.
5. Earthlink. According to technical support, no virus scanning is done unless
it is turned on by the customer. Virus detection is done based on the identification
of signatures inside the file. No attachments are filtered based on file
extensions. If no local alternatives turn up, it looks like Earthlink will be the
next choice.
Any local alternatives?
----------------
Kevin L. Hill
Long Beach, CA
=====================================================
To unsubscribe to this list, send an email message
to "steward@scoug.com". In the body of the message,
put the command "unsubscribe scoug-general".
For problems, contact the list owner at
"rollin@scoug.com".
=====================================================
Return to [ 21 |
January |
2005 ]
The Southern California OS/2 User Group
P.O. Box 26904
Santa Ana, CA 92799-6904, USA
Copyright 2001 the Southern California OS/2 User Group. ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED.
SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group.
OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International
Business Machines Corporation.
All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.
| 
