wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr) (11/23/89)
I've seen references in this newsgroup to the practice of reporting *really* egregious breaches of net.ettiquette and/or state or federal law to the perpetrator's system administrator. Well, I'd like to report a bozo who posted a chain letter for a "get rich quick" pyramid scheme to rec.arts.sf-lovers. So, assuming the guy's net.ID is "joe_jerk@foo.bar.edu," how do I find out the name and address of the system admin at foo.bar.edu? I suppose I could take a potshot and send mail to "sysadmin@foo.bar.edu" and hope to get lucky, but aside from that what steps should I take? (Or should I just send Snail Mail off to the office of the Attorney General of the United States?)
eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) (11/23/89)
In article <1989Nov23.034343.4663@athena.mit.edu> wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr) writes: > So, assuming the >guy's net.ID is "joe_jerk@foo.bar.edu," how do I find out the name and >address of the system admin at foo.bar.edu? I suppose I could take a >potshot and send mail to "sysadmin@foo.bar.edu" and hope to get lucky, Answer #1: Look at the site's map entry (these are posted to the newsgroup comp.mail.maps); the #E line is the electronic mail address of the contact person. postmaster@the.site.name is always supposed to get to SOMEONE on Internet sites. If you see something from a uucp site that's not in the maps, then you DO have good reason to "hunt 'em down and kill 'em"--all uucp sites are supposed to be registered if their names are at all visible to the outside world. Answer #2: Unless you, yourself, personally have good reason to complain, don't bother! You're not the only one reading usenet, and the people who know how to handle net.abuse have probably already seen--and acted upon--the article before you do. Try talking to your own sysadmin FIRST if you're seriously contemplating "getting involved." -=EPS=-
bill@twwells.com (T. William Wells) (11/24/89)
In article <1989Nov23.034343.4663@athena.mit.edu> wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr) writes:
: I've seen references in this newsgroup to the practice of reporting
: *really* egregious breaches of net.ettiquette and/or state or federal
: law to the perpetrator's system administrator.
:
: Well, I'd like to report a bozo who posted a chain letter for a "get
: rich quick" pyramid scheme to rec.arts.sf-lovers. So, assuming the
: guy's net.ID is "joe_jerk@foo.bar.edu," how do I find out the name and
: address of the system admin at foo.bar.edu? I suppose I could take a
: potshot and send mail to "sysadmin@foo.bar.edu" and hope to get lucky,
: but aside from that what steps should I take? (Or should I just send
: Snail Mail off to the office of the Attorney General of the United
: States?)
If you have an address, postmaster@address will almost always
work. You can also try names like: usenet@address, news@address,
root@address, etc. For your example, try postmaster@foo.bar.edu.
BTW, that chain letter is going out on a number of newsgroups; I
guess I'll have to go through all of mine to cancel it.
I, for one, won't knowingly permit my system to be used for
criminal activity.
---
Bill { uunet | novavax | ankh | sunvice } !twwells!bill
bill@twwells.comdavidg@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (David Guntner) (11/26/89)
From article <161@toaster.SFSU.EDU>, by eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott): [Stuff deleted] > If you see something from a > uucp site that's not in the maps, then you DO have good > reason to "hunt 'em down and kill 'em"--all uucp sites > are supposed to be registered if their names are at all > visible to the outside world. Where did you get this idea from? As I understand it, there is no REQUIREMENT that a site be registered. As I recall from the last time I read the appropriate article in news.announce.newusers (granted, it's been a while), the only requirement for being on Usenet is that a site must be willing and able to pass messages to and from at least one other site already on the Net. If it's not registered, that simply means that it won't get into the net maps, which means that someone on the outside can't address something to you@your.machine and have it get there. They have to address it to known!your.machine!you (where "known" is the machine that your site is passing messages to/from (assumning that "known" IS a registered site here...)). So, it is encouraged, and even to a site's (and it's users') benifit, that the site be registered. However, it is not *required*. --Dave -- David Guntner UUCP: {ames, mit-eddie}!attctc!davidg INET: davidg@attctc.Dallas.TX.US (killer) "...New ship, but she's got the right name. ...Treat --Admiral L. McCoy her like a lady, and she'll always bring you home." "Encounter at Farpoint"
hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath) (11/28/89)
In article <1989Nov23.034343.4663@athena.mit.edu> wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr) writes: }... (Or should I just send }Snail Mail off to the office of the Attorney General of the United }States?) No! There are few, if any, net.situations so bad that getting "the authorities" involved can't make them worse. We DO NOT want the Feds investigating and/or regulating the net. (Nor do we want private lawyers aguing over who said what about whom). Sending e-mail to postmaster@site should cause the miscreant sufficient grief. Bringing in the Feds will cause us all more grief than enough. -- The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe@ttidca.tti.com) Illegitimis non Citicorp(+)TTI Carborundum 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. (213) 452-9191, x2483 Santa Monica, CA 90405 {csun|philabs|psivax}!ttidca!hollombe