On Mon, 24 Aug 1998, Aaron Goldblatt wrote:
Of course it's a boneheaded way to run an Internet business, if you plan to be a decent Netizen. But consider: Companies like flash.net, earthlink.net, mindspring.com, uu.net, etc., all exist for a single purpose: to make money. It is -costly- to fix broken configurations that have a direct impact on customers.
I think we do an extremely good job of making sure our configurations are not broken in any way that would make us a bad Netizen. If you believe otherwise and have already tried going through normal channels (abuse@mindspring.net or hostmaster@mindspring.net for example) and haven't gotten satisfactory resolution, please don't hesitate to let me know. We really do take our Core Values and Beliefs (http://www.mindspring.com/aboutms/core.html) seriously, and they don't just apply to direct customers.
You have to pay the support personnel to wade through the email and handle the calls. You may have to pay for he calls if you're dumb enough to have an 800 number for support.
There's no surviving in this business without it. The customers demand it. It's just a cost of doing business.
Or you can continue to allow people to spam, which doesn't cost anything in any quantifiable manner, and annoys your support staff a whole lot less.
And makes you look really bad to your peers, who, in this line of business are also your customers and suppliers. Brandon Ross Network Engineering 404-815-0770 800-719-4664 Director, Network Engineering, MindSpring Ent., Inc. info@mindspring.com ICQ: 2269442 Stop Smurf attacks! Configure your router interfaces to block directed broadcasts. See http://www.quadrunner.com/~chuegen/smurf.cgi for details.