At 01:50 5/14/98 -0700, you wrote:
Rather than whining about the "powers that be" and pointing out how the system is broken, why not propose a solution that these so-called "powers" could implement to solve the problem. IANA and ARIN and RIPE and APNIC are composed of some very ordinary yet clueful Internet folks that are capable of recognizing a good idea when it is explained to them.
OK, Good Idea People...here's one. The ARIN WhoIs database contains many false entries, as does InterNIC's. The proposal made to InterNIC (which was ignored in so many words) was that when we users notice a bogus entry, we notify the registrar who contacts the registration owner for a correction or, if it's a blatant falsification, deletes the entry. This is a reasonably painfree way to properly administer a database relied upon by the entire world and just happens to comply with several RFCs. As an example of one I reported last week to ARIN (who suggested I contact my ISP for the info I'm after...how clueless): Lifenet Imarketing Group, Inc. (NETBLK-SPRINT-D01D98) 3090 Pullman Street, suite B Costa Mesa, CA 92626 US Netname: SPRINT-D01D98 Netblock: 208.29.152.0 - 208.29.152.255 Coordinator: Warmington, Drew (DW5183-ARIN) nomailbox@NOWHERE 7149661345 (FAX) 714-263-9260 Kindly note that the email address doesn't even have a TLD. Hard to consider it valid, what? As a side note, why not modify your software so that things like this are rejected? It shouldn't be all that hard to make sure that the email address at least has the required components. Spam(tm) is pressed meat. Spammers should be too. Dean Robb PC-Easy On-site computer services (757) 495-EASY [3279]