The lesson one should get from all this is that the ultimate harm of spammers et al is that they are succeeding in corrupting the idea of a standards-based internet. Sites invent policies to try to survive in a deluge of spam and implement those policies in software. Usually they're loathe to even speak about how any of it works either for fear that disclosure will help spammers get around the software or fear that someone, maybe a customer maybe a litigious marketeer who feels unfairly excluded, will hold their feet to the fire. So it's a vast sea of security by obscurity and standards be damned. It's a real and serious failure of the IETF et al. P.S. Anyone else getting hit by sales calls for DDoS appliances and other salespeople as a result of this thread? This fishing in NANOG waters by salespeople is irritating and a good reason not to do business with these companies. I don't take my time to post on NANOG to invite a deluge of sales calls. -- -Barry Shein The World | bzs@TheWorld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 800-THE-WRLD | Login: Nationwide Software Tool & Die | Public Access Internet | SINCE 1989 *oo*