AOL, in their misguided attempts to protect their members from spam,
uses a
discredited tactic known as server-wide blocking.
Some spammers now do a wholesale "adoption" of genuine email domains (ie
like mine - a genuine "(a)arrowsmith.demon.co.uk"), create wholly
imaginary and non-existent users at that domain (ie "mary@", "fred@",
"admin@" etc etc) and send out mass spam emailings that look very much
as if they came from eg me.
They attack many users of a particular ISP (in this case "demon.co.uk")
at one time.
AOL sees all the new spam incoming from such an ISP (wholly innocent,
with innocent users) and seems to put a mass-block on everything coming
in from that ISP.
The fact that the ISP may itself be vigorously anti-spam, and that its
users may genuinely not be sending any spam at all, and that all the
spam is actually coming from somewhere else entirely, seems irrelevant
to AOL. They seem to block the apparent source, not the actual source :(
It can be frustrating :)
John
--
Webspace Provider/Editor and grey-bearded stagehand for UK Rock
Challenge, the adrenaline-packed, fun-laden, big-stage experience
that's also the anti-substance-abuse lifestyle adopted in 2003
by 12000+ 11-to-18s in 152 school / college teams performing to
audiences totalling 20000.
For 2004, go to
http://www.rockchallenge.co.uk