[Scspamcop] Re: Faux addresses:

[Mike Easter]

Twayne wrote:
>> Tim McGraw wrote:
>>> Also, unless you actually own and/or control the domain guy.com you
>>> should not be posting a fake user name using that domain.
>>
>> But I think it's OK to be geeky at guy.invalid.com
>
>
> What's wrong with using Spamcop's suggested name?

At the present time, there is nothing (much) wrong with it, especially
since it has been suggested various places.  But conceptually, it is not
as good an idea as using an invalid name for two reasons.  -1- it the
domainname resolves and -2- things can change in the future.

> Or one of the many
> others offered for public use such as, say, heypete.com, assuming he's
> still around here.  Lots of other sites provide usable names for the
> purpose too.  Personally I just use spamcop's suggestion.

First, there's the resolution issue.  When you post a bogus addy with a
resolvable domainname, it moves along in the system until it gets to the
spamcop.net MX.  That is an unnecessary usage of the dns.  Here's the
difference between an invalid name and a valid one:

spamcop.net
Refer G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET (192.112.36.4) I.GTLD-SERVERS.net 77ms
Refer I.GTLD-SERVERS.net (192.43.172.30) asia3.akam.net 73ms
Result asia3.akam.net (220.73.220.2) (MX) 5 mx.spamcop.net. 138ms
Result asia3.akam.net (220.73.220.2) (MX) 10 mx2.spamcop.net. 138ms

... then the server contacts mx.spamcop.net to try to deliver the mail
to nobody at spamcop.net, which causes a transaction process by which the
server accepts the mail and sends it to devnull.  That is a lot of
resourcing.

ster.invalid
That does not appear to be a valid IP address. Please check and try
again.

That is no resource usage.

Second, there's the changing times issue.  Over the years certain
domains have offered up a particular user at domain to be used for such as
bogus From in newsgroups or whatever.  However, over time, the owner of
the domain and how the username was being handled changed, and the new
domainname owner has to deal with the 'traffic' which is coming to a
domainname which no longer belongs to the owner who gave free use of
some username.  That puts unnecessary demands on the new users server.

All in all, it would be better to use an invalid domainname than to use
nobody at spamcop.net IMO notwithstanding the recommendations in the faq
and elsewhere.

-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin