mballai
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posted on November 16, 2000 06:57:29 AM new
I discovered this morning that my ISP account was suspended for...get this...unsolicited email. I don't spam anyone, nor would I ever think of doing so.
Do ISPs have rules regarding this or do they simply take someone's word on this?
This is quite unnerving. Fortunately I have access at work and multiple email accounts but I had to scoot over to eBay and change my email address as well as contact the ISP on appeal. Not a fun event.
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abingdoncomputers
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posted on November 16, 2000 07:05:35 AM new
That sucks! You would think they would at least ask for your side of the story before pulling the plug.
Question: Will you get the shades when you change your email address?
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POTON
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posted on November 16, 2000 08:41:02 AM new
I think spam is considered when you send emails in mass, right? Well, every ISP has a method of warning when someone is using their mail servers by sending lots of emails. If they think you spammed the should check their mail servers and get the exact report. Mail servers are exactly like computer hard drives, if you are using it, the computer tells you that your hard drive is in process/working/the ligh is on and your ISP should check that. They are just trying to figuure out who spammed, they just have the IP address, and the IP address is constantly changing for every user.
For example if you are using AOL, at this moment I have a determined IP address, then after I sign off, another guy(s) sing on and that guy will use the IP address I was using. So if somebody spammed at 10pm your ISP will seek who were using that IP address at that time, so they will try to blame everyone of them, and of course the real spammer will walk away quitely, because that's their job, move around from server to server. So my friend keep insisting that you didin't do that and believe me they will restablish your account  They also are not sure who did it, they are just choosing the easy way, by blaming everybody, because at the end they know very well that somebody could be using your account AND/OR somebody could be using your email address as the return address, and there are a lot of sofware that can clone your email address, and your ISP know very well this.
Poton.
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mballai
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posted on November 16, 2000 08:53:23 AM new
Well I don't need the shades. The thing that bothers me is that my current email will bounce and I don't have another ISP for home use even though I have multiple email addresses. I am wondering if I should keep my email and ISP separate in the future. Just seems like a pain.
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Bluee
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posted on November 16, 2000 08:55:46 AM new
Somebody may of spoofed as your e-mail address and sent loads of spam.
Yes, your ISP may of noticed that there was no large amounts of server usage from you, but since your address was in the From field, people who hate spam (why would you not?) would report to the domain they are under, which would happen to be you.
ISPs are getting so large they barely look into problems and take extreme (or no) action, just like eBay.
blueeanime on eBay
blueeanime.cjb.net
Do not judge me by the items I sell.
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amalgamated2000
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posted on November 16, 2000 08:59:42 AM new
ISP's have no choice but to be tough on spammers. Otherwise, other ISP's will stop accepting mail from them, effectively putting them out of business.
However, they generally won't even investigate spam charges without seeing email with full headers so they can verify the account and the server from which it was sent. At that point, it's fairly easy for them to determine with complete certaintity that an email came from a particular account.
So, either your ISP just screwed up and canceled the wrong account or someone gained access to your account. My guess would be the latter. It's quite common for spammers to use hacked accounts. If that is the case, it may be difficult, if not impossible, to get your account opened again because as far as manyh ISP's are concerned, it doesn't matter whether you personally sent the spam. If someone gained access to your account, then you are a security risk, in their eyes.
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mballai
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posted on November 16, 2000 09:25:34 AM new
Well I hope it's not the case for me. I might just as soon switch ISPs if they treat good customers that way. I guess you need more than one computer and more than one ISP if you are running online auctions. That's pretty stinko.
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OnlineAuctions
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posted on November 16, 2000 09:37:27 AM new
mballai,
You won't get shades if you change your email address _unless_ you are using your email address as your eBay User ID
I've had to change my email address (temporarily) a few times when my email server was down and out - no shades.
HTH
-OnlineAuctions (but not anywhere but here!)
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RB
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posted on November 16, 2000 12:47:40 PM new
There are all kinds of reasons why your ISP may have taken this action. Perhaps you used a few 'less-than-civil' words in an email to someone.
In terms of a pre-warning, it appears as though your ISP works the same way as eBay - they assume you are guilty and don't give you an opportunity to defend yourself before passing sentence.
Are you thinking about changing auction venues too??
Good luck
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mballai
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posted on November 16, 2000 02:20:15 PM new
Well I don't use profanity. Maybe someone doesn't like my conservative POV on a newsgroup? I doubt that qualifies, but who knows. I like my ISP, but this sort of shenanigans is not what I pay for.
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cix
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posted on November 16, 2000 02:32:13 PM new
mballai
I to have been booted from my ISP for unknown reasons. You have a HUGE choice of ISP's to choose from nowadays. If they don't want your money screw them !
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RB
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posted on November 16, 2000 02:42:49 PM new
cix - you're right, but that won't solve mballai's immediate problem ...
mballai - I doubt if your POV in newgroups would cause this. If it did, I would have been cut off a long time ago! I think someone has been jacking around with your account. I hope you get it fixed before your eBay rep takes a hit. Again, good luck ...
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abacaxi
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posted on November 16, 2000 04:32:06 PM new
CALL the support or abuse desk, and ask them to send you the supposed spam, INCLUDING THE HEADERS, and the account activity logs that prove you were online and sending mail at the same time and from the same IP address as the spam.
You might have has someone spamming from your ISP with YOUR name in the FROM: as a decoy. Or a spammer outside your ISP framing you. Tell the ISP that you suspect a "joe job".
If you can post the headers, we can tell you where they came form.
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lotsafuzz
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posted on November 16, 2000 04:56:17 PM new
I don't know if you are a seller or not, but if you are could it be some *really* nasty deadbeat trying to cause you a problem?
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mballai
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posted on November 17, 2000 06:06:18 PM new
Well it's been over 24 hours, no word from my ISP. I did a trial AOL disk to get my home machine up again as I have to keep track of my Yahoo and eBay auctions. I then downloaded a free internet service--a pain in the rear to use, but it's ok.
I can only imagine how many bounced emails my bidders have had.
There are lots of services, but I really hate having to switch around. However if these guys don't have this fixed soon, they are going to get deep sixed. In the meantime, I'm not waiting for some judge to rule, I am lining up another vendor.
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abingdoncomputers
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posted on November 17, 2000 06:14:16 PM new
Sounds like a great time to try cable or DSL if you haven't already (and if they are available there).
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cybercat
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posted on November 17, 2000 10:07:46 PM new
mballai,
You could try one of the free ISPs and get a hotmail email account. You can access your hotmail account from Outlook Express just like regular email or go to the web site. Once you have a hotmail email address, you would never have to change it no matter who your ISP is.
That would be an inexpensive way to have internet access at home until this gets straightened out. I've used them. I like the one by Excite--very dependable.
cybercat
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mballai
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posted on November 18, 2000 07:19:37 AM new
I tried a new free ISP that got high marks from Computer Shopper and it works fine. I don't think I have a problem pocketing an extra $20 a month if that's what it ultimately means.
I need to test to see if Mister Lister works ok with my free email account. If so, I might give the ISP the boot next week.
Moral of the story: get a back up ISP account, you never know when you are going to need it.
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RB
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posted on November 18, 2000 09:20:56 AM new
abing ... Both cable and DSL in my area are down more than they are up. Couple that with the lack of security and the high costs, and the need (cable) for a horkin ugly modem, I'll stick with my 56K modem for the time being. I have never received a busy signal, nor has my ISP ever gone down in the last 4 years I have been with them ...
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mballai
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posted on November 18, 2000 11:27:19 AM new
No problem with Mr. lister. The only bug is getting Eudora to send my Yahoo messages... incoming is fine. I could this from the web, but that's not want I want. Any recommendations on a free email that goes to and from a POP3 mail software like my EudoraPro?
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amalgamated2000
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posted on November 18, 2000 11:37:18 AM new
The only bug is getting Eudora to send my Yahoo messages
I've heard that Yahoo is currently having trouble with outgoing mail, so it may be a totally separate problems
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mballai
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posted on November 19, 2000 05:52:39 AM new
I have no problem with outgoing Yahoo from the web--worked better than my ISP account in fact, I may just end up using Hotmail and OE even though I prefer Yahoo and Eudora Pro.
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abingdoncomputers
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posted on November 19, 2000 06:10:34 AM new
I have no problem with outgoing Yahoo from the web--worked better than my ISP account in fact, I may just end up using Hotmail and OE even though I prefer Yahoo and Eudora Pro.
If you prefer Yahoo mail over Hotmail, OE works great with Yahoo mail.
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RB
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posted on November 19, 2000 06:30:02 AM new
The only problem with hotmail is that it is a magnet for perverts and get-rich-quick spammers. You have to be very careful when doing a bulk-SPAM delete or you may end up deleting a real message ...
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mballai
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posted on November 19, 2000 06:30:46 AM new
I get outgoing errors from OE with Yahoo just as with Eudora Pro. This seems to be a common problem judging by the postings on Yahoo.
RB is right about spam on Hotmail. You need to CAREFULLY flush daily. The nice thing is that it does filter most of it.
[ edited by mballai on Nov 19, 2000 06:39 AM ]
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abacaxi
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posted on November 19, 2000 08:23:26 AM new
mballai -
Have you actually CALLED your ISP to find out what happened? Or are you going to post here for sympathy and not actually solve the problem?
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mballai
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posted on November 19, 2000 05:01:10 PM new
abacaxi
I called the ISP;you cannot speak to anyone in the department handling the cases;you can only fax and/or email them an appeal and I haven't heard back from them.
I wil call customer service tomorrow...if they string me along they're history.
I am not looking for sympathy...I am discussing the matter regarding my options.
BTW this happens to be one of the best ISPs and known for customer service which is all the more appalling.
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mballai
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posted on November 20, 2000 07:25:48 AM new
All:
I fired off an email last night that finally got the ISP's attention. It stated that I would take the account to various industry news agencies if I was not at least going to get a reply.
An email at 10:30 last night stated that it was an error (no news here) and that they would reactivate my account and give me a month's credit. It took another couple of calls along with forwarding the email to get it started up again. I might still ditch them in the near future if I can assemble a better alternative--I would say the lost time, email and mad scramble has not played well with me and exceeded the the monthly credit several times.
Again, this clearly means you need to cover your assets. Never take your internet service for granted.
Thanks for everyone's advice!
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rde
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posted on November 20, 2000 10:58:32 AM new
Perhaps you should feel lucky. My ISP said I had added a computer to my account which allows only one. The sent me a bill going back 3 months for over $300. I told them I would, as soon as they sent me the other computer, since I only have this one, and I sure would like a new upgraded one! LOL I had to close that account and open a new one. They said they didn't know how their system figured I had two computers on line. OH well. It worked out, but what a hassle.
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mballai
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posted on November 20, 2000 11:10:07 AM new
rde
Maybe it's time to start holding ISPs accountable. They are essentially a utility, they don't pull this with gas, electric or phone without some sort of notification first.
Almost none of this would ever happen if they had to show evidence before pulling the plug.
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