COMBAT SPAM! Back in 1999 I wrote "My story about spam on Internet Nebraska" which I have archived. Originally hosted on Internet Nebraska, this story along with the associated web site is now on the Trans American Software Lincoln Nebraska Web Site, which is a minimum maintenance site.

Today in March 2003 I have an update on the Spam story.

The original story is informative, written while I was learning a great deal about the issue. In 1999 I thought there was a spam problem. Looking back to that golden time of a few annoying spam emails on occasion it now seems trivial compared to the massive volume of spam that sucks the life out of the Internet today. Four years and countless canceled email addresses ago, Spam was just starting to annoy as well as interest me. Today, I am well acquainted with Spam, how it works, who the biggest offenders are, and the dirty tricks they use.

Jeff Snell of horizons.net "CEO/Systech Systems & Services" sent me this email today (Monday, March 31), asking me to update this page because he explains that his organization is no longer affiliated with the practice of hosting spam relays.

Is this new Horizons.net Spam Abuse Reformed?

Prior to revising my assessment of the organization affiliated with horizons.net, I will conduct in limited scope a subjective and analytical investigation. I will first verify the statements in his email as well as the message authenticity.

Update #2 (Wednesday, April 02, 2003): I have had limited correspondence with Mr. Snell since the first update. I am neither impressed with the language in his last statement (not provided here) nor am I impressed with what I have learned about their network operation practices.

So far my investigation has not reflected well on their credentials. All emails from Mr. Snell have been sent through third party relays, a trick that spammers often use. At this juncture I do not feel that horizons.net has been reformed. Watch out for this known spam source!

Learn more about Spam and how to Fight Back

Linuxchix.net (Geekgirl News) has several recent stories on Spam and who the Spam offenders are. For this site, I am working on a new story explaining Spam, Forged email headers, and Open Relays. There are also future plans to share the Robotz.com Spam Block list, a sendmail file, which contains a very comprehensive list of offending relays and networks known to be portals for spammers.