DNS Block Listing (DNSBL) and Proxy Scanning

[Chris]

There are a lot of viruses, trojans, and mis-configured computers on the Internet these days. Attackers use them to get to ICQ-Chat for spamming, flooding, and evading bans. Because of this, ICQ-Chat implements RBL, or Realtime Black List checking, port scanning, and blocks users from suspicious IP's from loggin in to ICQ-Chat. Some of these ways are new, some are with us since the beginning.

What is a PortScanner?

A port scanner is an application designed to probe a server or host for open ports. This is often used by administrators to verify security policies of their networks and by attackers to identify network services running on a host and exploit vulnerabilities.

What is a DNSBL?

A Domain Name System-based Blackhole List (DNSBL) or Real-time Blackhole List (RBL) is an effort to stop spamming. It is a "blacklist" of locations on the Internet reputed to send spam. The locations consist of IP addresses which are most often used to publish the addresses of computers or networks linked to spamming; most mail server software or IRC Server software can be configured to reject or flag userse which are listed on such a RBL. The term "Blackhole List" is sometimes interchanged with the term "blacklist" and "blocklist".

How does it work?

Every person connecting to ICQ-Chat is checked against our list of DNS blacklists. These lists are maintained by different groups to help stop spam and IRC abuse. They have various mechanisms for finding and reporting hosts which have insecure proxies, trojan horses, or are otherwise allowing abuse.

It's Okay!

It's OK, we know; it probably wasn't you. It was probably someone at your Internet address before you. There is an easy way to solve it, keep reading.

For many people, addresses are dynamically allocated every time they connect to the Internet, so sometimes listings are wrong and out-dated. Most Blacklists allow you or your ISP to request a retest and removal from their list, usually you have a link to the according Blacklist on the Ban Message. When you follow that link you will mostly have a button to request removal of that entry. The use of these lists has drastically decreased the ability of miscreants to spam and flood on ICQ-Chat; however, some people with dynamic IP addresses will get frequent false positives as spammers use their IP before them, so they need to log in to use ICQ-Chat reliably.

What to do if you are listed

In the most cases there is a link in the Z-Line or G-Line reasons to the DNSBL that banned you. Just go there and try to lookup your IP.

Sorry!

We apologize for the inconvenience, we understand that the use of the RBLs will cause some people a little bit of extra work connecting to ICQ-Chat, but we hope that the trade off of less spam and abuse makes it worth while. Please don't be discouraged, we will make every effort to allow legitimate users access to ICQ-Chat. If the above doesn't work for you for some reason, let us know why and we'll work with you to find a solution.

You can check the http://www.anti-abuse.org/multi-rbl-check-results/ site to query all major RBLs at once for your host.

If you have any other questions regarding DNSBL, ProxyScanning or PortScanning contact our Support Desk.


Sources: Wikipedia, Afternet