Blacklist Security Software.

Why you may be unable to use some features of this site!

Security software that uses blacklists.

If your Internet Services Provider (ISP) uses software such as "RoadRunner", which blacklists entire Domain Name Servers, as part of their security system, some features of this site will be unavailable to you. In particular, You will not be able to use the "Ask A Question" feature, or subscribe to the newsletter.

Well, actually, you can submit a question but your ISP will see to it that you never get an answer. They will also not allow the newsletter to be delivered to you. This is supposedly to prevent you from having to unsubscribe from a newsletter that some nasty person signed you up for without your knowledge, and to cut down on the amount of spam that you receive. In reality, I think it has much more to do with protecting their own servers and keeping their bandwidth down.

Whatever their reason, from my point of view, blacklisting is a seriously flawed answer to any security problem. It will almost certainly mean that some legitimate email that you would like to receive will be never be delivered to you.

Is there a way around this? Can I do something to ensure that they will accept email from my website? Yes, if I want to restructure my website, rewrite the email handling software and the newsletter managing software, to satisfy their security specifications. They want me to jump through hoops to prove that I'm not a spammer and that I got your email legitimately with your full knowledge. If you would like to know what kind of hoops I'm referring to, you can check their terms for delivering my email to you here ... Road Runner Security

I choose not to jump through their hoops and here's why ...

This website has nothing for sale and never will. The costs for providing and maintaining this site come from my pocket alone. There is no big company, no annual budget, no pay for the hours I spend developing and maintaining this site. There is no compensation for the time I spend putting out a newsletter, or responding to questions about pet problems. I offer these things as a free service.

Those who wish to avail themselves of this service must do so on reasonable terms. I am not prepared to restructure my life to meet the demands of those who seek my assistance. If you can arrange to have my DNS put on your ISP's white list, that's great. If your ISP won't do that for you, or you feel that it's too much bother, please don't ask me to go to all kinds of trouble to be allowed to communicate with you.

I do not have time to accommodate these people. Nor do I have time to go somewhere and click on some things to prove that I actually am who I say I am and that it was really me that sent you the email that you asked for. Even if I had the time, I certainly would not have the inclination.

If I recognize your email as being subject to blacklist controls, I will just delete it without even trying to answer. If I don't recognize your email as being under blacklist control, I will respond as usual, but when my email is refused by your ISP I will add that ISP to my own personal list of filters and any future email from that ISP will be deleted before I even see it. In either case, you will never receive any email from me.

It's sad that I find it necessary to take these steps and to publish this notice, but I felt obliged to at least offer an explanation for your not being able to successfully use parts of this site. Now, if only your ISP were that considerate ...

Good luck with your training!

Neil

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