From: Michael Blazer (m.blazer_at_utoronto.ca)
Date: Fri Jan 23 2004 - 12:38:20 PST
>Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 21:47:49 -0700
>From: Grant Hutchinson <grant_at_splorp.com>
>
>In a previous message, Victor Rehorst typed vigorously:
>>The WEIRD_PORT probably got flagged because of a few messages that had URLs
>>to my NPDS tracker server, which is on port 3680. Using URLs with
>>non-standard port numbers is a known spammer trick.
>
>Except that 3680 is not a non-standard port. It's an officially
>IANA-assigned port number for the NPDS tracker protocol:
>[snip]
I passed along Grant's point to the U. of T. mail administrators, and here is
their response: (I'm passing this along FWIW, but I don't know enough about
this stuff to have an opinion.)
-----
All anti-spam packages work by detecting characteristics
that are more common in spam than in other email. Most of the detected
characteristics are legal, standards compliant, and even acceptable in any
kind of message.
The folks developing the Newton Personal Data Sharing (NPDS) protocol,
http://npds.free.fr, should think about the consequences of using
URLs with non-common port numbers (e.g. see
http://www.newtontalk.net/archive/newtontalk.2003-01/2059.html)
Not only do some browsers block non-common port numbers, not only
do many places firewall such port numbers, but such URLs are a
characteristic frequently associated with spam.
-----
Michael
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