They just look the other way allowing all sorts of spammers to submit email through Gmail.
The spam is ridiculous from advertising nail clippers to t-shirts. Come on Google, you can do better than that...or can you? Do you even care?
As an Admin I am sick and tired of having to deal with spam on a daily basis. For most spammers I just simply drop the hammer and block them if they're repeat offenders.
What do you do with Gmail.com? There is legitimate email coming from them as well as a decent amount of spam.
Several Gmail/Google owned IP addresses are black listed on RBLs and for good reason. They spam!
Here's a list of Gmail IP addresses that we've received spam from in just the last few days: 209.85.128.67 209.85.214.195 209.85.219.66 209.85.166.50 209.85.210.174 209.85.219.182 209.85.219.195 209.85.128.67 209.85.219.65 209.85.208.67
Copy and paste any one of these Gmail IP addresses and check for yourself against the blacklists. They are all listed on at least 2-3 lists. Go figure! This works well: https://mxtoolbox.com/blacklists.aspx
This leads me to my next point - why is it that when you Google "gmail sending spam" or "blacklisted gmail IP addresses" nothing relevant comes up? All you get is a bunch of irrelevant stuff regarding how to get your own IP removed from Gmail's black list if listed. Come on, really?
I have attempted to contact gmail about this but they 1) make it so goddamn difficult that one simply gives up, and 2) they don't seem to care anyway, so why bother?
This leaves us with a boolean decision to make, to block or not to block that is the question.
So until Google/Gmail decides to tame their outbound spam, we the small guys will have no choice but to throttle or completely block email coming from them.
If I were Gmail I would be embarrassed to say the least. I'd keep my head in the send. This is not just a slip-up, it's an ongoing situation that needs to stop.
They don't care who's sending junk through their network, they shove it down the pipe to the little guy, let them deal with it.
Well no more, Gmail!
Admin]]>S.3398 - EARN IT Act of 2020 - What it means to web hosts like us
https://blog.etonic.net/index.php?entry=entry200722-082731
For starters, this opens up the gates of hell when it comes to law suits. Anything that is being hosted, data passing through, in transit or at rest, you can he sued if some random lawyer believes so. Is this now opening the gates of hell to also kill encryption? You bet it does! Read on...
Earn-it-Act goes against Section 230 as far as I can tell and it is trying to eliminate or replace it.
What that means is that now, if it passes, all service providers will have to police everything anyone posts on their websites, or risk being sued. This will basically shut down half the Internet.
I'd like to see giants like Facebook and Twitter handle it properly.
What I really think is happening here, is the fact that freedom of speech is being hindered independently by Facebook, Twitter and others based on what they believe should be censored.
This bill will pretty much level the playing field. The reason Pres. Trump is up in arm about when his tweets get flagged for being "inappropriate", yet others are allowed - makes for an unfair system.
I would hate to have to be responsible for what others posts on our platforms. I am sure other providers feel the same, but on the same token, what happened to freedom of speech? Either we censor everyone or no.
For hosting geeks like us, we do what we do out of passion. We just love what we do. If we had to police our hosting platform and remove any and all offending content, for 1 we would be out of business, and 2 we would be destroying our customer's freedom of speech.
So let's hope this won't break the Internet as we know it, folks!]]>Happy Birthday to Us
https://blog.etonic.net/index.php?entry=entry170405-105219
WhooHoo!
Admin]]>Spammers and Email Abusers
https://blog.etonic.net/index.php?entry=entry161207-075341
We as a service provider try to always comply with the Internet regulations and be as flexible as possible while communicating with other servers over the Internet; all while trying to stay secure.
The Internet is a huge network of interconnected smaller networks that communicate with each other in many different ways, but as a whole it was never intended to be secure. Security came into play much later and it is still trying to play catch up to this day.
Everyday we try to improve the quality of our services while fighting spam and abuse every which way.
Due to the fact that we have thousands upon thousands of net blocks that are banned from using our services, along with them legitimate services may fall into the abyss.
If you are a network operator, service provider, ISP, or just a simple user who's email happens to bounce when sent into our network, please don't panic. We can help you on a case by case scenario. Just first make sure you read and understand our spam policy: HERE. Then, please use our contact form to get in touch with support.
It is unfortunate that legitimate services sometimes have to suffer because of the abuse, but we live in a World where it is becoming increasingly more difficult to fight the bad guys than it is to offer services.
Admin]]>.COM and .NET
https://blog.etonic.net/index.php?entry=entry140313-071511
Well it's much easier than it looks. Empowered by Verisign and hosted by Etonic Networks, you can get that done in a matter of minutes.
]]>Web Hosting - Cheap is Just Cheap
https://blog.etonic.net/index.php?entry=entry121012-070824
These may be some of the questions you ask yourself. There are many, many more, I am sure.
I'll try to not get into too many details, but explain from a bird's eye view what you need, how and why.
First of all, in order to have a website, you need a web host. What's a web host? Well, a web host is most likely a company that provides a place for your website to reside on the Internet. That being a special computer (we call a web server) that sits on the Internet, and serves up your website every time it is requested. This machine is always on, always online, and usually, it serves many, many websites along side your very own.
You may think to yourself... Wait a minute! My computer at home sits, on the Internet, I could just leave it on and place my website on it. Wouldn't that work? Well, yes and no. The simple answer is yes if you know what you're doing, have an approval from your ISP to allow you to run such services, worry about security (hackers, intruders, script kiddies who want to deface your website just because they could...), and lastly, you need a unique (or static) IP (Internet Protocol) address assigned to your machine. Most Internet service providers don't even offer one, and even if they did, they still reserve the right to change it on you whenever they feel like it.
Having said that, you don't want to be "hosting" your own website. It's not safe, it's not reliable and most likely if you need a website online, chances are you want to be found. If you website goes offline every now and then (think of how often you need to restart your computer) you will never be found. Your website would be just like a ghost: cold, lonely, and far, far away from reality.
Now, if you read so far, I am guessing you're still interested in what's coming up. Well, hopefully I have you convinced that you need a web host for your website.
Having said that, let's talk about what you need vs. what you need to pay. If you just do your homework and look around, you'd find a variety of web hosting services with prices varying from FREE to $20/mo or so. As always, free is free. It doesn't come with any goodies you'd get with a paid account, such as bandwidth, no advertising, no pop-ups, etc.
Let's say you just have a simple personal or corporate website and you need a domain such as yourname.com and a place to host it.
Etonic Networks offers custom tailored control panel, designed and developed in-house for the soul purpose of being easy to manage, extremely fast, very reliable and always there. It is so intuitive and simple, if one can work a mouse, they can manage their domain and website entirely from a few clicks. You can register or transfer a domain (if you already have one), setup your website, load the website content, create email addresses sush as you@yourdomain.com, manage 1-click-install application such as WordPress, phpBB, Concrete5, and many more.
See unlike other web hosts out there, especially the large convoluted ones like Godaddy, 1and1, lunarpages, etc we are very small. In fact, we're so small we pay close attention to each and every one of our guests. We call our customers guests, because we host their website's, therefore they stay with us, therefore they are called guests! :p
Most people fall pray to "deals" from Godaddy that are intended to attract you with a cheap deal and then shove just down your throat down the line. Their control panel is loaded with ads intended to lure you into buying more of their services, stuff that you most likely don't need. We - on the other hand don't do that. You sign-up, you get your website up and running in no time, you pay a nominal fee and we take care of the rest.
Just because Godaddy is big and they can afford to offer you a domain name for $1 for the first year, trust me they're going to make up for it on the side, without you even noticing.
A domain name in general can cost upwards of $15, even $20 a year. That is a fair price for most domain names. Usually, much less - for instance, we averaged out our domain offer and we charge $12/year on any domain TLD that we offer. (TLD = top level domain such as .com .net .us .ca .org etc) Are there any cheaper ones, sure. But when you consider the whole package you get with us, we can't but realize the overall value being offered.
Our web hosting start at $5.99/mo or $65.89/yr (you get 12 months of service for the price of 11 months) - and we don't ever increase our prices. That's our guarantee. On top of that, you may cancel at any time and get a full refund*.
This blog will be your best friend. This is where we post how to's, network updates, scheduled down time for maintenance and such, policy amendments, etc.
With other hosts, when you website goes down you have no idea what happened. We let you know ahead of time. We post it right here, with details and frequent updates so that you are aware of the problem, and how we make progress to repair it.
Choosing a web host is no easy task, but choosing one that does it for the love of what they do, in true American spirit, as a small business, with local roots, and with young enthusiastic and friendly staff can only be considered a no-brainer.
Hell, we're so dedicated to what we do that I'll tell you what. If you have the right cause, and you tell us why we should host your site for free, we may even do it. We started over a decade ago by hosting personal websites for anyone, for free. We still do, that's the spirit that drove us. We started with a Pentium machine hosted on a T1 line back in 1999 to where we are today.
If nothing else, take these facts from me: - You always get what you paid for, but most of the time you get less. - If it's too good to be true, it probably is. - If it's free, make sure you ask how much it costs, no...really, I mean it! - Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Phrases such as "you website is in the cloud", or "we make sure you website is wireless accessible", or "we'll make sure your website shows up on the front page on google" (and you get all the above for $1/mo) are just simply put and precisely summed up in to 2 word: BULL SHIT. Smell one when you see one.
EN Owner/Admin
* - Domains purchased/registered or transfered in are non refundable, however you may choose to transfer them away from us at any time.]]>
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