Anonymous Postmaster Early Warning System
The Anonymous Postmaster Early Warning System (APEWS) is an anonymous service that maintains a list of IP address ranges (L2 list) and domain names (L1 list) belonging to internet service providers (ISPs) that the anonymous maintainers claim to be hosting spammers and failing to prevent their abuse of other networks' resources.
According to the only public forum communication ever released by APEWS,[1] the service was founded by people who observed that the Spam Prevention Early Warning System (SPEWS) was inactive, no longer maintained, and possibly dead. The maintainers chose to copy the look and feel of the SPEWS site, but unlike SPEWS, the APEWS list follows no discernable escalation policy, and provides no documentary evidence to justify its listings. Also unlike SPEWS, APEWS operates two blacklists: a Right-Hand Side Blacklist (RHSBL) that lists domains as well as a Domain Name System Blacklist (DNSBL) that lists IP address ranges.
Discussion
There is an ongoing discussion of the validity and utility of the APEWS list. The widely-used resource at DNSStuff.com[2] recommends against using the APEWS list. APEWS lists at present approximately 40 percent of routable IPV4 address space, including, for instance, 12.0.0.0/9, rendering it useless in a production environment for simple blocking (accept/reject). The maintainers provide links to two popular USENET newsgroups in lieu of an actual removal queue, and this has given rise to displeasure among users of those newsgroups. This and APEWS's lack of any coherent policy governing listings militate against its being taken seriously by the anti-spam community. The consensus among anti-spam professionals is that email users who discover (by unknown means) that their IP addresses are included in APEWS should simply disregard the listing.
Since the APEWS list is not known to be used anywhere in the world in a production environment, it is not clear how email users are made aware of listings. There are unsubstantiated reports of telephone calls and emails to inexperienced administrators warning them of listings, but, to date, there is not a single verified public report of email being rejected as a result of a listing in APEWS.
APEWS can be contacted a couple of different ways
Telephone: 206-222-2485 Email: dev.null@apews.org
DO NOT POST ANY REMOVAL REQUEST TO ANY OF THE USENET NEWSGROUPS READ THE APEWS FAQ!!!
http://www.apews.org/?page=faq
A41:
" Note that posting messages in these newsgroups & lists will not have any effect on APEWS listings, only the discontinuation of spam and/or spam support will. Abusing these newsgroups & lists by posting removal request you will make a fool of yourself and are at risk to end up in additional private blocklists, so think twice before posting."
Q42: My IP address/range is being listed by APEWS but I'm not a
spammer and I just signed up for this/these address(s). What can I do
to be removed from the list?
A42: APEWS is just an automated system, if spam or spam involvement
(hosting spammers, selling spamware) from your IP address/range
ceases, it will drop out of the list in time.
If APEWS still remains unresponsive to your requests
you can contact the webhoster for APEWS which is currently
a company called Big Pipe Inc. Which is part of the Shaw
group who has its corporate headquarters in Calgary,
Alberta, Canada.
http://www.bigpipeinc.com/html/contact_us.jsp
Mailing Address Shaw Business Solutions Suite 300, 2924 – 11th Street NE Calgary, Alberta T2E 7L7
Network Operations Centre Phone 1: 1.866.244.7475 or Phone 2: 1.866.244.7474 [Option 3]
Any complaints about apews.org should be directed to
abuse@shawbusinesssolutions.ca abuse@BIGPIPEINC.COM postmaster@BIGPIPEINC.COM abuse@shaw.ca
External links
References
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