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I run a small dedicated or VPS server with limited clientele and know for sure that NONE of them are spamming anyone. Because I had just leased a new server on a new network, the new IP seemed to be on many SBLs. One by one with the help of the parent hosting company, we got my IP block removed from all but one SBL… which one? You guessed it… MIPspace.

I went to their website, MIPspace.com and read through their concept. I was struck by the notion that they deem almost every commercial business as spammers essentially. If I send a monthly newsletter (which I don’t) to my customers or contacts, I am spamming people? Really? Most sane people don’t consider a newsletter from a company for which they have some relationship with as spam. But MIPspace doesn’t care. They tout 60% block rates for unwanted email spam. What they don’t tell you is a good number of those are false-positives; email from legitimate businesses just trying to communication with their customers.

I don’t spam anyone, and none of my web hosting clients do either. If you read this blog you will be keenly aware that I am against spam as much as anyone could be. But still, MIPspace blocks my email. How do they do that? They just block the whole IP block… which could be hundreds or thousands of IP addresses and tens of thousands of websites. This is a completely asinine system that just blocks thousands of websites based on one bad IP in a block. It is akin to blocking an entire area code just because one telemarketer was calling from that area code. Stupid!

The funny thing is they are very proud of their system. However, it is a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. You must realize that a spammer could spoof an IP address that is otherwise totally innocent, and cause an entire C-class to get blocked. It is beyond absurd, and they are going to find that their “block everything” system will eventually land them in serious legal problems as business owners sue them for lost business.

I am all for anti-spam ideas and new and better systems for fighting spam, but creating a punitive system that punishes innocent businesses without cause is a bit over zealous. MIPspace is an example of everything wrong with the anti-spam effort. ISP’s should wake up and stop using Magic Mail with the MIPspace block list. It is just a big lawsuit waiting to happen. Avoid MIPspace at all costs.

NOTE: I would publish their email, phone or mailing address, but the cowards don’t even publish any of those contacts on their website. What a joke!

The interesting thing is that these are mostly SEO black hats that were hired by unsuspecting customers who just want to do well in the search engines. So I post the website they are optimizing and note it with my own comment about how the owner of that website basically hired a criminal to do their SEO. If they care anything about their business, they should fire them immediately. Google penalization and banning is not a myth. It is very real, and when more sites like mine post the bad apples, Google will be made aware of whats going on. However, the most common way your site will get the attention of Google is from your competitors reporting you because they see what you are doing. THey basically rat you out, and that’s a good thing because you are cheating.

Bottom line is to hire a reputable SEO that doesn’t do this nonsense and violate other websites for your temporary benefit. Yeah, I’m one of those reputable SEOs that does not cheat. Contact me if you want the real deal.

Enjoy: http://whyvistasucks.blogspot.com ( a totally unreciprocated, natural one way link!)

Comments welcome!

Some people do this unaware that they are actually stealing, others do it to save their own bandwidth when their site gets busy. Either way, it is a real crappy thing to do. Its like running a secret wire from your neighbor’s house to run YOUR electric stuff. Which also happened to me!

My solution? The old switcheroo! If I find a image being linked from my site, I just replace that image on my server with something that the thief would not want on their site. Its kinda funny and it works to get them off your server.

The other option is to prevent “hotlinking” via .htaccess. This is fine, but its not nearly as fun! To all you bandwidth thieves.. enjoy the new pics!