[Foundation-l] complaining to ISPs

Fri Aug 4 16:03:51 UTC 2006

Jeffrey V. Merkey wrote:

>geni wrote:
>
>  
>
>>On 8/4/06, Nathan Carter <cartmanau at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Is there already a section within the foundation which can deal with this?
>>>If not is some form of "abuse reporting" procedure needed?
>>>I think the best way to do it is for the foundation itself to do the dirty
>>>work so to speak, which should avoid any privacy issues.
>>>Cheers,
>>>Nathan Carter (Cartman02au)
>>>   
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>While that may be an option in the short term in the long run this is
>>likely to become more common and thus it is probably best that there
>>to be a way to deal with this below foundation level.
>>
>> 
>>
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>Most of the ISP's ignore these reports, including DCMA takedown notices 
>(they just throw them in the trash). One very effective
>method that both works and gets their attention I have used at 
>WikiGadugi dissuades 100% of vandals, gets the ISP's attention, and
>gets the problem fixed immediately. It is as follows:
>
>1. When I first setup WikiGadugi, I had the distinct pleasure of being 
>visited by WillyonWheels from the UK.
>2. I tried the whole page move vandal, blocking, blah blah blah, it only 
>made him more persistent.
>3. I wrote a shim program into IP tables as a MediaWiki addon that does 
>WHOIS lookup everytime
>the IP address gets used to write a page and saves not only the IP 
>address for the write, but the ISP range as well.
>4. The shim checks a file not visible where I record IP addresses for 
>vandal addresses and autoblocks the entire ISP IP range AT THE FIREWALL
>blocking both reading and writing, shutting down all access for that ISP.
>
>I had someone from the UK email me (my email servers are on a separate 
>network) from this ISP range. It was
>blueyonder.uk and apparently, other universities were studying the 
>Cherokee translation and wondered why the site was down. It was not long
>before the ISP notified me a certain account was "suspended".
>
>I would suggest creating a banned ISP listing with ranges based on 
>persistent vandals, and when they suspend the accounts, you will unblock 
>them
>at the firewall. It fixed my vandalism problems. I have 0% vandalism at 
>the WikiGadugi site and I stuck it to WillyOnWheels.
>
>Jeff
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>  
>
BTW, Wow is an active Wikipedia user and a member of the Linux Community.

Jeff