Re: Re: Split the hosts filter to a separate file…
 

Apparently you haven't looked at it very closely. There are almost 175,000 IP addresses and ranges in there, and the many lists I use are updated very frequently. You may get one or two of the most sophisticated spammers sneaking through but the vast majority of spammers and hostiles are stopped cold.

Re: Re: Split the hosts filter to a separate file…
 

Try again: http://www.technutopia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=324

Blocking out tens of thousands of commercial ranges goes a long way towards cutting spam down to reasonable levels, and blocking tens of thousands more of their residential (static and dynamic) addresses every week or so keeps them from making that approach profitable too. Of course, this filter works better and better with each additional ultrapeer that loads and uses it.

Each person that uses one enjoys a greater degree of freedom from spammers, fake files and even trojans, saving them a lot of time and frustration. More importantly, this large list effectively shuts out all of the huge server farms, saving the individual user a lot of wasted bandwidth.

BearShare has 160 of the worst bandwidth abusers blocked by default where LimeWire has precisely zero. I just might throw together such a short list and submit it to the developers to include with all future releases, since the biggest offenders rarely move their massive farms to new addresses.

Hosts filters are not the total solution to wasted bandwidth and spam but you haven't even started solving the problem until you do this first vital step. Once you knock off +90% of them, you can concentrate on the rest more effectively.

Keep an eye out for more of these filters. I expire and replace them frequently to stay ahead of these critters. They are named like "LimeWire.fullsize.hostiles.list.-.July.12.2005.-.(DELETE..ALL..PREVIOUS..LISTS!!!).zip" and always have a date on them. Search for zips named "Fullsize hostiles list" to find them. There are versions for BearShare and Shareaza too, and I'll add more servents as I learn how to accomodate them.

Remember, keyword filters are easy to sneak around with a little stroking of the keyboard but avoiding host filters takes a lot more intelligence, effort, time and money and spammers are notoriously stupid, lazy, impatient and cheap. :D

Re: Re: Split the hosts filter to a separate file…
 

As far as I'm concerned they are perfectly welcome to snoop to their hearts content, as long as they don't waste network resources to do so. I have no intention to track down individual nodes which perform that perfectly acceptable and legal task.

I don't share anything I don't have permission for and I advise everybody to avoid sharing huge collections in any case. This sharing network is far better served by the few who share original content than by the many who have huge collections of the same old commercial product as hundreds or thousands of others.

Re: Re: Re: Split the hosts filter to a separate file…
 

There's no way to "look at it" at all, apparently, save downloading a rather large zip file. Is the content even human-readable?

And the vast majority of legitimate sharers, no doubt. Most of those address ranges have probably got 1 spammer and 255 legitimate users sharing a dynamically-allocated pool of addresses. The spammers are unfortunately too clever to use static IPs on normal commercial accounts -- too easy to filter them there.

Re: Re: Re: Split the hosts filter to a separate file…
 

The vast majority of maybe half a dozen professional spammers on Gnutella?? I don't think so. Anyway, there will be a proper spam filter for LimeWire in the not so distant future, one that works similar to those eMail filters.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Split the hosts filter to a separate file…
 

Obviously you haven't looked, or even thought about it much. Yes, it is readable, and if you download the BearShare version it it even more so. The ranges are commercial rack space and the individual addresses are on dynamically allocated ranges.

Don't assume too much cleverness on the part of spammers. They are into this business because they are lazy. The vast majority of them still park their P2P nodes with their websites on their commercial accounts.

You also apparently think this list is static, and haven't noticed that I have been releasing the BearShare version frequently. This is just the first LimeWire release.

This list is much more than antispam protection. Blocking all possible commercial rack space effectively blocks all the giant bandwidth wasters that spoof the network with fake files and troll the network for other commercial purposes like marketing.

Also, let's not forget those waves of trojans and those massive fake farms that spread themselves out into dynamic address spaces too. Frequent updates tend to hold them back too, but if you want 100% protection uninstall LimeWire and you should be "safe". For the rest of us, having this list block over 95% of the parasites that burden the network actually improves our experience. :rolleyes:

Anyway, I have been using this thing on BearShare constantly for over a year now and I don't see it blocking thousands upon thousands of legitimate users. In fact, I don't see it blocking any of them. Even though LimeWire cloaks most of the actual online activity, BearShare doesn't, and I see what happens to each and every source in realtime. Remember, the odds on the dynamic IP address of a spammer or hostile going to an innocent internet account are already low in most areas (few are so saturated), and the odds of one actually going to a legit P2P user on gnutella are roughly 1 in 2000 at the very worst. The fact that this list is updated every 1-2 weeks [from sources that are updated as frequently as daily] effectively rules out that minute possibility altogether because even the one or two individuals accidentally blocked won't be blocked long enough for even them to notice.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Split the hosts filter to a separate file…
 

This list does a lot more than block the vast majority of spam. That's the least of it's effects. Try to download some fake files and see what happens. Pretty slow eh? Plenty of time to check Bitzi before you waste much bandwidth. :D


Even that half dozen "Pro" spammers of yours would be out of luck if everybody had the short list that all BearShare nodes have by default. Have you ever wondered why all of them use LimeWire? It isn't just that they could hack LimeWire. :p

Anyway, this is a features request thread, not a forum of it's own.
If you want to continue talking about blocking the bad guys for good (or not), do it here:
The LimeWire Fullsize Hostiles List.

Not every 356x598 jpeg is bogus. I just saw a legitimate one -- a picture of Leah Remini. 356x598, 44.0KB, looks a lot like the ipod spams from those numbers but it's legit!