Although the denial of service attack on the ARRL.net and ARRL.org spam filtering servers at Edge Network systems has abated, the residual effects of it are still being felt in certain areas.

The most annoying and widespread of these effects appear to be the connections between the arrl.net servers and some e-mail accounts at Comcast.net. While the spam filters are working, they had to be re-installed on a whole new set of servers and, as a result, have to “relearn” certain rules. Initially, this resulted in more spam leaking through than before the attack. Being the behemoth that they are, Comcast’s filters and blocking processes are by and large, automated. So even if we get them to remove the block today, within 24 hours the pattern of e-mail from the arrl.net servers to them could trigger their blocks once again. We’re working through our forwarding service provider to get the servers for ARRL.net white-listed.

What is even more perplexing is that this is not an all or nothing situation. Some messages are getting through to Comcast and others are not. There isn’t a particular pattern.

We are continuing to work with our spam filtering provider to resolve the situation and we will post an item on the ARRL web site before the end of the day.

Although not for public consumption, we are actively soliciting bids from other service providers for the arrl.net service and I expect to have a recommendation from the IT Dept. and a decision to proceed by early next week.

73,

Barry J. Shelley, N1VXY

Chief Financial Officer

ARRL, Inc.

The National Association for Amateur Radio

(860) 594-0212