[SC-Help] Re: spamcop "cannot resolve..." but the web site is there, and i can get a whois...

[Mike Easter]

Rev. Guido S. DeLuxe,
> i've been getting quite a number of spamvertised websites that
> spamcop is unable to resolve, but when i try the URL, the web site is
> there, and when i do a manual whois, information comes up right
> away... is there something wrong with spamcop, or is there something
> else going on?

It is very common for people to post examples of spamvertised URLs here
which SC can't resolve.

When 'we' play with them, where 'play' represents accessing the URL with
a browser, resolving the URL with /our/ resolvers, or 'studying' the
nameservice in depth with something like dnsstuff's facilities to time
measure nameservice and to obtain a dns report of the 'integrity' of the
domainname, including nameservice, stealth nameservice, and other
features such as mx, we generally see some kind of 'mess'.  'We' can't
actually see whether or not spamcop's resolver has been blocked by the
domain's nameserver/s, but probably sometimes it is.

So, the shorter answer is that when SC can't resolve a URL, sometimes it
is because the domainname's nameservice is flakey, sometimes it is
because SC is blocked, sometimes both.  We out here can't determine
which is which, except for the flakiness part.

If you are a paid reporter, you can add additional notifies to your
report.  You can resolve the URL on your own and feed the IP to the
parser to get SC's notify information and add those notifies to the
report which missed the URL for resolving problems.  If you are a free
reporter, you can manually notify the same way.

-- 
Mike Easter
kibitzer, not SC admin