Happy New Year!

Hope you all have a great new year folks!

Dear Australia ....

Sorry folks, been a fan of Adams, since I first saw him on Mock the Week. Just finished watching Adam Hills new DVD (Happyism) and - Britian is hijacking him - you can't have him anymore! (I'll swap you Jimmy Carr!)

vURL Online updates, hpHosts status

First and foremost, with reference to the ongoing hpHosts site issues - Amazon are still blocking the server doing outgoing DNS queries for whatever reason (Malwarebytes IT guys are querying why with the Amazon guys as it's never been an issue previously (it's not blocked on the server itself - we checked (several times))).

As soon as this is resolved (one way or another), I'll update you.

vURL users will be pleased to know, there's now a few more UA's you can choose from (the missing IE10 and 11 for example), including quite a few "mobile" user agents (Chromium, Android, iPad, Windows Phone 7.x, 8.x etc). Please let me know if you notice any problems.

Info: hpHosts site issues

Just a note for those wondering, the hpHosts site is having major issues due to Amazon messing up. First the DB server decided to throw a wobbly - no idea why, they've not said, but as you've likely have guessed - no domain is able to be resolved, which points to Amazon's blocking DNS queries from the server (it's not blocked on the server itself).

Hoping they'll pull their finger out and get it sorted, but apologies for the inconvenience in the meantime folks.

Updated: Outlook Export

Updated Outlook Export for those using it. Nothing major, just a bug fix.

Fixed: Exporting multiple files with the same filename resulted in file being over-written
Added: Batch file for manually registering OCX and DLL files

Download: http://support.it-mate.co.uk/?mode=Products&act=DL&p=outlookexport

netdirekt.com.tr: OI, Stop filtering your abuse address!

I sometimes get complaints from site owners, hosting co's, claiming they've never received an abuse report, and invariably, the problem is due to their contact address filtering using SURBL, SpamHaus etc etc. These are normally something I recommend, but in the case of ASNs, hosting companies and registrars, or indeed, any site/service/company that provides facilities for others to use their services etc, they should NEVER be filtering their bleedin abuse address - it defeats the object of their having an abuse address (and no - it doesn't make the blindest bit of difference if the report is sent with the offending content in an attached file, body of the email or whether the content is "as is" or "defanged" (in the case of URLs)).

The latest idiotic hosting company doing this, is Netdirekt.com.tr, whose mail server rejected an abuse report a few minutes ago, due to their using the SURBL and SpamHaus blacklists;

Tue 2013-12-17 10:39:01: --> RCPT To:<abuse@netdirekt.com.tr>
Tue 2013-12-17 10:39:02: <-- 250 2.1.5 abuse@netdirekt.com.tr Address Okay
Tue 2013-12-17 10:39:02: --> DATA
Tue 2013-12-17 10:39:02: <-- 354 Start mail input; end with <CRLF>.<CRLF>
Tue 2013-12-17 10:39:02: Sending <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\pd50002750106.msg> to [77.223.134.94]
Tue 2013-12-17 10:39:02: Transfer Complete
Tue 2013-12-17 10:39:03: <-- 521 A URL in the email is Blacklisted by SURBL: multi.surbl.org. locked, pendikgidatarim.gov.tr on lists [mw], See: http://www.surbl.org/lists.html
Tue 2013-12-17 10:39:03: --> QUIT

Tue 2013-12-17 10:38:35: --> RCPT To:<abuse@netdirekt.com.tr>
Tue 2013-12-17 10:38:37: <-- 250 2.1.5 abuse@netdirekt.com.tr Address Okay
Tue 2013-12-17 10:38:37: --> DATA
Tue 2013-12-17 10:38:37: <-- 354 Start mail input; end with <CRLF>.<CRLF>
Tue 2013-12-17 10:38:37: Sending <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\pd50002750098.msg> to [77.223.134.94]
Tue 2013-12-17 10:38:37: Transfer Complete
Tue 2013-12-17 10:38:38: <-- 521 A URL (www.kartaltarim.gov.tr) in the email resolved to a blacklisted IP: 521 The IP 77.245.149.33 is Blacklisted by zen.spamhaus.org. ttp://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/query/SBL141934 -- -- .