I find myself in the unusual position of defending MessageLabs, but only so far as saying that as a competitor of theirs in this market it is very difficult to avoid the occasional FP (false postive), we all get them.

However, I can say that one of the reasons we setup in competition and ceased reselling their services was their appalling partner and client support. It's no good having a good product if your customer service is not up to it.

I wouldn't be surprised if the real culprit here turned out to be SpamCop, or another RBL. You should check and see which RBL has flagged your server.

I have worked in the web fitlering business for a long time, and I agree that spam filtering companies should follow the lead of web filtering and offer a feeback mechanism for correcting errors. On my website about filtering software, I have a collection of these feedback links here http://filteringfacts.org/filtering/test-a-site-filtering-databases/

It's a very simple process to set up, and it's incredibly useful for the filtering companies -- they get great feedback from their users.
--David burt

I highly recommend DNSSTUFF.com for a variety of tools including an excellent spam database lookup. Their Tools section has a SPAM database lookup tool that is very effective in measuring the impact of the issues you have.

This issue has ruined my day in the past, and even the better block lists make it incredibly difficult to correct matters.

You have every right to be grumpy. Your ISP is responsible for these matters; they are the ones who should have proactively prevented your "false arrest".

I have the same problem with another independent newsletter which used to be part of the corporate fold. Sometimes my ISP flags it as spam, and I have to inititate the process of getting it unflagged. What I wish is that there were a way to bypass the ISP's filtering mechanism, and let me decide my own filtering rules! Unfortunately, I have one choice of cable provider and one choice of DSL provider, and they're both ratest lowest in their genres for customer satisfaction (and the feds tell us we have competition in the high-speed internet game -- HAH!).

Your mail host and MessageLabs share responsibility for your problem. You have control over one of them.

Doesn't it seem like there should be some ebay-like feedback mechanism to help weed out spammers from the rest of us? (And ditto for questionable web site.) I suppose if there were, it could be spoofed.

So all those rumors about them practicing cannibalism on family members and kicking dogs INTO their backyard BBQ's are untrue???

WHOODATHUNKIT!

Loved your article Bob -- BTW, you are at your best when you are a little grumpy.... :)

Bob, Maybe you should try contacting their sales staff. Once they hear how many of us receive your Advice Line messages, and they realize that they might lose sales over this, then they might pay attention to your complaint.

If they don't resolve the problem, then please send all of us an update every 6 to 12 months. Until I hear from you that this is resolved, I'll keep MessageLabs on my personal blacklist.

Thanks for all the great advice you give us, Bob. Keep up the good work.

Bob,
ATT / SBCGlobal uses Yahoo for mail service and suddenly a month or so ago, all of my Inforworld subscriptions suddenly began showing up as spam.

I don't know who/what Yahoo uses for their spam filter but they're not picking just on you, but all of Infoworld.

And if you tell them about me, they'll probably classify all my email as spam too.
Bill in Dallas