Skype virus thwarted..

A recent batch of malware has been targeted at users of the Skype VOIP phone service. Apparently the malware made use of a No-IP hostname (nsdf.no-ip.biz). No-IP received notification of this early on the 18th and promptly disabled the account and DNS host of the user that developed the malware. All logs related to this users account have been preserved and will be handed over to law enforcement for prosecution. More information regarding this Skype virus can be read at The Register and over at F-Secure and Symantec.

Please note that you should never click on suspicious links or run executables (.exe files) from unknown sources. Also, please be sure to update your virus scanning software frequently and run it often.

ORDB Closes its doors, er, DNS

Earlier today ordb.org announced that it is discontinuing the Open Relay Database. The maintainers have moved on noting that blocking open relays just isn’t what it used to be. For No-IP Anti-spam Policies, this was a default list for the Aggressive, Strong, and Moderate presets. It has been removed from these as well as domains that had it as a customized selection. We are sorry to see ORDB go, but we look forward to what new enterprises their loosed time shall beget.

Anti-spam Policies revisited, with a new RBL!

One MEIHLLIAHN mehssagesThe success of the Anti-spam Policies addition has been staggering. Spam and spam scores are down an almost inconceivable amount. Customer’s inboxes are cleaner and so are ours! Reflector and Backup MX users should see better relay times when they have been offline for awhile due to the smaller queues (70% smaller!). We are currently blocking over one MEEHLLIAHN spam messages per day on mail1.no-ip.com alone, and that doesn’t even include what is filtered with greylisting. This has been a win for everyone, so thanks for putting up with our dust during the transition!

As time goes on we’ll be adding more options to the policies list. To get the ball rolling we’ve added the NJABL. This is an excellent list that is used in part by the Spamhaus XBL. It provides further protection with over 115MB of IP addresses! It is now part of the default for Aggressive and Strong presets. And for those pop3 users who do not enable NJABL, we’ve added custom spam scoring to this new list. The added score should help flag any spam that makes it through the Anti-spam Policies system and aids your local filters in keeping the bad messages out of your way. So read about the NJABL and start using it!

Anti-spam Policies for All!

 

Spam is up, big time. Market reporters say spam has increased as much as 59% in the past two months and 120% from last year. We’ve noticed and we are sure you have too. So we put our heads together and came up with a solution to protect all of our email services, from Backup MX to POP3, included at no extra charge. It’s called Anti-spam Policies and this is how it works.

Log into No-IP.com and click on Mail in the left-hand navigation. Then click Modify for your domain, followed by Anti-spam Policies. You will be presented with a grid of policies on the left and presets across the top. To start, everyone has the “Minimal” setting, equivalent to our previous protection. This includes the No-IP.com custom blacklist, SpamCop, sender validation, and now greylisting(!). Other policies include the venerable Spamhaus.org SBL-XBL, SORBS, dsbl, ORDB and the Bogus MX list from RFC-Ignorant.org.

Probably the most exciting addition is greylisting. Basically, greylisting perform tests to make sure the message is coming from a real mail server and not an infected machine or spam operation. You can read more about greylisting in our guides. Currently, greylisting is in a training mode. On December 4th we will turn it on for all policies that use it.

We recommend you step up your protection to “Moderate.” I personally have been using the “Moderate” setting for three weeks on my account and have seen my amount of spam cut by 75%. Previously I was receiving about 65 spam emails per day. Now I get around 15 per day. And I haven’t had a single complaint from my friends, family, or business associates! When greylisting goes full-bore, I expect to have days where not a single spam message reaches my inbox.

And remember, this is for ALL email services, Forwarding and POP3, Reflector and Backup MX. So take a look, even if you don’t plan on changing anything. Someday you may need to!

4 Million Strong… And Growing

Around 10:00 AM PST, No-IP we reached 4 million signups.  That means that we have had one million additional new users join our site in the last ten months.  We attribute this growth to the ever demanding need for Dynamic DNS services that we provide.  In the last year we have made improvements to our site and added support for multiple languages.

This tremendous growth wouldn’t be possible without the support of our loyal customers who recommend us to their co-workers, friends, and family: Thanks for making us 4 million strong!

Oh and don’t forget our referral program! Refer three friends to our paid services and get a free year of Managed DNS.