Hi all
I agree that spam *is* extremely annoying - some of my accounts attract dozens a day, others only a few a month. Perhaps we'll never totally defeat the spammers, but a few interesting points have thus far been raised in this discussion.
1: NTL's mta's have one overriding function, and that is to deliver mail. Would customers be happy if an important email was dumped by NTL as spam, when it wasn't? probably not. Are they happy with being spammed? No. The provider is between a rock and a hard place
2: NTL *do* employ both spam and virus filters. The virus filters currently block in the region of 400,000 netsky and bagle mutants every day. These viruses mutate quickly - it's a difficult job to catch them. NTL could block *.exe and *.zip in addition to the commonly blocked extensions - this would cut down virus activity considerably, but with in excess of 25 million messages being sent and received on the platform each day, a number of customers would end up with a degraded service.
Additionally, spamhaus RBL lists are updated on a daily basis - but open relays crop up faster than they can be blocked, not to mention indian, brazilian and chinese "pay per spam" services that have become so popular with our common enemy.
3: As much as I empathise with people over the horrendous amounts of spam that can be targetted at their inboxes, it's not a one-way thing. People should run their own virus and spam filters *in addition* to the ones the ISP has in place - is it fair to blame the manufacturer if your car breaks down, but you forgot to top up the oil? The amount of viruses propagated by unprotected NTL customers is phenomenal.
4: There is light at the end of the tunnel. The new mail platform is being built, and should take over within the next few months - with far more draconian spam and virus filters in place. I know you've probably heard this before, but let's wait and see.