Crusading on Spam and Phishing
We maintain a black list of IPs and domains that have spammed or phished us. This list is saved on our local computer in Microsoft Access and periodically uploaded to a MySQL table on the host that is made available to hackers, the FTC, and (when relevant) to individual state Attorney Generals. In mid-January this system failed and we’ve been working with Microsoft and various MySQL forums to try to resolve the problem.
The problem is resolved now and the black list is now again online. You can find it at:
http://www.creatingnewworlds.org/stopspam.cfm
We’ve kept the local Access table updated during this time, so no information was lost. We encourage others to create their own black lists and distribute them until authorities are willing to take the lead. We will post more details on how we do this later.
The problem, we discovered, was a major fault in Microsoft Access. Several users have discovered and reported the problem; but Microsoft has done nothing at this time to fix it. The problem is in the module msjet40.dl. It apparently started causing problems when we updated our Windows 2003 SP3 to SP4. Some users resolve the problem by reverting to older SPs, but Microsoft asked us to stay with SP4. Instead, we had to replace the msjet40.dll module in Access with another MSjet40.dll two versions older, using version 4.0.62180. (Some users, apparently, succeed by going back only one version.) The problem with replacing, however, comes in that the protection scheme in Windows prevents you from putting older modules in newer versions of the program. So you have to go into the registry and turn this protection off before you can replace. And there is no standard rule on this.
Thanks, Microsoft, for your help. But wouldn’t it be better for you to just fix the problem.?