AOL blocks campus e-mails

Some IU students have encountered trouble sending Webmail e-mails to America Online accounts. But action taken by University Information and Technology Services has corrected the problem.\nMike Lucas, UITS director of telecommunications operations and systems, said UITS discovered the problem Oct. 17. The AOL support center was contacted Monday to explain the problem. The support center told UITS the block would be lifted within 48 hours.\nAn e-mail was sent to students who encountered the problem. It said if students needed to send e-mail to an AOL address, it suggested free e-mail services such as Yahoo or Hotmail for the time being.\nLucas said the problem was caused by a "spammer" who sent mass e-mails through the IU mail relays. When AOL noticed this, they blocked all IU servers.\nThe spammer found a Web page that had a form that could be filled out for company use, such as an eBay account. Lucas said the person inserted lines of code that altered the Web page to meet his or her specific needs. The person then entered multiple e-mail addresses into a "mail to" field and sent out a mass e-mail. As the mail was about to be sent, it was routed through the IU mail relay, which directs the e-mail to the correct address. When AOL noticed its accounts receiving "spam" e-mail, all the AOL support staff could see was the mass e-mail was being routed through the relays. The support staff could not determine its origin. AOL then blocked all IU Webmail accounts from sending any messages to an AOL address. \nNot everyone has experienced this trouble with their AOL account. Sophomore Kim Sapikowski said she did not encounter the problem that others had. \n"I don't have a choice in which Internet service provider I choose because my parents are the ones that pay the bill," she said.\nLucas said UITS is not aware of any other e-mail services blocking IU e-mails\n"The reason that it is noticeable is because AOL is so big," he said.\nLucas said the form is being turned off and the "mail to" field is being modified so that it can not happen again.\n"The pages are available to the public," he said. "It could have come from anywhere."\n-- Contact staff writer Mike Malik at mjmalik@indiana.edu.