Telstra claims it is disabling an increasing number of BigPond Internet accounts involved in spamming as the nation's largest Internet Service Provider adopts a "get-tough" policy on the annoying and expensive practice.

A Telstra spokesperson confirmed in a statement to ZDNet Australia that BigPond was disabling "increasing--but still small--numbers of customers for violations of our acceptable usage policies," in line with a tightening of policies in relation to spam.

"We are determined to send a very clear message to spammers that they will be dealt with if they try to use our network to harass our customers," the spokesperson said. However, she declined to reveal the exact number of accounts disabled as a result of breaches.

The telecommunications carrier is understood to have put together an internal taskforce, comprising staff from its product management, commercial and business operations, to implement new measures to protect its customer base from spam. The head of BigPond broadband, Justin Milne, is heading the taskforce.

The new "get-tough" stance secured added impetus in early March when the carrier moved to terminate several BigPond accounts and signaled a more aggressive anti-spam policy to avert the threat of being excluded from global newsgroup communities due to large volumes of junk e-mail being sent via BigPond news servers.

It is understood measures to be introduced in a month to six weeks are based on tightening management of the abuse cues--the conduit for customers to report abuse of their accounts--to deliver a more immediate and decisive response.

The spokesperson said under the carrier's existing spam management system, if BigPond mail servers identify a heavy load from a specific IP address, "they will throttle the rate of e-mails coming from that IP address.

"While this does not completely prevent spam, it reduces the impact of spamming, as it hinders the spam delivery process.

"Also, BigPond has installed on its broadband Newsgroup server software that looks for multiple postings from a single IP address.

"If multiple postings exceed defined thresholds, the messages are blocked".

The spokesperson said BigPond sought to prevent spamming from its standard services by having defined thresholds for the number of messages that can be sent within a set time period.

However, BigPond was most vulnerable to spamming from Open Relays, which, in their simplest form, are mail servers that allow anyone on the Internet to forward e-mails through them.

"Some BigPond customers elect to run their own mail server software, but do not configure that software to prevent spamming," the spokesperson said.

"When spammers use a BigPond customer's open mail relay, it appears that spam comes from the BigPond network.

"BigPond actively monitors the network and scans for open mail relays on a daily basis. Once found, customers are advised to immediately close these relays and if this is not completed within 30 minutes of notification, Telstra takes further action".

Meanwhile, Telstra has moved to boost sales of its ADSL broadband self-install kit in partnership with heavyweight retailer Harvey Norman, which used television advertising on major networks to promote the kit.

The operator said it received 300 calls following the airing of the ads, boosting a service already benefiting from 20,000 new broadband orders in March.

According to Telstra, BigPond broadband to date has more than 200,000 customers using its ADSL, cable and satellite networks.

However, BigPond declined to comment on any plans it had regarding the easing of download limits for users amidst a climate of increasingly competitive offerings from rival ISPs.

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