How to submit Abuse Reports

deutsche Version

Complaints about abuse of our network resources can be submitted to the address abuse@netcologne.de. Please note:

• Please name the exact reason for your complaint!
  (Do not just send logfiles without any comments.)

• We can only accept complaints about abuse of NetCologne network resources or servers. Complaints about possible attacks originating from other networks or providers must be directed to their abuse department, usually abuse@(provider).de/.com
  (see e.g. http://www.iks-jena.de/cgi-bin/whois )
  

• Complaints can only be dealt with if at least the following information is submitted:
  - exact date/time (see also our time comparison)
  - IP-Address of the attacker
  - detailed description of the incident
  - if possible: excerpts from respective log files (but just the relevant parts!) - exact URL (in case of complaints about a website)

• Spam / UCE / UBE complaints:
  -When sending in complaints regarding email or usenet news please make sure that you include *complete* header information. You can learn more about viewing and interpreting email headers at the following web page(s): http://www.faqs.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq/spam-faq/ and http://spam.abuse.net/spam/howtocomplain.html

• IRC-Abuse:
  If you have an issue or complaint with another user's behavior on the IRC network, we need the following information before ANY action can be taken:
  1.) The /whois information for the user.*
  2.) Logs of the activity.
  3.) A valid timestamp and what time-zone you are in. (see time comparison)
  
  * If the /whois information indicates that the offender IS NOT a NetCologne customer, please direct your complaints to the originating network or ISP.

• Usenet abuse:
  When reporting newsgroup abuse, please remember that newsgroups are a public forum, and you have to choose to read a particular post. We encourage you NOT to read the posts of anyone with whom you know you will disagree. To this end, we recommend the use of a newsreader that supports kill-filters. This will allow you to filter your newsreading so that you need never see a post from a particular author or with a particular subject, etc. This does not mean that SPAM and other news group abuse should not be reported, however, NetCologne will not involve itself in personal disputes and differences of opinion. You may wish to visit the following URL's:
  http://www.firelily.com/support/depression/trolls.html
  http://www.firelily.com/support/recovery/flame.retardant.html
  While these were written with the newsgroup alt.support.depression in mind, they contain some _very_ useful suggestions for dealing with flames & trolls.

• Hack-Attempts:
  NetCologne does not tolerate the use of known security related applications or the use of Intruder-tools against third parties. Again we need the relevant Logfile-Excerpts for dealing with these issues. However, please be advised that there is no danger for your computer if you discover a portscan. If there are no applications listening on the scanned ports, your computer is safe against connections there. See also: http://www.samspade.org/d/persfire.html for more information. Also remember that we can only act if the scanning IP-address belongs to NetCologne.

• Illegal web content: Complaints about websites or web pages with potentially illegal content should be sent to webmaster@netcologne.de, if these pages are located on NetCologne servers. Please name the exact URL if complaining.

• Anonymous submissions will only be dealt with in justified exceptional cases.