Re: Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash of false positives

2005-11-09 Thread Richard Farris



This morning my server quit sending mail and my 
tech said the Dr. Watson error on the server was my Sniffer file...I rebooted 
and thought it was OK but quit again..I had a lot of mail back logged...so I 
updated a new rule base but it did not seem to helpI reinstalled Imail and 
things seem OK but slow since there is such a back log of mailIf things 
don't get back to normal I will be back..
Richard FarrisEthixs Online1.270.247. 
Office1.800.548.3877 Tech Support"Crossroads to a Cleaner 
Internet"

  - Original Message - 
  From: 
  Pete McNeil 
  To: Darin Cox 
  Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 3:03 
  PM
  Subject: Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash of false 
  positives
  
  On Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 3:25:20 PM, Darin wrote:
  
  
  


  

  
Hi Pete,

There was a consistent stream of false positives 
over the mentioned time period, not just a blast at a particular time. 
They suddenly started at 5pm (shortly after a 4:30pm rulesbase 
update), and were fairly evenly spread from 5pm - 11pm and 6am - 10am 
today (not many legitimate emails came in between 11pm and 
6am)...spanning 4 other rulebase updates at 8:40pm, 12am, 3am, and 
6:20am. There were a number of different rules involved, and over 
45 false positives in that time 
  period.
  
  This is highly unusual -- I didn't remove many rules, and normally only one 
  or two would be responsible. If you found that a large number of rules were 
  responsible then something else happend and we need to look at that... I'd 
  need to see your SNF logs from that period since the changes (removals anyway) 
  in the rulebase were very small and unrelated - that just doesn't line up with 
  your description.
  
  One thing does-- in the past if snf2check was not used to check a new 
  download then a corrupted rulebase could cause SNF to produce erratic 
  results... since snf2check has been in place we have not seen this. Is it 
  possible that a bad rulebase file got pressed into service on your system? -- 
  probably a look at the logs would help there too since this kind of failure is 
  accompanied by very specific oddities in the logs.
  
  Hope this helps,
  
  _M
  This E-Mail came from the Message Sniffer mailing list. For 
  information and (un)subscription instructions go to 
  http://www.sortmonster.com/MessageSniffer/Help/Help.html 



RE: Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash of false positives

2005-11-09 Thread John Moore








We had this same thing happen.

It has been happening more frequently
recently and we are looking into disabling sniffer as
it seems to be the culprit each time.

John Moore
305 Spin











From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard Farris
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005
11:38 AM
To: sniffer@SortMonster.com
Subject: Re: Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash
of false positives







This morning my server quit sending mail and my tech said the Dr.
Watson error on the server was my Sniffer file...I rebooted and thought it was
OK but quit again..I had a lot of mail back logged...so I updated a new rule
base but it did not seem to helpI reinstalled Imail and things seem OK but
slow since there is such a back log of mailIf things don't get back to
normal I will be back..






Richard Farris
Ethixs Online
1.270.247. Office
1.800.548.3877 Tech Support
Crossroads to a Cleaner Internet







- Original Message - 





From: Pete
McNeil 





To: Darin Cox






Sent:
Tuesday, November 08, 2005 3:03 PM





Subject: Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash of false positives









On Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 3:25:20
PM, Darin wrote:






 
  
  
  
  
  Hi Pete,
  
  There was a consistent stream of false
  positives over the mentioned time period, not just a blast at a particular
  time. They suddenly started at 5pm (shortly after a 4:30pm rulesbase
  update), and were fairly evenly spread from 5pm - 11pm and 6am - 10am today
  (not many legitimate emails came in between 11pm and 6am)...spanning 4 other
  rulebase updates at 8:40pm, 12am, 3am, and 6:20am. There were a number
  of different rules involved, and over 45 false positives in that time period.
  
 






This is highly unusual -- I didn't
remove many rules, and normally only one or two would be responsible. If you
found that a large number of rules were responsible then something else happend
and we need to look at that... I'd need to see your SNF logs from that period
since the changes (removals anyway) in the rulebase were very small and
unrelated - that just doesn't line up with your description.



One thing does-- in the past if
snf2check was not used to check a new download then a corrupted rulebase could
cause SNF to produce erratic results... since snf2check has been in place we
have not seen this. Is it possible that a bad rulebase file got pressed into
service on your system? -- probably a look at the logs would help there too
since this kind of failure is accompanied by very specific oddities in the
logs.



Hope this helps,



_M



This E-Mail came from the Message Sniffer mailing list. For
information and (un)subscription instructions go to
http://www.sortmonster.com/MessageSniffer/Help/Help.html 










Re: Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash of false positives

2005-11-09 Thread Darin Cox



Arecorrupted rulebase files the 
culprit? How do you update... and do you run snf2check on the 
updates?

Just wondering if the rulebase file is 
theproblem, if the problemoccurs during the update, or if you are 
running into obscure errors with the EXE itself
Darin.


- Original Message - 
From: John Moore 
To: sniffer@SortMonster.com 
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 12:42 PM
Subject: RE: Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash of false positives


We had this same thing 
happen.
It has been happening 
more frequently recently and we are looking into disabling sniffer as it seems to be the culprit each 
time.
John Moore305 
Spin





From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On 
Behalf Of Richard FarrisSent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 11:38 
AMTo: 
sniffer@SortMonster.comSubject: Re: Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash of false 
positives


This 
morning my server quit sending mail and my tech said the Dr. Watson error on the 
server was my Sniffer file...I rebooted and thought it was OK but quit again..I 
had a lot of mail back logged...so I updated a new rule base but it did not seem 
to helpI reinstalled Imail and things seem OK but slow since there is such a 
back log of mailIf things don't get back to normal I will be 
back..

Richard 
FarrisEthixs Online1.270.247. Office1.800.548.3877 Tech 
Support"Crossroads to a Cleaner Internet"

  
  - 
  Original Message - 
  
  From: Pete 
  McNeil 
  
  To: Darin 
  Cox 
  
  Sent: Tuesday, November 
  08, 2005 3:03 PM
  
  Subject: Re[4]: [sniffer] 
  Rash of false positives
  
  
  On Tuesday, 
  November 8, 2005, 3:25:20 PM, Darin wrote:
  
  
  



  
Hi Pete,

There was a consistent stream of 
false positives over the mentioned time period, not just a blast at a 
particular time. They suddenly started at 5pm (shortly after a 
4:30pm rulesbase update), and were fairly evenly spread from 5pm - 11pm 
and 6am - 10am today (not many legitimate emails came in between 11pm 
and 6am)...spanning 4 other rulebase updates at 8:40pm, 12am, 3am, and 
6:20am. There were a number of different rules involved, and over 
45 false positives in that time period.
  
  This is 
  highly unusual -- I didn't remove many rules, and normally only one or two 
  would be responsible. If you found that a large number of rules were 
  responsible then something else happend and we need to look at that... I'd 
  need to see your SNF logs from that period since the changes (removals anyway) 
  in the rulebase were very small and unrelated - that just doesn't line up with 
  your description.
  
  One thing 
  does-- in the past if snf2check was not used to check a new download then a 
  corrupted rulebase could cause SNF to produce erratic results... since 
  snf2check has been in place we have not seen this. Is it possible that a bad 
  rulebase file got pressed into service on your system? -- probably a look at 
  the logs would help there too since this kind of failure is accompanied by 
  very specific oddities in the logs.
  
  Hope this 
  helps,
  
  _M
  
  This E-Mail 
  came from the Message Sniffer mailing list. For information and 
  (un)subscription instructions go to 
  http://www.sortmonster.com/MessageSniffer/Help/Help.html 
  


RE: Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash of false positives

2005-11-09 Thread John Moore








We have not run snf2check on the updates. And
it may be a coincidence or bad timing that sniffer
appears to be the culprit. But we have stopped sniffer
(commented out in the declude global.cfg)
for an observed period of time and the mail never stops (and had never stopped
before sniffer) and conversely, it only stops when sniffer is running.

We have not gone the extra steps of
putting sniffer in persistent mode.

We are looking at moving the imail/declude/sniffer setup to a newer box with more
resources.

Currently on a dell 2450 dual 833 and 1
gig of ram and raid 5. Volume of email is less than 10,000 emails per day.

J











From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Darin Cox
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005
1:47 PM
To: sniffer@SortMonster.com
Subject: Re: Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash
of false positives







Arecorrupted
rulebase files the culprit? How do you update... and do you run
snf2check on the updates?











Just wondering if
the rulebase file is theproblem, if the problemoccurs during the
update, or if you are running into obscure errors with the EXE itself






Darin.

















- Original
Message - 



From: John Moore 





To: sniffer@SortMonster.com






Sent: Wednesday,
November 09, 2005 12:42 PM





Subject: RE: Re[4]:
[sniffer] Rash of false positives











We had this same thing happen.

It has been happening more frequently
recently and we are looking into disabling sniffer as it seems to be the
culprit each time.

John Moore
305 Spin











From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Richard Farris
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005
11:38 AM
To: sniffer@SortMonster.com
Subject: Re: Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash
of false positives







This morning my server quit sending mail and my tech said the Dr.
Watson error on the server was my Sniffer file...I rebooted and thought it was
OK but quit again..I had a lot of mail back logged...so I updated a new rule
base but it did not seem to helpI reinstalled Imail and things seem OK but
slow since there is such a back log of mailIf things don't get back to
normal I will be back..






Richard Farris
Ethixs Online
1.270.247. Office
1.800.548.3877 Tech Support
Crossroads to a Cleaner Internet







- Original Message - 





From: Pete
McNeil 





To: Darin Cox






Sent:
Tuesday, November 08, 2005 3:03 PM





Subject: Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash of false positives









On Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 3:25:20
PM, Darin wrote:






 
  
  
  
  
  Hi Pete,
  
  There was a consistent stream of false
  positives over the mentioned time period, not just a blast at a particular
  time. They suddenly started at 5pm (shortly after a 4:30pm rulesbase
  update), and were fairly evenly spread from 5pm - 11pm and 6am - 10am today
  (not many legitimate emails came in between 11pm and 6am)...spanning 4 other
  rulebase updates at 8:40pm, 12am, 3am, and 6:20am. There were a number
  of different rules involved, and over 45 false positives in that time period.
  
 






This is highly unusual -- I didn't
remove many rules, and normally only one or two would be responsible. If you
found that a large number of rules were responsible then something else happend
and we need to look at that... I'd need to see your SNF logs from that period
since the changes (removals anyway) in the rulebase were very small and
unrelated - that just doesn't line up with your description.



One thing does-- in the past if
snf2check was not used to check a new download then a corrupted rulebase could
cause SNF to produce erratic results... since snf2check has been in place we
have not seen this. Is it possible that a bad rulebase file got pressed into
service on your system? -- probably a look at the logs would help there too
since this kind of failure is accompanied by very specific oddities in the
logs.



Hope this helps,



_M



This E-Mail came from the Message Sniffer mailing list. For
information and (un)subscription instructions go to
http://www.sortmonster.com/MessageSniffer/Help/Help.html 










Re[4]: [sniffer] Rash of false positives

2005-11-08 Thread Pete McNeil




On Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 3:25:20 PM, Darin wrote:







Hi Pete,

There was a consistent stream of false positives over the mentioned time period, not just a blast at a particular time. They suddenly started at 5pm (shortly after a 4:30pm rulesbase update), and were fairly evenly spread from 5pm - 11pm and 6am - 10am today (not many legitimate emails came in between 11pm and 6am)...spanning 4 other rulebase updates at 8:40pm, 12am, 3am, and 6:20am. There were a number of different rules involved, and over 45 false positives in that time period.





This is highly unusual -- I didn't remove many rules, and normally only one or two would be responsible. If you found that a large number of rules were responsible then something else happend and we need to look at that... I'd need to see your SNF logs from that period since the changes (removals anyway) in the rulebase were very small and unrelated - that just doesn't line up with your description.

One thing does-- in the past if snf2check was not used to check a new download then a corrupted rulebase could cause SNF to produce erratic results... since snf2check has been in place we have not seen this. Is it possible that a bad rulebase file got pressed into service on your system? -- probably a look at the logs would help there too since this kind of failure is accompanied by very specific oddities in the logs.

Hope this helps,

_M





This E-Mail came from the Message Sniffer mailing list. For information and (un)subscription instructions go to http://www.sortmonster.com/MessageSniffer/Help/Help.html