Matt, You will never be able to wipe out all spam using these lists (unless you blacklist the world!). Although three hits may seem like a low number before deleting, it is fairly conservative in actual use. Since this service is really the "first line" of defense in Imail's anti-spam capabilities (besides the KILL list), I find that it is the most useful in regards to how much spam it actually stops. I would say that right now it is able to catch about 80% of spam using three blacklist matches, and closer to 90% with two list hits. I only have one (heavily spammed) domain that I delete mail at after two matches though.
The neatest thing about the way Imail set this system up is the fact that the spam that is NOT deleted (only 1 or 2 matches) are automatically tagged with spam headers, and I am thus able to still monitor for false positives, which lists are doing the best, etc. I should mention that there are a couple of mailing lists that I subscribe to that had to be added to the trusted IP list, since they seem to be habitually caught by SpamCop, or one of the more aggressive lists. That is one big reason that I get so few false positives, and everyone should monitor mail for false positives for at least 2-4 weeks and fine-tune their list selection before doing anything other than simply having the headers tagged. It's really a matter of trial and error. Constant tweaking. Keeping up with this mailing list hasn't hurt, either. William Van Hefner System Administrator TheDigest.Com/TelCompare.Com > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Matt Robertson > Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 6:00 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Other Spam options > > > OK, after looking I now see that I missed the DNS blacklists under the > root domain's "Connection Filtering", where indeed it is possible to > test multiple blacklists and delete after X matches. Curious that this > is nonexistent in the 'antispam' tab under services (and makes me wonder > why there is that other blacklist tab under antispam in the first place, > but I digress). > > So I stand corrected. > > Sounds like you could pretty much wipe out the entire antispam industry > by announcing your methods. How did you do it, exactly? > > -------------------------------------------- > Matt Robertson [EMAIL PROTECTED] > MSB Designs, Inc. http://mysecretbase.com > -------------------------------------------- > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of William Van > Hefner > Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 1:52 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Other Spam options > > > Whoa, > > I have Imail set up so that it deletes any spam that is listed on 3 or > more > blacklists, which do not generally overlap unless there is actual > spamming > activity going on. I had these messages tagged within the headers for > over a > month before I decided to start sending them to the NUL folder, and had > not > received a SINGLE false positive from any e-mail that had been included > on > 3+ lists. For my more conservative hosting customers I have set the > limit to > 4, prior to deletion. I certainly would not trust any single RBL for the > decision as to whether or not to delete. > > As long as you are not using overly zealous blacklist services such as > XBL > or Five-Ten (who blacklist ANY e-mail coming from Yahoo.Com, for > example), I > believe, and know from extensive testing that such tests constitute a > more > than reasonable detection system. My only complaint is that it does not > catch ENOUGH spam. It has never produced a single false positive though. > Just choose your RBL's wisely and do a lot of testing first. Anyone who > is > using a provider that is on 3-4 blacklists is going to have all their > mail > blocked by AOL and many other ISPs as well. Blacklists are not the only > method you should use to test spam, but it is the best first line of > defense, I have found. You can't tell me or my subscribers that they do > not > work, nor that such a system traps a number even as high as .1% as false > positives. Like I said, for over a month, using this system produced > NONE. > > > William Van Hefner > System Administrator > TheDigest.Com/TelCompare.Com > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Matt > Robertson > > Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 9:39 AM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: [IMail Forum] Other Spam options > > > > > > http://www.declude.com/junkmail/support/ip4r.htm > > > > As has been mentioned before what you use depends on your spam > profile. > > > > > > Since Imail doesn't have a weighting system, and kills any matches > with > > a single ding, I would use blacklists with *extreme* caution, given > the > > high percentages of false positives you can expect. > > > > Personally I don't use them at all inside of Imail and regard this > > portion of its anti-spam as unsafe to use dor this reason. > > > > -------------------------------------------- > > Matt Robertson [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > MSB Designs, Inc. http://mysecretbase.com > > -------------------------------------------- > > > > . > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Glenn > Bullion > > Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 7:36 AM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: [IMail Forum] Other Spam options > > > > > > More and more spam is coming through our server, yet I have made no > > changes to our spam settings. It worked very nicely for a while, and > > judging from the size of the spam box, it's still working. I guess > the > > spammers are just getting smarter. The only changes I can really > think > > of making is adding more blacklists. Can anyone recommend some decent > > blacklists besides the ones already configured in Imail? > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > > List Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > > Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > > > > > > > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > List Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > > > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html > List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ > Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/ > To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/ Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
