Chuq Von Rospach <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> And, like Paul, if it's cutting down my spam, I sure don't notice. So
> much spam is being relayed from offshore now it's not funny, and there
> are so many open relays out there...
The RBL really doesn't cut down day-to-day spam. RSS or DUL are much
better for that. The RBL is the big stick that's used to *keep* major
organizations from spamming. It's real impact is far more preventative.
I think it's been fairly effective at that, helped a lot by the large
sites that use the BGP feed. Note that nearly all spammers are still
bottom-feeding sorts of scum, get-rich-quick schemes bounced off off-shore
relays. I really do believe that without the RBL, at least a few major US
corporations would have tried their hand at large-scale spamming as
marketing by now, and that really hasn't happened to any particularly
significant degree.
> Since it's been around for such a long time without me realizing it
> before now, that pretty much means that in practice, it's not a
> significant issue, so I won't worry about it, at least for now.
Yeah, that's what I'd definitely recommend.
> I still think blocking ALL IP is overkill and could create problems, but
> at this point, I'll define it as net-neutral and keep an eye on it.
It makes sense when you realize that the purpose of the RBL isn't to
filter spam. It's not just another way to "press delete"; it's intended
to do punative damage to the originating site. That's part of what makes
it effective at stopping problems from starting rather than just cleaning
up after them.
> DULS? I know I know that acronym, but I'm hitting a blank.
The DUL is an RBL-style black list that lists the dialup blocks of major
providers. It's used to prevent direct spamming from trial or throwaway
dialup accounts. (It also prevents people from sending mail directly from
their Linux boxes at home, so some people, including me, who aren't fond
of the new requirement that everyone who isn't an ISP has to use a relay
mail server are not particularly fond of it, but it is effective at
stopping a fairly large class of spam.)
--
Russ Allbery ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
