mouss wrote: > in which sublist? xbl, sbl or pbl? and when you say "a lot", how many? > can you show an example of an IP that you consider as an FP?
Well, since you asked… I’m not the Original Poster, but I consider most of http://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/sbl.lasso?query=SBL60174 to be a FP *when used with SpamAssassin rules*. This is a /19 range of VSNL dynamic addresses, which had (correctly) been put on the PBL. I understand that many smaller Indian companies can only get a dynamic IP, want to run an internal mail server (often Exchange), and forget to relay outgoing e-mail through an appropriate external mailserver. At least one VSNL customer ran into trouble sending e-mail due to the PBL listing, and rather than using a suitable relay, systematically (and repeatedly) removed the entire /19 from the PBL! Spamhaus then stuck the whole range into the SBL. This is fine when the SBL is merely used against the last external relay, but SpamAssassin will test *all* IP addresses in the headers against the SBL. So non-spamming Indian companies get hit even if they relay through a good mailserver. I consider it a stretch putting this range under the SBL: the “Policy & Listing Criteria” says that the range “appear[s] to Spamhaus to be under the control of, or made available for the use of, senders of Unsolicited Bulk Email (“spammers”).” This doesn’t seem to be the reason in this case: there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that the individuals who removed the range from the PBL intended to send unsolicited bulk e-mail. It’s abuse of the Spamhaus web site, not directly abuse of e-mail, and would better be handled by a PBL range which can’t be edited through the website. I wrote to Spamhaus querying the listing, but have heard nothing (probably not surprisingly, since I’m not VSNL. Thank goodness!) I haven’t raised a SpamAssassin bug, since I don’t think it *is* a SpamAssassin bug. James. -- E-mail: james@ | 'Short for "Sic Transit Gloria Humanorum", which is Latin aprilcottage.co.uk | for "There goes the neighbourhood!"' | -- Menno Willemse
