On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 14:41, mouss<mo...@ml.netoyen.net> wrote: > James Wilkinson a écrit :
>> If you mean “IP address that should not have been in the PBL but was”, >> that’s one thing. It’s a consistent definition, but not very useful for >> stopping spam. >> > > yes, the PBL may list blocks that contain networks which "want" to send > mail directly, and which in principle, should be able to do so. but > whatever decision you taéke here is difficult. if you say, I will only > block those who I am certain are criminals, then some criminals will get > in. I think part of the point, though, is that the PBL isn't _directly_ about stopping spam. The PBL is about stopping portions of the internet from sending email directly to hosts outside off their own organizations. The "policy" that is the P in PBL is (someone's) policy about who should or shouldn't be sending email directly to the internet at large. The PBL indirectly fights spam by keeping botnets from being able to spew to the internet, and creating choke-points in each organization through which that email will/should flow. But this is an indirect result. There will be plenty of things that the PBL blocks that are NOT spam, but are also not PBL false positives (in the sense that "they are listed in the PBL and SHOULD be listed in the PBL, by the definition of what the PBL says it will list"). People who complain that the PBL is blocking things that aren't spam kind of don't get the point of the PBL. The PBL's definition means that it will block non-spam. It should also block a lot of spam, but the fact that it will block ham is not an indictment of the PBL. It just means that people who complain about that fact don't understand the PBL. (and, people who block or score against PBL addresses in Received headers, instead of only doing it against direct MTA connections, probably also don't fully get the PBL) Anyway, my point in reply to you is that it's not a difficult stand/decision, as long as you understand what you're getting into. You don't target PBL hosts to block/score spam, you block the PBL hosts to enforce policies about who submits messages to whom. If you agree with that policy concept, it's an easy decision (you use it). If you don't agree with that policy concept, it's an easy decision (you don't use it). If you don't understand the policy concept, and you're just trying to use it to "block spam and not block ham" then the difficulty is that you're not using the right tool for the task at hand. That's not a difficult decision, that's a difficulty understanding the world in which you operate :-)
