Hi list.  Spam seems to be getting to rediculous levels so I'm trying to reduce 
the number of spam messages I am receiving in my xmail server.

I started by uncommenting the line in server.tab:
"CustMapsList"  
"list.dsbl.org.:1,blackholes.mail-abuse.org.:1,dialups.mail-abuse.org.:0"

First, is there any way to tell if Xmail is correctly contacting the hosts in 
the maps list?  It would be nice to know that it is.

Also, what is the best system to use for this purpose?  I've heard of something 
called Sorbs but I don't know much about it and whether it would be better to 
put that into the CustMapsList.

Here is a random sample of a message I can expect to receive.  The log entry 
looks like this:

"lansink.co.nz" "lansink.co.nz" "63.163.14.58"  "2006-10-02 00:09:00"   
"smtp.secureserver.net" "lansink.co.nz" "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"     "[EMAIL 
PROTECTED]"     "S7C56" "RCPT=OK"       ""      "0"     ""

It is addressed to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]", which is actually wrong but I have my 
domain set up so I receive all messages for the domain other than those for 
other specific mailboxes.  

I take it then that the mail-from was "[EMAIL PROTECTED]", and the IP address 
that this message came from was "63.163.14.58".  I could possibly keep that IP 
address in my own list of spamming IP addresses, but I really don't want to 
have to maintain my own list.  I'd rather rely on one of these public 
organisations to do that, but I would still want a simple way to report an 
offending IP address to people better able to deal with it.

Is there a tool I can add to xmail that could reply to the sender of a message 
with a chalenge so they must respond in a specific way to authorise the 
message?  I am thinking that this could be relatively simple to do by adding a 
tool to xmail if it is not already done.  It would rely on having a list of 
senders that are known to be acceptable, and some rules for other messages such 
as for email lists that are also acceptable.  But any other incoming message 
would be chalenged.  Just an idea.  

I'm reluctant to go back to a system in which my ISP filters spam for me 
because they are often too agressive and can filter out messages that I really 
need to see.  I'm not happy with anti-spam systems that do some sort of 
analysis on the message to determine if it is spam or genuine mail.  But I do 
agree with coming down hard on people who misbehave and I'd like to do what I 
can to stop spam at its source.

Since we're all using xmail on this list, I would really appreciate a 
discussion on how to reduce spam.  Ultimately it would be good to update the 
manual to make it easier for others to get to grips with this, and I'd be happy 
to write something depending on what results from this discussion.


Clive Lansink
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Phone: +64 9 520-4242
Mobile: +64 21 663-999
Fax: +64 21 789-150
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