[TriLUG] postfix spam blocking

Amnon amnon at deltaforce.net
Fri Dec 16 18:29:27 EST 2011


Guys, being in the ISP business now for 16 years (and not good with Linux at all :-) I see one way to REALY put a big dent in spam. 
We have systems that list bad IP's, bad emails, bed users etc.  but we don't have a system that lists and maintain a list of 
legitimate mail servers.  To have a legit DNS one needs to register it, but no one has to register a mail server.  Most of the spam 
comes from an "Unknown" connection (which means the IP that is connecting with your mail server has no name, big deal) but Postfix 
for instance has a feature that will reject email from "Unknown" or unqualified sources.  We tried to use it a few years back, and I 
ended up spending hours every day calling legit companies (Lowes, Staples, Toys-R-us and others) to let them know that their servers 
were not configured correctly, and that we were rejecting their mail as a result.  They were all thankful and corrected the problem 
quick, but I don't get paid to do that :-)

If we use the rules that are already in place, and required that every mail server will be configured correctly (we require that our 
doctors and A/C technicians have a certificate don't we?) that feature will put a big dent in spam.  It will probably take a BIG 
company like Microsoft or Google to take the first step to have this imlemented though.

Now, take it further and have an RBL of mail servers around the world and you will probably eliminate 99.9% of spam (I think).

Just my two cents ;-)

Shalom Y'all
Amnon Nissan

Deltaforce
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