[Mimedefang] Another silly idea

[Paul Whittney]

Adelphia cable doesn't. In fact, half of them didn't know what
I was talking about, but the others came back with a "We've never
done that for customers".

So, based on the code flying around, you'd never get my email.
So what would your response be (I usually try to reject with a telephone
number, so real clients can phone and bitch about the SMTP failure)?
"Change ISP"... That's not quite the response thats going to help our 
company communicate to you via email. I admit, things need to change and
perhaps the email admins need to make that change. Take a stand, protect
it by policy, or fight those misconfigured systems. Maybe this will
actually change this situation (will your boss pay for it though?). 

But between stopping bad emails (you know how many you block, and 
still your users complain about the 10 bad emails a day) and communication, 
which is the one you give priority to?

If we're trying to achieve a 0% bad email count automatically, is a
filter the right place to do it? If you are trying to reach that goal,
get a human to read the email, and then send it on (and even then, there 
are issues).

Off subject, but what would happen if you told your users that on next 
Sunday the email filter is going down for "Appreciate email filtering 
day".  Can you imagine the amount of email you'll get (yet alone your 
worst client/customer that seems to sign up for everything), or your 
exchange server's load levels?

We know that the filters are helping us. My goal was never "0% bad email",
 (if it was, I think I'd just turn off the server, job done.. Not practical
though) it was protection, spam reduction, outbreak managing, 
and mailbox server load level/disk space reduction. Milters are key to 
that goal. User education helps that goal (don't sign up for everything,
treat your email like your password be careful who you give it to)

The amount of dhcp, dsl, cable, dialup being in a domain
name does make you want to drop them dead, but just on PTR/IP tests?
This sounds like something Verizon, or A0L will do.
You might as well return "Sorry, go to http://URL.HERE.com/WhiteList/, 
and get yourself whitelisted" in the error message..

David's post put it best:
 "to detect a likely-looking dynamic IP address, based on the PTR record."
It didn't say "here's addresses that get added to the blacklist".

You could take this data, and figure out the average spam value of the
emails. If it consistently sends more spam, score it high. This is starting
to sound like AWL from SA, but without the cost of the SA process.
Delay/Greylist the email for longer than normal; get the emailing server
to incur cost, reduce their rate of transfer, but but not drop instantly. 

-Paul

On Wed, May 03, 2006 at 10:33:04AM -0400, David F. Skoll wrote:
> WBrown at e1b.org wrote:
> 
> > Congratulations.  You have an ISP that will configure that for you.  Not 
> > all will for any amount of money.
> 
> In most places, you can switch ISPs if the one you're using is not giving
> good service.  I realize there are some places with virtual monopolies,
> and I also realize that switching ISPs is a hassle, but unless consumers
> vote with their wallets, ISPs won't be motivated to improve their
> services.
> 
> I switched ISPs three times until I found a good one.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> David.
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-- 
Paul Whittney                                ArriveTech, Inc.
Network Specialist / Systems Engineer       / |3823 W 12th St, Suite A
                                           /--|Erie, PA, 16505, USA
PWhittney [at] arrivetech.com (Main)      /   |www.arrivetech.com 
PWhittney [at] net.arrivetech.com (Aux)  /    |Tel: 814 868 3306