[Mimedefang] compare mimedefang to mailscanner

[Tim Boyer]

>
> > I have been using mimedefang for a couple of years now and just today
> > ran across the mailscanner program. On first glance it appears that the
> > 2 do about the same thing. Have some of the experts here tried both of
> > these and have a comparison as to how they differ? Is it worth my while
> > to spend time trying to configure mailscanner?
>
> The biggest difference between the two is that MIMEDefang, being a milter,
> can act on a message DURING the original SMTP conversation thus allowing
> rejections, grey/black/whitelisting, and other actions to be taken before
> the entire message is even accepted.
>
> If you REJECT a connection while it is in progress, there's no need to
> generate a separate bounce notification after the fact, which will likely
> just clog up your outbound mail queue.  You just send a rejection to the
> connecting server, and drop the connection, effectively slamming
> the door on
> the spammer.
>

This brings up the mail reason I'm not using MailScanner.  Mail rejected
during the SMTP conversation goes back to the sending server.  Mail bounced
afterwards goes wherever the spammer wants it to go.  Google 'backscatter
spam'.

--
Tim Boyer
Director
Information Systems and Engineering Projects
Denman Tire Corporation
tim at denmantire.com