Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Tanner Lovelace <lovelace AT wayfarer.org>]

Steven Champeon said the following on 3/20/04 12:42 PM:
> Part of the problem currently is that some spammers have taken to using
> infected Windows machines as spam cannons; estimates range from a few
> hundred thousand to several million hosts to choose from, and many
> believe that the spammers are behind the creation of the worms/viruses
> themselves. So what I've started doing is blocking on any host with a
> generic rDNS (e.g., 'dsl-1-2-3-4.bigisp.net') rather than simply using
> BLs like SPEWS and the SBL. But even that has taken literally months to
> compile, as the spammers find new networks, I map them, and the race
> continues. On the bright side, I've cut our daily spam load down from
> around 1500/day in mid-May to roughly 20/day today. And I'm working on
> some more rulesets that should cut that down by two-thirds. But I've not
> yet had a day with no spam at all - that's my goal.

And, how many valid messages do you block in there?

> And all this has taken a ridiculous amount of time, so sorry I got my
> back up about the "lazy, stupid admins" comment earlier upthread. I've
> basically wasted the flower of my youth on these scumbags, and I'm pretty
> annoyed about the whole thing ;)

And rightly so.  I hate spam as much as the next person but I personally
think that blocking any valid mail at all is too high a price to pay,
and any ISP who doesn't subscribe to that (i.e. who might be filtering
my e-mail so I miss important messages) doesn't get my business.  Of
course, that's why I run my own mail server, so I don't have to deal
with that.

BTW, the "lazy, stupid admin" comment was directed at the people
who just use something like SPEWS (or similar) and don't make any
effort to tailor things for their particular site.  You obviously
don't fall into that category since you do lots of other stuff
and have actually put thought into it.  Apologies for painting
with too wide a brush.

Cheers,
Tanner
--
Tanner Lovelace       | Don't move! Or I'll fill ya full of... little
lovelace AT wayfarer.org | yellow bolts of light! - Commander John Crichton