[SATLUG] Attn: Bob Tracy

[David Kowis]

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Bob Tracy wrote:
> Geoff wrote:
>> you've -got- to do something about your ISP...
> 
> Don't blame my ISP: I run my own mail server.  If you need to blame
> someone, blame me because I'm the one that made a local policy decision
> to filter incoming e-mail using continuously updated blacklists over
> which I have no direct control other than to decide whether they are
> trustworthy.  For the most part (definitely not 100% of the time) the
> lists have been trustworthy...  Notable exceptions I remember include
> the time vger.kernel.org ended up on one of the lists, and I recall
> bugtraq getting blacklisted as well.  In both those cases, the black-
> list managers fixed the problem within a day.
> 
> If there's anything I hate more than spam, it's rejecting legitimate
> correspondence.  For that, I am truly sorry.  Of all the folks with whom
> I regularly correspond, you're the only one who seems to get speared
> regularly.  Please believe me when I say it's NOT personal.  Plenty of
> my regular correspondents use Google's gmail service successfully, but
> you got bitten when the SMTP client host that gmail chose to use for
> your particular outbound message was flagged by SORBS as a spam source.
> Clearly, that wasn't your fault or mine, just another instance of bad
> luck among many such instances.  I can pretty much guarantee that
> on a different occasion, a different client would be selected and your
> message would get through to me just fine.
> 

I'm going to take this opportunity to point out that a statistical
filter won't have this problem. You don't have to guess on the
trustworthyness of a blacklist. Which is an all or nothing deal, btw.
It's entirely your setup, you have control over the effectiveness of
your spam filtration. It may seem like you have to do more work, but in
reality, you'll probably end up doing less. You'll never have this
situation. You'll never have to guess. In retraining your mail, if it
looks like a spam to you, then it is. There's no guessing as to the
worthyness of a blacklist. I suppose you could configure the blacklist
to quarantine instead of bounce, but that doesn't really help the
problem of a blacklist. You wouldn't know that this email from this ip
is statistically different, which makes it not spam, and would not be
able to tell it apart.

I run my own email server as well. Postfix + Dovecot + DSpam. I don't
think I'm relaying anything through the ISP's SMTP server, but I'm on a
static IP from ATT, so I don't fall into the dynamic block anymore. I
used to have the same setup you've got. With the exception of
blacklists, I was on TWC, running my own email server from home on an
UPS. I do have friends that are backup MX's for me. So their postfix
configuration will hold mail until my mailserver comes back online. I
cannot check mail, but at least it's not bounced.

David
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