RE: spamrc.txt file not working

At 12:17 2002-02-12 +0000, Edward Wildgoose did say:
> I'm curious to know how you rate the free RBL's?
Too many of them are either "gosh, we tested this server and it's an open 
relay" (ordb) or "someone sent us a report that there was a bad guy and 
this was his mail server, so without any validation, we stuffed it into the 
db" (dorkslayers).
Granted, the first approach has it's merits, but it is entirely too likely 
to result in lost mail - and if some backbone provider's network gets 
scanned and blacklisted, they'll block routing for the subnet (Alter.net 
did this with thr original Orbs - which meant that hosts that had to pass 
through alter.net to get to orbs to do a lookup couldn't, AND that orbs 
couldn't scan hosts if it had to pass through alter.net - which meant that 
those host, even if spammers, would never appear in the orbs db).  After 
MAPS took their RBLs and made them pay-for (a token fee would have been one 
thing, but geezus - you've got to pay for EACH db, and for EACH server 
accessing their db (which could be circumvented with some DNS proxying), 
most of the consistently-good dbs were suddenly unavailable.
> If I was starting up a small e-mail service for 50 or so users and wanted 
> to err on the cautious side, ie some junk may slip past, but we emphasise 
> that we rarely reject real mail (and I am assuming that users are going to 
> need too much training to "opt-in", hence this will be automatic unless 
> they request to be "opted out"), then what would you advise me to use?
If you want to let people opt out, then the RBL checking will need to be 
done from a global procmailrc, not within the MTA itself (well, I'm sure 
with some wizardry, one could manage to do selective RBL-ing: access.txt 
would be one way for uniquely hosted domains, but I don't think it'd work 
for individuals -- but it will still require the admin to make changes 
based on the whim of a user).
> Also, presumably dumb question, but these RBL's will presumably have no 
> effect on any mail arriving via fetchmail because the RBL
Correct.  Are you saying that your mail is actually transferred using 
fetchmail (which of course, has nothing to do with procmail, just in case 
someone reads this in the archives).

One of my favourite RBLs was the DUL - Dialup User List - (a MAPS db) it 
simply contained known dialup lines for a lot of ISPs - users who should be 
using their ISP mailserver to deliver mail to you, not their dialup.  That 
alone was capable of nixing a lot of spew.
---
 Sean B. Straw / Professional Software Engineering

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 Please DO NOT carbon me on list replies.  I'll get my copy from the list.

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