MAPS RBL+ worth it?

[Tom Combs]

>X-Sender: (Unverified)
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 19:46:18 +0100
>From: Julian Field <mailscanner at ECS.SOTON.AC.UK>
>Subject: Re: MAPS RBL+ worth it?
>To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
>X-MailScanner: Found to be clean, Found to be clean
>X-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (score=-2.4, required 8,
IN_REP_TO, SUBJ_ENDS_IN_Q_MARK, DOUBLE_CAPSWORD)
>
>I have just processed the stats for our site from the beginning of this
>month, so you've got a pretty random 2 weeks worth.
>
>I have separated out the figures for each of the 5 RBL's I use and
>SpamAssassin, so the following are the number of messages detected *only*
>by the RBL listed:
>      82 Infinite-Monkeys
>      81 MAPS-RBL+
>     101 ORDB
>    9351 SpamAssassin
>    1001 osirusoft.com
>     693 spamcop.net
>
>The total number of spam messages in this time was 20,231. 8922 of these
>were detected by more than 1 spam trap.
>
>So there were only 81 messages which were *only* detected by MAPS-RBL+,
>whereas over 9000 were detected *only* by SpamAssassin.
>
>So having MAPS-RBL+ only saved us from 81 pieces of spam in the last 2 weeks.
>

Julian,

  Thanks for the info.  How did you generate your report, using MTGR or
  whatever that tool is called?

  I suspect that my RBL check is not working.  All I see in the log is
  that RBL checks have timed out.  I only have

     Spam List = ORDB-RBL, relays.ordb.org

  set and I can resolve relays.ordb.org quickly.  How can I tell if I'm getting
  any RBL service?

  Thanks,   Tom Combs

--
Tom Combs                                      E-mail: combs at magnet.fsu.edu
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory        Phone:  (850) 644-1657
1800 E. Paul Dirac Drive                       Tallahassee, FL 32310