Best way to use blacklists?

[Richard Siddall]

Bill Anderson wrote:
>
> I notice there are several ways to utilize blacklists.  Looks like you can
> do it in mailscanner, sendmail, and the other option is to let Spamassassin
> do it.  Any ideas on the best way to implement with pros and cons would be
> greatly appreciated?  Thanks.

!!!FAQ Alert!!!

I guess my view is that it depends on your confidence in the blacklist:

1/ If you absolutely trust the blacklist and want to reject the mail,
false positives and all, use it in sendmail.  That will result in the
least processing load too.

2/ If you absolutely trust the blacklist, but want only to flag the
message as spam, use it in MailScanner.

3/ If you have mixed feelings about the blacklist, but consider it
useful in detecting spam, use it in SpamAssassin (and consider
tuning the score SA assigns).

I hope this helps.  Bear in mind that the more blacklists you use,
the longer it takes to process each message.  If you're rejecting
mail in sendmail, the sender can time out while waiting for you
to check all the blacklists.

Regards,

        Richard Siddall.