Best way to use blacklists?

[Bill Anderson]

If you use MailScanner first for blacklists, does it always call
spamassasin, or does it just flag the email as spam and bypass SA?  Where in
SA do you select what blacklists to use?  Thanks again for all the GREAT
help.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: MailScanner mailing list [mailto:MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK]On
> Behalf Of Timothy M. Lyons
> Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 12:48 PM
> To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: Best way to use blacklists?
>
>
> I personally use multiple blacklists - however I only use one of them
> with sendmail (relays.ordb.org), I then implement spamcop.net and
> Infinite-Monkeys within MailScanner.
>
> I find that ordb is quick and gives me a pretty good coverage, plus I
> have had very few problems with false positives - those that I have
> noticed, have been resubmitted and cleaned out quickly.  Spamcop however
> tends to be a bit too aggressive and has inadvertently blocked out
> numerous valid senders so I wont use it on my server other than with
> MailScanner/SA to indicate the possibility.
>
> Just my .02
>
> --Tim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: MailScanner mailing list [mailto:MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On
> Behalf Of Richard Siddall
> Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 15:39
> To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: Best way to use blacklists?
>
>
> 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.
>