MailScanner/Sendmail Gateway LDAP

[Stephen Swaney]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: MailScanner mailing list [mailto:MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On
> Behalf Of Peter Bonivart
> Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 10:54 AM
> To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: MailScanner/Sendmail Gateway LDAP
>
> Ugo Bellavance wrote:
> >> I suppose it is in the MAQ, although it's rather difficult to find,
> since
> >> the link says nothing about text of the link says nothing about "ldap"
> or
> >> "unknown users" or "invalid users".
> >
> > Anyone thinks I should modify this part in the MAQ to make it clearer?
> > Suggestions are welcome.
>

Blocking email to Unknown or Invalid Recipients / Users


> It says "accept on valid users", maybe it could say something like
> "accept only valid users (and reject all unknown)". I'm not even sure it
> belongs in the MAQ, how many use this? 1 out of 10? Less?
>

This might belong in the MAQ since it cuts down tremendously on spam
processing that needs to be done by MailScanner. If you are not using this
technique, you probably should be. Some stats for a client site (University
- last 16 days):

Total Delivery Attempts:                284,175
Good email (passed to Exchange):         64,997
Spam:                                            24,286
Unknown Users:                           83,911
RBL Blocked (sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org): 108,047
Unresolveable Domains:                    2,934

Blocking for unknown users accounted for a 29.53% load reduction of the
gateways.

If you assume that all email to Unknown Users, blocked by RBL, from un-
resolvable domains was also spam (might not be 100% accurate) the actual
spam aimed at the site was 219,178 messages or:

spam:                   219,178 (77.13% of all messages)
Good email:              64,997 (22.87% of all messages)

Almost 4 out of every 5 messages was junk.

I'll try and amplify my post on the subject on blocking email at the gateway
a week or two back and add to the MailScanner Manual as an appendix and you
can point the MAQ to the manual - or repost in the MAQ.

Steve

Stephen Swaney
President
Fortress Systems Ltd.
Steve.Swaney at FSL.com> /Peter Bonivart



--
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

Fortress Systems Ltd.
www.fsl.com

-------------------------- MailScanner list ----------------------
To leave, send    leave mailscanner    to jiscmail at jiscmail.ac.uk
Before posting, please see the Most Asked Questions at
http://www.mailscanner.biz/maq/     and the archives at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/mailscanner.html