using Vispan with MailScanner

[Richard D Alloway]

On Wed, 6 Dec 2006, Thom Jones wrote:

> Just a quick question for anyone using Vispan -
> Which is preferable?  Blocking at the sendmail access level or blocking with
> IPTables?
> thanks for any input.

Hi Thom!

I've been using vispan for a few weeks now and have modified it to support 
RBLs via rbldnsd (or compatible).

I like this approach since blocking via IPTables does tell legitimate email 
senders (using a blocked server) simply fails without any information about who 
to contact about removing the ban, etc.

The good points for using the IPTables method is that the connection is never 
established to the MTA, reducing the overall load on your system, and you can 
block regardless of the MTA used.

Another reason I like this method is that you can use the RBL to block at the 
MTA level (any that support RBLs) or within MailScanner or within 
SpamAssassin... there are many options! :)

I've attempted to contact the author of Vispan regarding my patches to 2.1.0, 
but haven't heard back from the author or the Vispan site's webmaster (may be 
the same person).

I'd be happy to share my patch(s) with you and/or the rest of the group if 
you or anyone else is interested.

-Richard D Alloway
  Chief Technical Officer
  Winbeam Inc, A ClearWire Company