OT: Spamcop BL - good or dangerous?

[Scott Silva]

DAve spake the following on 11/29/2006 7:29 AM:
> John Rudd wrote:
>> Paul Kelly :: Blacknight Solutions wrote:
>>> Gerard Seibert wrote:
>>>> On Wednesday November 29, 2006 at 06:21:54 (AM) Arthur Sherman wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Sometimes I get a message from any of lists I'm subscribed to, that
>>>>> mail to
>>>>> my address bounces.
>>>>> And as a reason I see Spamcop blocking sender's (legitimate) server.
>>>>>
>>>>> Here comes the question:
>>>>> What would you use instead of Spamcop?
>>>>> It gotta be free service, and the more lists the better: right now,
>>>>> Spamcop
>>>>> is #1 blocking BL in the logs.
>>>>> I am afraid if I drop it, the blocking will be worse.
>>>>
>>>> SpamCop does not block legitimate servers. I use SpamCop myself.
>>>
>>> I'm sorry, but that is complete rubbish. SpamCop users blatantly report
>>> every and any e-mail they receive even double opt-in mailing lists etc.
>>> It is an extremely dangerous BL to use if you wish to get legitimate
>>> e-mail.
>>>
>>> The only rbl of use (at smtp transaction time) is xbl. Anything else
>>> will drop legitimate mail, that is a fact.
>>>
>>
>> I'm with you up until this point.
>>
>> Spamcop is absolute trash when it comes to just about every aspect of
>> their operations ... so I wouldn't trust their RBL at all.  At most, I
>> might use it in SpamAssassin with a _VERY_ low score.  Even then, I
>> would be suspicious of their reliability.
>>
>> However, I don't think XBL is the only valid RBL to use at SMTP time.
>> I've found SBL to be useful, and spamhaus in general to be reliable
>> and accurate (not just their XBL).  I therefore expect that I'll also
>> be using the PBL (and thus zen.spamhaus.org) in the near future.
>>
> 
> We have been using zen.spamhaus.org for about two weeks now with
> excellent results, not one reported false positive. My users would let
> me know in a heartbeat if there were.
> 
> It's too new to recommend, but I would certainly suggest doing your own
> testing as it is looking very promising. The big plus for us was PBL
> replaced our dialup RBL with better results, and no FP.
> 
> DAve
> 
I am still waiting for Spamhaus to list the PBL on their frontpage. Until then
I am going to have to consider it beta. If they don't list it, I have to think
they are not ready for it to go "prime time".

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