Spam Detection Around 55%

[Scott Silva]

Julian Field spake the following on 10/31/2006 11:00 AM:
> 
> 
> Matt Kettler wrote:
>>> Julian Field wrote:
>>>   
>>>>>> The existing file assumes:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> you have DCC and pyzor installed, and have enabled their plugins
>>>>>> you don't use NFS, so flock is safe
>>>>>> you have working DNS (likely, but not always true)
>>>>>> you don't want to use the AWL.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The last 3 are probably safe for 99% of sites, but the NFS bit could really bite
>>>>>> someone in the butt.
>>>>>>   
>>>>>>         
>>>> I set them to sensible values that will be correct for 99% of my users, 
>>>> particularly the less knowledgeable ones. I don't know anyone who runs a 
>>>> mail server with no dns, it would make lots of things rather hard. If 
>>>> you run a mail server with no dns successfully, you probably know enough 
>>>> to be able to tweak 1 config file.
>>>>
>>>> You are quite entitled to your opinions, and you are quite entitled to 
>>>> edit the config files too. They aren't rules, they are just a starting 
>>>> point for your own edits.
>>>>
>>>> I'm not going to get into an argument over this, it's a straight 
>>>> difference of opinion. You have your view, I have mine. Let's just agree 
>>>> to disagree.
>>>>     
>>>
>>> I will readily agree to disagree on the DNS and AWL ones. It's purely an opinion
>>> matter.
>>>
>>> The NFS one, well.. fine, call it an opinion matter. But don't claim you're
>>> doing it because you want to make things easier for the less knowledgeable.
>>> You're doing it to get better performance for 99.9% of setups, and considering
>>> the NFS users to be experts. You're willing to accept the trade of screwing over
>>> a less knowledgeable person who inherits a NFS setup. Which is fine by me, but
>>> let's be realistic. This is a performance tweak, not a ease-of-use tweak.
>>>
>>>
>>> That said, I will ask you to consider commenting out the DCC statements. By
>>> default, straight out of the box, SA doesn't 3.1.x support this command because
>>> the DCC plugin isn't loaded by default. Therefore this causes parse errors, and
>>> doesn't belong.
>>>   
> But if you read the instructions printed at the end of the install, it 
> tells you to uncomment the DCC statement in init.pre. It doesn't do it 
> automatically as this would break the licence.
>>> Which is of course, what triggered my reply in the first place. The dcc_path
>>> statement was causing parse errors. That's bad. It breaks RDJ.
>>>   
> And, as the RDJ setup instructions from www.fsl.com/support tell you to 
> do, you should run the RDJ once by hand to get the initial rulesets and 
> check everything's okay. If you didn't follow the earlier instructions, 
> this will highlight the dcc_path error for you, allowing you to either 
> comment out the dcc_path line or re-read the earlier instruction 
> printing by my install script.
> 
> Maybe we should have a wiki page that lists all the things that you and 
> I disagree on :-)
> Just I've never had a complaint sent to me by a user who's really had 
> problems figuring out my instructions and has been badly bitten by all 
> these things. I just put my feet in the shoes of a particular kind of 
> user, one that barely knows what they are doing, who runs a little box 
> for him/herself and a few customers/friends and who loves to have 
> instructions telling them what to do.
> 
> Jules
> 
Julian,
I agree with you completely. IMHO it is easier for a seasoned admin to just
skip the extra steps than for a newbie to know what to do next. I think your
defaults are the best compromise to keep a badly FSCKed up machine from
becoming someones spam zombie. I am happy to have a few less of them firing
blindly at me!  ;-)

Besides, you are root when it comes to MailScanner, and you get to implement
what you want and cut what you don't like. We happy and thankful admins just
work with what we are given, and adjust things to suit our environment. If
someone wants hand holding through every step, they should just contact
Fortress Systems and set up a contract and buy something with all that
included. You have created, IMHO, a real "bangers and mash" product that
competes with and beats most everything out there! It is easy to get started
with, and so highly customizable that the only thing it won't do yet is make
coffee

"Beggars cannot be choosers!"
-- 

MailScanner is like deodorant...
You hope everybody uses it, and
you notice quickly if they don't!!!!