Anyone using zen.spamhaus.org?

[Aaron K. Moore]

John Rudd wrote:
> On Sep 5, 2006, at 12:37 AM, Glenn Steen wrote:
> 
>> On 05/09/06, Alex Neuman van der Hans <alex at nkpanama.com> wrote:
>>> John Rudd wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> On Sep 4, 2006, at 5:11 PM, Glenn Steen wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> I for one work under legislation that prohibit me from flat-out
>>>>> rejecting _based on sender alone_ (it's a bit more involved than
>>>>> that, but lets leave that:-)
>>>> 
>> 
>> It's a brew of different (Swedish) laws governing "principal of
>> availability and open equal dealing with all subjects"... Laws
>> covering everything from freedom of speech(!) to how public documents
>> are to be archived and handled. I'm certainly no lawyer, but
>> thankfully a central .gov agency (Statskontoret for those who really
>> want to know) has made a set of guidelines for us poor "public
>> mailadmins" to follow. They're pretty generic, and open for _some_
>> interpretation, but paramount is that the collected body of laws does
>> not allow us to use "generic blacklists" for rejecting messages. If I
>> could somehow complement everything to know that a sender was
>> actually a Swedish subject, then perhaps I could use BLs, but...
>> Alas not now. 
>> 
> 
> Except... RBLs don't block senders.  They block hosts (actually,
> that's not true either: they block IP addresses; a host can change
> IPs over time, and a sender can change hosts frequently ...
> especially when you consider relaying).  Seems to me a distinction
> could be made... 
> 
> I mean, if I use a DUL type RBL to block ISP customer IPs, I'll still
> receive the sender's email via the ISP's proper mail gateway.  I could
> go on, but RBLs are not even remotely about "based on sender", IMO.

I send a url back in the rejection messages for instructions on how to
contact us so that legitimate mail can be whitelisted if they're showing
up in one of the blacklists.  In the last 6 months or so I've had to
companies that we do business with that use a hosted e-mail service get
blocked by sorbs.  And one that is on a DUL list as they send out from
their local mail server, instead of through any of their registered mail
servers.  If it wasn't for the RBLs our mail server would've succumbed
to the massive increase in spam several months ago.

I'd look into white listing Swedish mail servers.  Not being able to use
RBLs is extremely limiting.  Perhaps it's time to start lobbying your
government for changing their guidelines.

-- 
Aaron Kent Moore
Information Technology Services
DeKalb Memorial Hospital, Inc.
Auburn, IN
Phone:  260.920.2808
E-mail:  amoore at dekalbmemorial.com