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Spam Blocking Engine for OpenBSD

Posted by michael on from the two-scoops-white-rice dept.

mkeke writes "In a post over at OpenBSD Journal, Theo states that he has written a spam blocker that works with pf and Spews. It looks darn cool :)"

2 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. SPAM? by AlgUSF · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Spam really sux, but I can usually tell spam from real mail by the subject line, and it only takes me like 2 sec./message to detect it as spam and delete it. I get roughly 20/30 spam messages/day, therefore it takes a WHOLE 1 minute out of my day to delete spam. Spam is annoying, but it isn't that big of a problem that we need Slashdot posts every day about it...

    --


    I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
  2. Spews is worse than the spammers by jeske · · Score: 2, Flamebait
    Spammers are frustrating because they disturb you, there is no way to track them down, and you can't get them to stop.

    Spews is exactly the same.

    1. They disturb legitimate users: I run a business hosting an email customer support application (Neotonic.com). It is very important for us to get email support replies thorough to customers. Numerous times our IP addresses have ended up on the Spews blocklist because of some unsolicited mail sender in the same 256 address subnet. At most colocation facilities, ten or more companies share the same subnet, and it is not easy to change your IP addresses.
    2. There is no way to track them down: Organizations like MAPS are judicious about how they block IP addresses. They do NOT block entire subnets unless there is cause, and they have an organized appeals process to take care of their oversights. Spews has no such facilities. In fact, the only centralized item in spews is the spews.org website.
    3. You can't get them to stop: They block entire ISPs, and their FAQ says that I'm a victim of "rare inadvertant blocking". The trouble is, we followed their advice, we moved to a new colocation, with an entirely new bandwidth provider, and our new IPs are also spews blocked. There is no organization to appeal to, there is no way to get this fixed.
    Legitimate users like us can't keep changing IP addresses because SPEWS is too aggressive and has no organized process. If you want to use a spam advisory system, use MAPS RBL.

    Spews is worse than the spammers, because at least I can ignore the spammers.