POP & SMTP Server Question

[Don Levey]

> Martin Alderson wrote:
> <snip>
>> I suggest that you do not enable SMTP connections. Every ISP should
>> provide an SMTP relay that people can use. Enabling SMTP connections
>> can sadly mean your server will get pounded with spammers, and there
>> is nothing much you can do about it.
> </snip>
>

This is precisely *why* I set up SMTP connections.  Now I have far finer
control on the spam I can reject.  Whenj my ISP gets it, they don't filter,
and the spammer gets an acknowledgement that the message was received.  I
can bounce messages, let them drop silently, complain to the ISPs involved,
block at the firewall, whitelist, blacklist...  I get several thousand
attempts to send me spam a day - and only one or two from the most recent
crop are succeeding.

I use perhaps 8 blacklists, including some by geography (because I've never
gotten a legitimate message from some areas, for example), some by dynamic
IP, some by known spam source.  I also use spamassassin, and that's coming
up to speed (just started).  Approx 50% (or more) of what I get via my ISP
is spam; less than 1% via my own server.



John C. Nichel wrote:
> Sure there is.  Make sure you don't set up an open relay.
>

That's different.  Martin was discussing being on the receiving end; this
has more to do with being used as the sending end.  Securing sendmail isn't
all that difficult; someone else posted the link to the sendmail site that
discusses it.  Between that, and decent virus protection practices (to avoid
a backdoor), you should be reasonably secure.
 -Don