Spam and IP deny

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sbrook
newbie
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 11:45 am

Spam and IP deny

Post by sbrook »

Previous versions of Cpanel used sendmail as the SMTP server which allowed for the creation of an IP based allow/deny list on an account by account list.

Exim will kind of permit the same kind of thing, although much more much more complex to implement and much harder to implement efficiently.

What it can do with moderate efficiency is use work with a dndbl such as spamcop or spamhaus. I would really like to work with these if it is possible.

I went looking for the exim config files and discovered that they don't appear to be accessible to the webhost. So, I guess that begs the question ... is exim run on a server basis across multiple domains which precludes individual domains implementing this kind of thing? Or are we simply not allowed to see / change things in exim as webhosts? Or option 3, am I doing something wrong in my search?

I know that there are antispam utilities on the system and as such, spamasassin works fine ... except that I still SEE the spam (I tag the subject and filter it in my client) ... but it's increasing dramatically. Boxtrapper is an implementation of sender verification which is a horrible mechanism. Filtering works if you know that there are known configurations of mail text (incl headers) that you can trip on ... but again it's shutting the door after the horse has bolted.

dnsbl's allows the server to block based on IP ... I get NO genuine email from asia ... none at all ... only spam and lots of it. To block most asian IP blocks gets me a dramatic drop in the spam I have to deal with, which reduces the risk of accidental mail loss (I've had a few that SA has tagged that were not spam at all)
Nick
Site Admin
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 10:58 pm
Location: Toronto
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Post by Nick »

Hi sbrook,

Unfortunately it seems like DNSRBL rules need to be added to the ACL section of the system-wide /etc/exim.conf. While not always optimal, you can tell spamassassin to not forward mail to your mailbox after its tagged from the Cpanel interface. (However personally I find having Thunderbird just move all the tagged spamassassin mail to a folder works too)

For future reference, it may be best to submit these sorts of issues to our helpdesk: http://helpdesk.prioritycolo.com for speedier response :)

Sorry I didn't have any better news on this matter,

Nick
Nick Kavassalis - PriorityColo Inc.
nick@prioritycolo.com - www.prioritycolo.com
sbrook
newbie
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu May 10, 2007 11:45 am

Post by sbrook »

I was afraid that it was a server wide issue and not on a domain basis.

As to timing ? Not an urgent issue.
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