Re: [OT] Spamming (was "The porting effort for the Dell Axim x50")

Hi Jan and everybody !

I recommend to take measures also on your PC, because
there are other advantages, once you get organized.
I organize my e-mail to different directories.
So, it don't bother me a bit, that I have over 12000 unread messages
from xen-users list, because they are all nicely in their own folder,
as everything else. I also get mail from many isps.
Thunderbird handles this very well.
As well under linux or under Windows. I haven't checked mac, but I guess
it too.
The only thing I'm not quite satisfied is the calendar, because I think the
Mozilla based calendar-projects are not yet mature enough, but there has
gone some
time I checked last.
Evolution seems to be the choice of new linux distributions.
I used Palm for all organizing for many years, under Windows.
The good thing was, that everything was so tightly integrated and worked
well otherwise, but
later I discovered that the protection of the data securitywise was poor.
I hope I could some day do all i did with my Palm and more with the
linux-Axim, and a more
secure way and regardless of the OS of the PC.
And there has to be this kind of way to deal with spam and other e-mail
issues, if
really using it for production. The automation it beforehand is even
more important
with a handheld, because it's more difficult to check each e-mail
separately, and deal with it individually.
Last week there were an incident, where the Finnish prime minister Matti
Vanhanen got
50000 e-mails in 24 hours. What if he were on a visit to a foreign
country, and his communications
depended on a handheld ? I am pretty sure, that with the resources he
has, everything there could be
done beforehand on MTA-level were already done.

Mikko

Jan Henkins wrote:
> Hello Mikko and all,
>
> I'm taking the liberty to change the subject so that it's easier to follow
> it from here on.
>
> On Mon, June 9, 2008 12:56 pm, Mikko Silvennoinen wrote:
>
>> Hi, about reducing spam :
>>
>> It is possible and probable that the spammers use invaded machines of
>> basicly innocent people (even me), and maybe there is possible to forge
>> these e-mail headers,
>> so I hope this does not hurt too much, but
>> I analyzed some recent spam, and at least ip 195.20.15.168
>> came up.
>>
>
> Interesting. In this case it resolves to mail2.mediastay.com. This is a
> mail server used by Mediastay, a marketing company based in France. This
> in itself doesn't mean they are evil, but nevertheless marketing companies
> can use subversive techniques.
>
>
>> Is there possible to use some better equipped e-mail-list server
>> software to beat this if it bothers too much.
>>
>
> Listserv software is generally not designed with spam-policing in mind.
> This is actually a good thing, since it can be handled more effectively
> elsewhere. From a listserv perspective, we want the best functionality for
> the list engine, which is most probably why this list uses Mailman (it's
> possibly the best listserv system available at the moment). Spam filtering
> happens on a mail server MTA level (sendmail/postfix/exim/etc), which
> works really well if it's set up properly.
>
>
>
>> After teaching what is spam for some time it is quite tigth filter.
>> Since the telephone companies, who are keeping public smtp servers for
>> their customers, don't seem to require any authentication
>> for sending e-mail this is very hard to get reduced.
>> Not to mention that sending from any machine is possible, if you or the
>> virus writer knows how to.
>> It is possible to configure newer e-mail servers to require e.g.
>> certificate authentication from
>> clients also. I don't know anybody who has bothered to do that.
>>
>
> Yes, that seems to be the current climate out there. Most ISP's I've been
> using over the last few years at least have SMTP authentication set up on
> their client-facing SMTP servers, although that is sadly by no means
> universal. Even so, it's possible to set up effective antispam measures on
> your own PC, whether you use Linux/Windows/Mac. It's just a matter of
> finding one that works for you. Even so, I think it's sad that a user has
> to go through these lengths to protect him/herself, whereas the whole
> thing could be preempted effectively on a MTA level of the list server
> itself. It's relatively technical, but by no means difficult. If it's a
> Linux server, there are fantastic tools like
> SpamAssassin/Amavis/MailScanner/ClamAV that integrates with just about any
> conceivable MTA system. The internet abounds with HOWTO docs for the
> non-technical too.
>
> Anyway, that's just my 2C's worth.
>
>
Received on Mon Jun 09 2008 - 11:26:32 EDT