> 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
