Boy Al, you like opening a can of worms. RBLs do have short comings. However, they are extremely useful is used correctly. The best approach to fighting spam is a blended approach using a weighting system. This uses various tests, each with its own weight, do determine the weight of the message and its legitimacy. Example, SpamCOP on my server scores 60% of the hold weight and only 43% of the delete weight. This means a message has to fail several tests before it is held or deleted. Currently, there are about 90 different tests run against each message, both black and white. John Tolmachoff Engineer/Consultant/Owner eServices For You -----Original Message----- From: Mulnick, Al [mailto:Al.Mulnick@xxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 9:16 AM To: [ExchangeList] Subject: [exchangelist] RE: How do other e-mail admins deal with getti ng off spam lists http://www.MSExchange.org/ That brings up an interesting argument that's been going on for many years now. RFC == request for comments. That's not a law or even anything more than a suggested way to play together. Who in the wide world gave the rbl folks the *right* to enforce non-rfc following? And why? Who do they go to to solve questions of how to translate the rfc when they have questions? I absolutely abhor the concept of a RBL and it's use mostly because of the implementation and it's inability to figure out when to push and when to hold in a consistent and business-like fashion. As the next post mentions, it's often whim of the admin. That just plain sucks IMHO and it's one reason we've seen some of the RBL managers go out of business and start looking elsewhere for jobs. Maybe there should be an RFC for RBL and then we can push to force them to adhere to comments? </leaves soapbox> Still, it was nice of you to post those links John. Al _____ From: John Tolmachoff (Lists) [mailto:johnlist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 11:37 AM To: [ExchangeList] Subject: [exchangelist] RE: How do other e-mail admins deal with getting off spam lists http://www.MSExchange.org/ People, if you find out you are listed in a black list, you have to dig to find out why. Do not just blindly ask on this list. http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/ip4r.ch?ip=64.221.192.56 shows you are listed in a few well respected lists. You need to go to each link and read the information to find out why and how to correct. http://www.dnsreport.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=nbm.org shows you have a few DNS issues, but nothing major. However, it also shows that your server is not configured to receive e-mail to postmaster@serveripaddress as required by RFC, and which is used by some blacklist for notifications and confirmations. DBL in fact is one of these, and if you would bother to look up why DSBL has you list, you will see they have tried to contact you at that address, but since your server does not accept it. John Tolmachoff Engineer/Consultant/Owner eServices For You -----Original Message----- From: Holstrom, Don J. [mailto:DHolstrom@xxxxxxx] Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 8:06 AM To: [ExchangeList] Subject: [exchangelist] How do other e-mail admins deal with getting off spam lists http://www.MSExchange.org/ We are on the SpamCop list and can't get off. ORDB tells me we are not an open relay. I have reverse DNS set up. All our e-mail goes through nbm.org. What else can I do? Change our IP address? 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