[SURBL-Discuss] FP Pattern for sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org

[Chris Santerre]

For what it is worth, if I turned off blocking at MTA level I would see a
33-40% increase in traffic. I don't want that. Every reject has a nice
response saying where to email if you get blocked. I've got Delay_checks
enabled. So I can override a listing. 

I've had to do it 3 times I think. All 3 times the customer was grateful I
had informed then they were on a black list. And I helped them to get off of
it. So it was not a negative for our company, bit a positive. 

Just the rants of a crazy man,
--Chris

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Rob McEwen [mailto:rob at pvsys.com]
>Sent: Saturday, August 14, 2004 4:52 PM
>To: 'SURBL Discussion list'
>Subject: [SURBL-Discuss] FP Pattern for sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org
>Importance: High
>
>
>RE: FP Pattern for sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org
>
>For a while now, my philosophy has been to use 
>sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org to block
>at the connection level and not even allow these messages onto 
>my server.
>Much of the remaining spam filtering is then done by SURBL-checking.
>However, more recently, I been testing samples of sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org
>blocked messages and I've noticed two things.
>
>(1) more false positives than I would want to see (though 
>still a very tiny,
>tiny percentage overall) get blocked by sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org
>
>...and...
>
>(2) those that ARE legitimate tend to be cases where a mistake 
>was made and,
>by the next day (or later that same day), the offending IP is 
>removed from
>sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org
>
>However, I must admit, I'm drawing sweeping conclusions from 
>very little
>sampling of data. Therefore, don't take my word for it... 
>Rather, is this
>consistent with anyone else's experience with sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org? The
>reason I mention this is that, if my initial conclusions are 
>true, there
>would then be a strong argument for "holding" 
>sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org blocked
>mail and giving it a "second try" some hours later. Also, if 
>this is true,
>does anyone have a "feel" for exactly how long "bad" data stays on
>sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org before it gets removed? (Recognizing, of 
>course, that
>SpamHaus is probably the most reliable and respected free RBL 
>in existence
>and they rarely make mistakes in the first place).
>
>Any thoughts or suggestions? Has anyone examined their 
>sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org
>blocked messages lately?
>
>Rob McEwen
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Discuss mailing list
>Discuss at lists.surbl.org
>http://lists.surbl.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>