Re: [exim] Thoughts on Open Relays

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Author: Marc Perkel
Date:  
To: Tor Slettnes
CC: Exim users list
Subject: Re: [exim] Thoughts on Open Relays


Tor Slettnes wrote:

> My spam filter is good enough that I'm thinking about going open relay.
>
> Hmmm..  I would say that sounds more than a little arrogant, at least 
> without further detail.   I presume you have seen "You Might Be An 
> Anti-Spam Kook If...":
>     http://www.rhyolite.com/anti-spam/you-might-be.html

>
> -tor
>
>

Everyone assumes this is impossible. As you know I've been posting
information about my advances in spam blocking techniques here and in
the Spamassassin forum for years. I'm made some significant
breakthroughs lately using multiple bayesian filters and other tricks to
where my false positive rate is 0 and my false negative rate is one in
one thousand. So that raised the question - could I actually get it good
enough to run a spam fre open relay.

So - I thought I could do it if I added a couple more restrictions.

I tighter scoring on the open relay IP.
Liniting the flow to one message a minute per IP address.

And - you also have to look at the quality of the spammer. The spammers
who are looking for open relays are not very sophisticated and their
spam is the class that I catch 100% of. And - a relay that only sends
one message a minute isn't something that is going to attract that kind
of traffic.

The point I'mn trying to make here is that I'm close to doing what most
people consider to be technically impossible. The discussion should be
around - wow - can this really be accomplished? So - put asside your
religious indoctrination that all open relays are evil and think outside
the box.

When I was a kid no one locked the doors to their house and the left the
keys in their car unlocked and everything was fine. I still believe in
providing open public services if I can do it without the down side. And
I am now at the point where I think I have a solution figured out as to
how to accomplish that.

--
Marc Perkel - marc@???

Spam Filter: http://www.junkemailfilter.com
    My Blog: http://marc.perkel.com
My Religion: http://www.churchofreality.org
~ "If it's real - we believe in it!" ~