[Gllug] How to handle spam bounces from secondary MX server

Bruce Richardson itsbruce at workshy.org
Mon Dec 8 14:41:20 UTC 2008


On Mon, Dec 08, 2008 at 02:32:39PM +0000, Ryan wrote:
> 
> the argument against greylisting may be valid. Or to be more exact a
> backup MX can become a workaround if it doesn't also have greylisting
> running.
> 
> A client of mine encountered this. Their host (BYtemark) were offering
> a free backup MX whish was great. When we started using greylistd on
> the primary MX, the spam via cracked/trial mail accounts (as opposed
> to bots) often got around it because the backup MX didn't have
> greylisting and of course the backup MX was pretty quickly whitelisted
> by our primary one.
> 
> As Martin said, the secondary MX must be set up in the same way as the
> primary or it will defeat your anti-malware/spam measures.

And I disagree, having had the opposite experience by using greylisting
on my secondary and not my primary.  That and call forwarding has been a
winning combination (for me; may not work for everybody).

There are some good arguments for having the configs in sync but if you
keep your secondary in a remote location then it can be very difficult
to have your secondary running the same configuration.  One reason for
this is that it can't have the same access to information as the primary
(unless you either open up a hole in your security or export sensitive
information out of your network).  I have found it a very effective
alternative to make the secondary more agressive against spam.  Of
course, I'm talking about my personal mail system here, so it's not
seeing huge mail volumens and thus my secondary rarely sees legitimate
mail.  For a work set-up with larger throughput I'd do something else.

-- 
Bruce

It is impolite to tell a man who is carrying you on his shoulders that
his head smells.
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