Maps

[MerK]

Okay what is MAPS and how do i use it.

As far as i know MAPS is like a list of known hosts that spam emails in a database, MAPS then reads the database and blocks any emails from those hosts listed.


How do i use it and will it block any of my proper emails, how can i check the list of emails being blocked and ones not being blocked.

 

[chris@virtbiz]

You're pretty well on target. Configuring MAPS will have your server check incoming mail against known/reported sources of spam or uce.

Our customers have found it a great way to cut down on their junk mail.

The trick is to experiment a little bit and find a combination of blacklists that work well for your needs. bl.spamcop.net seems to be one of the more popular lists, and does a fairly good job of rejecting the bad without throwing out much - if any - of the good. Search around for some others. You'll find several good ones mentioned in this forum.

On our production machines, we use a combination of about 7 or 8 different lists, both public and private. Although we host for several thousand domains, we rarely hear a complaint. (Maybe a couple a month.) Of these, it's usually from somebody attempting to relay directly from a DHCP'd dsl or cablemodem account.

You can always check your maillog to see what's been rejected, but there isn't a pretty GUI in the control panel, and you won't get an email notice telling you a particular message has been rejected. So best to experiment a bit with it and keep an eye on things as you tweek.

Good luck!

 

[MerK]

Yea thanks m8 i'll chec it out.

 

[Kanagaraj]

Originally posted by chris@virtbiz

On our production machines, we use a combination of about 7 or 8 different lists, both public and private. Although we host for several thousand domains, we rarely hear a complaint. (Maybe a couple a month.) Of these, it's usually from somebody attempting to relay directly from a DHCP'd dsl or cablemodem account.

Can u post that 7 or 8 different listt.

Thanks

 

[chris@virtbiz]

Sure! All these must go on a single line, separated by the ; character.

bl.spamcop.net
sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org
opm.blitzed.org
dnsbl-1.uceprotect.net
china.blackholes.us
hongkong.blackholes.us
korea.blackholes.us
taiwan.blackholes.us
brazil.blackholes.us
wanadoo-fr.blackholes.us
chinanet.blackholes.us
cn-kr.blackholes.us

NOTE! This group of blacklists works very well for us and our customers who are on these servers, but is relatively restrictive and may not work for you. I would *highly encourage* you to research what each of the lists do yourself and make a call based on your circumstance & experience. I would *NOT* recommend just plugging in all the lists above without careful consideration.

 

[cyberdude]

Originally posted by chris@virtbiz
Sure! All these must go on a single line, separated by the ; character.

bl.spamcop.net
sbl-xbl.spamhaus.org
opm.blitzed.org
dnsbl-1.uceprotect.net
china.blackholes.us
hongkong.blackholes.us
korea.blackholes.us
taiwan.blackholes.us
brazil.blackholes.us
wanadoo-fr.blackholes.us
chinanet.blackholes.us
cn-kr.blackholes.us

NOTE! This group of blacklists works very well for us and our customers who are on these servers, but is relatively restrictive and may not work for you. I would *highly encourage* you to research what each of the lists do yourself and make a call based on your circumstance & experience. I would *NOT* recommend just plugging in all the lists above without careful consideration.

All these must go on a single line, separated by the ; character

is this the way how it is suppose to go in the plesk control panels MAPS text box

 

[CBiLL]

Originally posted by cyberdude
All these must go on a single line, separated by the ; character

is this the way how it is suppose to go in the plesk control panels MAPS text box

yes

Bill

 

[akaplan]

>>You can always check your maillog to see what's been rejected,

How do you do that.

I grepped the logs and can't find any indication of MAPS blocking.

 

[globodata]

Do you think adding 7 or 8 blacklist woud cause some performance degradation on mail service ?

 

[faris]

one thing to keep in mind...

Just a small word of caution: For over a year now I have been using mailwasher to scan all incoming mail to our admin/sales/billing/support addresses to see how much non-spam mail gets flagged by spamcop/spamhaus (and more recently sorbs too - I rather like sorbs) as potential spam.

Unfortunately I'd say 5% of non-spam mail gets flagged by one or the other (spamcop flags more "ok" mail than the spamhause lists, followed by sorbs).

This makes using MAPS on sales/admin/billing/etc addresses, especially if you include more than one type or rbl, a definite no no. For example, in the UK, almost anyone using bt internet or freeserve/wannado as their dial-up would most likely be blocked quite often.

So if you do want to implement mail blocking policies, if at all possible have your own domain hosted somewhere other than on a maps protected platform so that you can at least receive sales and support email.

Also be sure to whitelist your own server, in case it ever gets blacklisted by anybody. It can and does happen. One of our servers was on the same class C as a well known spammer. The class C owner didn't respond to the warnings, and so the entire class C was blacklisted.

SO be cautious. Blacklisting is very useful and reduces spam hugely, but it can have unwanted side effects.

All this is just my opinion. Others will undoubtedly disagree.

Faris.

 

[chris@virtbiz]

I echo parts of the above. I will add this:

As with anytime you are putting new security or convenience measures in place, you should carefully evaluate and test before affecting those changes on a production server.

Mileage may vary, and there is no such thing as a single solution to fix everybody's problems.

It's unfortunate that so many providers are so lax in keeping their networks clean. Their customers only suffer as a result. As expensive as connectivity can be outside the USA, I'm shocked there are so many providers that just don't care how their transfer is used. Yipes!