Whitelisting localhost and mailing lists

[PSi_101]

There seems to be confusion and documentation conflicts around wether we should be whitelisting localhost or not when using Mailing Lists.

In this documentation it suggests that localhost is no longer needed, and in fact needs to be removed from the whitelist if Outbound Spam protection is to function correctly:
http://download1.parallels.com/Ples...inistrator-guide/index.htm?fileName=71349.htm

But on the other hand, this documentation suggests to add localhost to the whitelists, even though the warning says otherwise, and that outgoing mailing list mail will still be processed by Outgoing Spam Control.
http://kb.odin.com/en/123649

Through trial and error, i've found that my mailing lists were not able to send mail to external email accounts unless localhost is whitelisted.

If I want all mail scripts to be going through the Outbound Spam Control, and also having my mailing lists working, should I be adding localhost to my whitelist?

Thanks guys, keep up the great work. Especially you Igor!

 

[trialotto]

@PSi_101.

The word "external" in your post is most relevant: it implies that you should add "localhost to the whitelist".

By the way, the first link also states that the localhost should be whitelisted, see:

Note: Starting with Plesk 12, the 127.0.0.0/8 network is no longer added to the whitelist by default. This is necessary for outbound spam protection to function correctly.

Kind regards....

 

[PSi_101]

Thanks for the reply @trialotto
It depends how you read it. I read it as, "127.0.0.0/8 is no longer added by default because this is necessary for outbound spam protection to function correctly".
Why would you have it NOT set by default if you wanted outbound spam protection to work (which everyone wants), that would defeat the purpose.
Don't you think?

 

[trialotto]

Thanks for the reply @trialotto
It depends how you read it. I read it as, "127.0.0.0/8 is no longer added by default because this is necessary for outbound spam protection to function correctly".
Why would you have it NOT set by default if you wanted outbound spam protection to work (which everyone wants), that would defeat the purpose.
Don't you think?

@PSi_101,

I suppose, as an educated guess, that many potential explanations exist as of the introduction of Plesk 12:

- the possibility to select the option "Mail Relay", instead of installing Postfix/Qmail,
- spam protection is designed primarily for inbound messages
- not every sysadmin is using outbound spam protection
- better options than using spam filters for outbound spam protection are present at this moment

and so on.

Most of these explanations (and primarily the first explanation) imply or even require that the localhost range is not added to a whitelist.

Sure, it seems and probably is undesirable and/or counterintuitive.

However, the great miscommunication (if any) is the result of you reading "because", where a "." (dot) should be read.

To be honest, I had to read that line also a couple of times, primarily because I do not agree with the choice to not add the localhost range to whitelists.

If I have time, I will ask Parallels team about the logic behind this decision (since some degree of "spam vulnerability" is the result of this choice).

Hope the above helps...

Kind regards...