Re: [cobalt-users] Qube 3 - How to stop spam?

[Parker Morse <morse@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Lucas replied to John Lee:
> At 10:27 AM 11/13/2001, you wrote:
>> I'd like to setup my qube 3 so that all incoming mails will be rejected
>> unless
>> they are destined for my domain/IP.
> 
> Just how do you receive any email for anyone other than your domain/IP?
> I would think that is impossible.

No, back in the good old days before spam Mailer Agents accepted mail from
anyone, for anyone. They sorted through it and sent anything not for them
along to another machine. This was called "open relaying" and it was good.

Then spammers started using any open relay they could find to take the load
of their massive mailings, or to route around blocks on their own addresses.
Now open relaying is considered a bad idea, which is why John is trying to
close his.

In a nutshell: firewalls aren't going to help, because the spam IS being
sent to John's sendmail, with his IP address and everything. The incoming
mail looks to the firewall like it's for him; the outgoing relayed mail
looks to the firewall like it's from him. John needs to have his sendmail
instead take anything not addressed to someone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, and bounce it
(or just drop it on the floor). That needs to happen at the sendmail level,
not at the firewall level.

I've tried nearly everything I know, but it hasn't helped yet.

John, the last thing I'd try is to cut down your "relay mail from" box (in
the email server advanced settings) so it ONLY lists the domain of your
Qube3: qube3.yourdomain.com (or whatever the full machine name is). In my
case, that's bluebird.sinauer.com.

If it doesn't work, please post the contents of your /etc/mail/access file
(you can replace your domain with domain.com if you don't want to post the
full address). 

pjm