jester121
Premium
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL
 ·surpasshosting
 ·ViaTalk
| Sheesh...
I really have to wonder who the hell is running IT at the places where these "researchers" and columnists work. Every month I'm reading some sort of doom and gloom about the huge spam problem, and how it's going to stop users from ever using e-mail.
I just checked the statistics for the domains I administer and, for the past month, we've outright rejected 65% of the e-mail received due to RBLs and related checks, and another 10% was identified as spam and properly tucked away into the user's junk box. Less than 1% was missed, and we had zero reported false positives. Oh, about 4% of massages had a virus or some sort of exploit inside, and were filtered and deleted. Since each client has a different, redundant anti-virus solution that runs on the desktop machine, I know that no infections got past the mail server.
It took me more time to log in and check these statistics than I spent on managing our anti-spam arsenal for the month.
My point is -- once you know how to block it, spam isn't a problem at all. Yeah, there's some bandwidth used, but that's basically zero marginal cost. Isn't the whole point behind computers that fact that they don't mind doing boring repetitive tasks 24 hrs a day?
Even scarier is I'm doing all this on a shoestring budget and still getting pretty good results. WTF are these big companies doing? |
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the niTz
Premium
join:2004-07-05
Sahuarita, AZ | they must be related to my school IT a teenager could probably hack there network:D |
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jester121
Premium
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL
·surpasshosting
·ViaTalk
| said by the niTz  :
they must be related to my school IT a teenager could probably hack there network:D
And the teens at your school probably do so, on a regular basis!  |
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the niTz
Premium
join:2004-07-05
Sahuarita, AZ | lol there just 2 me and my friend my friend got offered a job at the scool while i who tells my friend how to do most of the stuff got the boot ohwell i feel a good senoir prank coming on;) |
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B
Premium,MVM
join:2000-10-28
| reply to jester121
said by jester121 :
we've outright rejected 65% of the e-mail received due to RBLs and related checks, and another 10% was identified as spam and properly tucked away into the user's junk box. Less than 1% was missed, and we had zero reported false positives.
Except of course for all of those potential false positives that users can NEVER report, because you outright blocked them by trusting someone else's block list (the RBLs) or by your other related checks. I'm just quite wary of third party block lists.
Sure, a persistent blocked sender MIGHT eventually telephone your user to complain about a lack of response, and that MIGHT filter back to you, but...
-- B
--
In a realm outside causality and function |
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jester121
Premium
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL
·surpasshosting
·ViaTalk
| B, I'm cautious using RBLs myself, and have stayed away from the more draconian ones.
I wasn't claiming that there's a 100% effective and painless solution to spam, but rather, that it's a very manageable problem and not the end of the world as we know it.  |
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Wills
join:2001-01-03
Port Charlotte, FL
| reply to jester121
As an administrator, I'm suprised you don't see the root of the problem.
You need to look further than your outside interface. You make the same assumption that I see many administrators falling prey to.
"If I block it, then it doesn't exist."
There is more to the internet than your outside interface. Just because you block it from entering your system, doesn't mean that the traffic your blocking isn't weighing down the system between the sender and you.
That is the issue at hand.
These big companies aren't clueless as you suspect. They just have the ability to see past their outside interface and recognize the root of the problem.
--
Abit VP-6 twin 800EB's @ 1002 Mhz.Proud member of the XDC. |
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andrewe77
Gonads And Strife
join:2000-09-17
Blue Springs, MO
clubs: | reply to the niTz
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a perfect example of our public scools, I mean schools at work. Don't they teach spelling anymore? |
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jester121
Premium
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL
·surpasshosting
·ViaTalk
| reply to Wills
Willis, I view spam traffic as "noise" on the internet -- just like the port scans, CodeRed/Slammer probes (yes, still going on to this day), and all the other overhead that goes into supporting the internet. I'm no more concerned about running out of bandwidth than I am about running out of electricity (I read an article recently about how much energy demand has increased over the past 20 years -- truly amazing).
With all the media-rich content that's now making its way around the internet, I'm sure 10 years ago all the analysts would have had the same aneurism they're having now.
Besides, as far as spam is concerned, using RBLs and other related features actually does help the problem -- if I can drop the connection after the first few bytes of data shows up (during the envelope transmission) than I'm saving all the bandwidth that would be used to send the message.
Sorry, but not one of these chicken-little hysteria prophecies has come to pass, and I don't think this one will either. |
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Wills
join:2001-01-03
Port Charlotte, FL
| I'm not saying this will come to pass either. I'm saying that you need to look past "you".
While you may view it as "noise", how much noise will it take before you can't hear the show?
Block it all you want, blocking it only keeps it out of your system. It's still on the systems between you and the sender that we all have to share.
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Abit VP-6 twin 800EB's @ 1002 Mhz.Proud member of the XDC. |
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uhyeah
@bellsouth.net | reply to jester121
what great logic! you aren't having issues, so therefore the entire internet must be humming along nicely! |
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version3D
Infidels Won
join:2004-07-24
Deep River, CT
1 edit | reply to andrewe77
I went to public school as well and I consider myself an excellent speller and writer. These problems begin at a young age with the parents and not the schools since nobody reads to their kids anymore; they just stick them in front of the television. We rely too much on the schools to teach our kids absolutely everything... and we have zero accountability for the parents. |
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SRFireside
join:2001-01-19
Houston, TX | reply to Wills
So how does looking past "you" help the network he's protecting? It's easy to talk about the fact there are a lot of things going on outside of our realm of influence, but how does that change what you can do? What specifically can be done better? |
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DaDogs
Semper Vigilantis
Premium
join:2004-02-28
Deltaville, VA
| reply to jester121
Lotsa good points...
You missed one though. All that spam you rejected had to cross the Internet to get to your server. Someone had to carry that traffic and bandwidth costs money.
Will it take the net down? Unlikely, but filtering it out is an interim solution, not an optimal solution.
--
A Dumb assed TWIT says, "There are NO holes in the new IE 6.0 SP2!" |
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IT Guy
Ow, My Balls
Premium
join:2004-07-29
Las Cruces, NM
clubs: | reply to andrewe77
... Not to mention grammar. |
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hskrfan23
join:2004-03-18
West Sacramento, CA | reply to version3D
i'm an excellent speller as well...it's just if I make a mistake i'm just too lazy to go back and fix it |
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lupinia
Premium
join:2004-08-24
Harrisonburg, VA
| reply to andrewe77
You'd think so, from the way some of these kids type 
My 14-year-old sister has an above-college reading level and is a very gifted poet/artist, but a cocker spaniel could type better than her. It's sad  |
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Tzale
Proud Libertarian Conservative
Premium
join:2004-01-06
Sweden
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Optimum Online
| reply to jester121
said by jester121 :
said by the niTz :
they must be related to my school IT a teenager could probably hack there network:D
And the teens at your school probably do so, on a regular basis!
Teens are a lot smarter then your average adult when it comes to computers. That's BS that "teenagers" don't know shit about computers. Example that burns my ass: A 10 year old can't fix a computer because he is 10..... Get real, if a 10 year old has interest in computers he can probably build one.. I know I did when I was 10, all by myself with no help.....
-Tzale |
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FLECOM
Bay Networks Freak
Premium
join:2003-03-03
Miami, FL
| reply to andrewe77
said by andrewe77 :
Ladies and gentlemen, this is a perfect example of our public scools, I mean schools at work. Don't they teach spelling anymore?
i work as an IT tech in a public school and i see a lot of kids and quite honestly a lot of them just plain do not want to learn... and i think its the parents, both by lack of educating their children and by all being on drugs/welfare etc
thankfully the school i am at this is about 1% of the population, but at other schools in my county i would say it accounts for more than 90% of the population, the worst part is that the 10% that actually want to learn, cant because the teachers are too busy dealing with the other 90%...
and that i blame on the system, some kids just dont want to go to school and learn, and forcing them to go isnt going to fix the problem its just going to piss them off more and want to learn less...
o well, pardon the off-topic tangent
--
BellSouth sucks |
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jester121
Premium
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL
·surpasshosting
·ViaTalk
| reply to Tzale
Woah, settle down there junior...
Time for some remedial reading comprehension -- I made the comment that the teens COULD hack into the network, not that they were incapable of it.
Stop building computers for awhile, and try paying attention in class. Reading is fundamental!  |
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