I guess I should have asked my question more concretely: is any of the backbone traffic so time-sensitive that temporarily bouncing it will cause Listserv to break? I'm not only concerned for my own server but how it might affect the backbone traffic.

-a

> -----Original Message-----
> From: LISTSERV give-and-take forum
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 12:31 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Effects of Graylisting on Listserv
>
> "LISTSERV site administrators' forum" <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote on 06/24/2005 11:31:22 AM:
>
> > We've recently put a graylisting spam filter at the edge of our
> > campus network, but at my request the Listserv was left outside the
> > filter because I was concerned that graylist processing of all the
> > traffic coming in to the server would introduce delays that would
> > somehow harm Listserv.
> >
> > Has anyone out there put their Listserv behind a graylisting spam
> > filter? The Listserv server has been getting hit pretty hard by
> > phishing scams lately, which seem to be coming in under Listserv's
> > net-wide spam radar. Currently our graylist is catching these spams
> > but a few of them always seem to leak in through Listserv. I'd like
> > to have Listserv moved behind the graylist filter if it won't harm
> > the operations of the server. We are a backbone server running in
> > networked mode.
>
> Our spam filter does greylisting.  I do not have the listserv
> behind it
> though.  I didn't want to block any legit mail from the
> lists.  Spam on
> the lists has not been a complaint here.
>
> Any non-braindead mail server should not have an issue with
> greylisting.
> There are a few braindead servers out there.  Groupwise, at least some
> versions, have a problem depending on when the tempfail is
> issued.  If it
> is issued after the recipient, and every RCPT TO: is
> tempfailed, it would
> return the message as undeliverable.  CanIt (http://canit.ca) offers a
> setting to delay the tempfail until after the DATA phase as a
> work around.
>
> I ran into one other instance with a mail security system that had
> trouble, but it was fixed quickly once it was reported to the vendor.
>
> Can you set up an alternate name in DNS for your listserv and
> route that
> through the greylisting spam filter to test?
>
>