From: /dev/rob0 (rob0gmx.co.uk)
Date: Mon Aug 14 2006 - 13:51:42 CDT

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On Monday 14 August 2006 13:34, Coffey, Neal wrote:
> /dev/rob0 wrote:
> >> Is it a good idea to use an open relay explicit filter in my
> >> Postfix main.cf file, or does Spamassassin use it by default ???
> >
> > It's best to reject as much as possible in SMTP before DATA. It's
> > wasteful (and arguably, spam-friendly) to accept the spam and use
> > content filtering as you suggest.
>
> Just to add to this, it's not that content filtering is wasteful,
> it's that relying *entirely* on content filtering is wasteful.
> SpamAssassin is a great tool, and very useful, but it should be your
> goal to stop as much junk as possible before it gets to SA. It'll
> save on bandwidth, and it'll keep the load on your server down.

Thanks for the elabouration. I agree entirely. I should elucidate on
the "spam-friendly" comment: many spammers-for-hire bill their
customers based on automated reports of spam delivery. Any "250 OK"
after DATA adds to the spammer's bottom line.

Of course they can and will lie to their customers about such things
when rejections become too common, but from the perspective of a real
postmaster, you can save a great deal in bandwidth and server load as
Neal pointed out.
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