[Dshield] Need some help testing

[Mar Matthias Darin]

Hello, 

Stasiniewicz, Adam writes: 

> Hi, 
> 
> Let me directly address a couple of points jayjwa made.   
> 
> In regards to "Email is all but ruined". You are obviously entitled to your
> own opinion, but I think you are being a bit over dramatic.  It seems you
> are presuming that your bad experience with email is the norm. 
> 
> Though technically spammers could use ISPs SMTP to send mail and possibly
> down the road it could become a larger issue.  But the current spam fighting
> situation shows that spam from "legitimate" servers makes up only a small
> amount of total spam.  This is why reputation based spam filtering (RBLs,
> rDNS, SPF, etc) are proving to be very effective (especially against the
> latest wave of image based spam).  
> 
> I realize you send your email directly from your home computer without first
> relaying to your ISPs SMTP server.  In the modern world, that is really not
> feasible to do.  I would highly recommend you try to send email via your
> ISPs email server, you will see a significant drop in rejected/lost
> messages. 
> 
> My last point.  Last time I check AT&T and the "privileged few" did not
> bribe Congress to pass laws mandating everyone setup "block-all RBL[s]" or
> "draconian filter[s]".  It is in fact humans like you and me (some being
> quite smart) that devised and implemented these spam fighting systems.  Does
> this mean that to send email everyone needs to follow a few rules?  Yes, but
> the cost is worth the benefit of having a spam free inbox. 

The point of DynaStop is to employ what many ISP's have already set as their 
policy in their AUP/TOS.  DynaStop make no attempt at forcing ISPs to a 
policy, nor to dictate a global policy.  It is a tool that can be used to 
block or tag according to each admin's choice.  I personally despise RBL's, 
which is why I researched and developed a tool that can be adjusted easily 
to fit any situation an administrator may want.  Note the emphasis on the 
administrator, not a global policy.  Like any tool, it requires responsible 
usage. 

On my server, some of my users want their spam blocked outright, others want 
it passed through but tagged for ease of personal filtering. 

I have been told from admins that run DynaStop that they use the result from 
outright blocking to a points system for SpamAssassin.  Quite a wide range, 
wouldn't you say? 

That being said, how is DynaStop a "draconian filter" when the admin 
determines how the tool will be used?