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Date:      Wed, 11 Jan 2017 16:24:49 -0800
From:      Kurt Buff <kurt.buff@gmail.com>
To:        "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: spamassassin not lethal anymore
Message-ID:  <CADy1Ce5Q5cvhb5SKS8QzN_yFQnhCYu12dZVDup_ipw-o3%2Bw_vg@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <8016faa3-5af4-6c2d-acdf-9b02f7f1afc8@pinyon.org>
References:  <2463a238-e10f-e81d-cab1-5a7eaf774590@pinyon.org> <20170111210507.2dc39818c6e9d439abb21ee6@sohara.org> <8016faa3-5af4-6c2d-acdf-9b02f7f1afc8@pinyon.org>

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Snippety snip...

On Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 4:13 PM, Russell L. Carter <rcarter@pinyon.org> wrote:
> On 01/11/17 14:05, Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, 11 Jan 2017 13:45:47 -0700
>> "Russell L. Carter" <rcarter@pinyon.org> wrote:
>> most of it botnet sourced. I've pretty much eliminated it now by a
>> combination of installing dcc and razor plugins to spamassassin (reduced
>> the spam getting through by 70% or so) and adding a backup MX with a free
>> service that only accepts messages to relay when the primary is down (it's
>> amazing how much spam stopped coming in when I did that).
>>
>
> I'm not sure what you mean here, can you elaborate a bit more?  I can
> do anything I like with my MX hosts so I'm game.  I *think* I'm
> already doing that. I have multiple domains, and so I have a primary
> MX and a couple of backup MX hosts (one of which is effectively a
> passive dovecot replicator, lordy that works fantastic).  The backup
> MX hosts are lower priority than the primary.  Are you doing something
> different?

A secondary MX that refuses mail when the primary is up and running
foils one of the favorite tactics of spammers - they will often target
the secondary MX because those are often not as up to date with
anti-spam measures. Most spambots try one MX, one time only.

Many spambots will try that secondary MX, get refused with a 4xx
error, and not bother to try the primary MX at all.

It can be a big win, in the right situation.

Kurt



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