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Obsolete Releases => SME Server 7.x => Topic started by: mmccarn on October 13, 2010, 08:01:11 PM

Title: rhsbl.sorbs.net blocking gmail, hotmail, aol, yahoo, juno
Post by: mmccarn on October 13, 2010, 08:01:11 PM
I recently started getting complaints from several users that their friends were getting bounce messages when trying to send them email.  When a user was finally able to produce the actual bounce message for me, the problem seemed to be with rhsbl.sorbs.net.

My sme server has been configured to use rhsbl.sorbs.net for RHSBL service for over a year, but has only recently started blocking all emails from gmail.com, aol.com, hotmail.com, yahoo.com, juno.com and others (or my users have only recently decided to mention it to me).

(Note: I checked a couple of these domains on the sorbs servers at http://www.sorbs.net/lookup.shtml, and they've been listed for a while.  I don't know what this indicates, if anything).

For now, I have reconfigured my SME server as follows:

Code: [Select]
config setprop qpsmtpd SBLList badconf.rhsbl.sorbs.net:nomail.rhsbl.sorbs.net
signal-event email-update
Edit: made this post sticky for now
Title: Re: rhsbl.sorbs.net blocking gmail, hotmail, aol, yahoo, juno
Post by: cactus on October 13, 2010, 08:49:29 PM
More details on the SORBS issue can be found in:
Title: Re: rhsbl.sorbs.net blocking gmail, hotmail, aol, yahoo, juno
Post by: MSmith on March 10, 2011, 03:41:31 PM
Any news on this?  What are the current recommended entries for DNSBL and RHSBL?  These are absolutely invaluable in blocking spam and I'd like to know the current best practice. 
Title: Re: rhsbl.sorbs.net blocking gmail, hotmail, aol, yahoo, juno
Post by: mmccarn on March 20, 2011, 08:44:33 PM
The only problem I had was with RHSBL - the portion of the blocking system that blocks based on the domain name in the "from" address.  I didn't make any changes to my DNSBL configuration.

The work-around recommended above simply restricts (RH)SBL to the sorbs servers that list mis-configured mail servers, or servers that have been specifically listed as not being sources of email, instead of denying email "from" any domain that sorbs thinks is a common source of spam.

Spamassassin still denies *fake* gmail, hotmail, etc. email (spam that is falsely claiming to be from someone@gmail.com or someone@hotmail.com) using  SPF (http://www.openspf.org/). 

I don't feel that my spam load was affected to any significant degree.