Success Story

[atomicguava]

I just wanted to write here to describe my experience with MagicSpam. I've been a user of MS since the beginning of the year, with admittedly mixed success. Initially the results were instant and accurate, but a series of false positives and issues with strict rules caused problems.

I decided to take a look at the IP reputation lists and rules which I was using.

The ones which cause me trouble the most were:
• Block Mail Servers on Dynamic/Dial-up Addresses (Rule name: check_dynamic_reverse_dns)
• MIPSPACE IP list

A lot of people emailing my customers seemed to have dynamic reverse dns issues which lead to loads of bounced messages.

I ended up using the following rules with much better success:
Block messages from IP (no domain) - enabled
Block Mail Servers on Dynamic/Dial-up Addresses - disabled
Perform reverse lookup check - enabled
Block Mail Servers reported as Spam Source - enabled
Confirm Server Identification Resolves (HELO) - enabled
Strict address parsing - enabled
Sending server must identify itself (HELO) - enabled
Valid FROM domain - disabled
Server Identification must be valid (HELO) - enabled

I also use the following settings for IP reputation:
UCEPROTECT-1 - enabled
UCEPROTECT-2 - enabled
PSBL - enabled
SORBS-DUL - disabled
MIPSPACE - disabled
RATS-DYNA - enabled
RATS-NOPTR - enabled
RATS-SPAM - disabled

Here in the UK, we seem to be having loads of problems with the BT Connect email servers getting on blacklists. Therefore, I had to disable the RATS-SPAM listings, but overall it all seems to be working well now.

Before the above changes were implemented, one customer received nearly 300 spam emails per day. Now, there are about 10 per day that slip through the net. Of the 2000 odd emails going through the server each day, about 70% is tagged as spam now.

It appears that the UCEPROTECT and RATS lists catch the most SPAM on the two servers I manage.

Anyway, there's my report! Hope people find it helpful

The software is good, once you find the right balance of rules to combat SPAM for your server. It can sometimes seem like it isn't blocking enough, but the IP lists really do seem to have made the difference.

[raymondlee]

I'll have to agree with you.

I live in Canada and use the same "Best Practices Rules" settings you use.

I have all of the IP reputations enabled which caused some issues with my clients customers who are located in south america and the Caribbean.

When a client complains that there customers email has bounced I end up adding the email address as well as the ip address of there clients mail server to the "white List"

I wish there was a way to block emails containing the word "viagra"

Raymond