Some typical Complaints from new SORBS users.
Some reviews of SORBS can be found at http://castlecops.com/reviews-162.html
znmeb@cesmail.netMar 1 2004, 09:44 AM
It took me a couple of weeks to spot this, but SORBS DNSbl has way too
many false positives. I've lost large numbers of e-mails from two or
three lists I'm on, plus responses to products I've ordered on line, even from
Amazon.com. If you're using this blacklist, beware!!
Ed Borasky
agsteeleMar 2 2004, 03:52 AM
QUOTE(WB8TYW @ Mar 1 2004, 11:27 PM)
According to the SORBS FAQ, the spamtrap listing will stay until a donation
is made to a mutually agreable charity.
Using the spamtrap zone for rejecting mail is likely to cause collateral damage.
Other zones are less agressive. Check the SORBS charter.
Our backbone ISP's SMTP server is listed in the SORBS BL because of a spamtrap message. I gather that the source of the infection has long since been resolved since it was a customer with an infected PC from one the many virus/trojan/worm infections last year.
Getting the IP de-listed has proved less than easy. The problem with the SORBS approach is that a large ISP can easily have a number of customers with infected machines and despite being exceedingly effective in educating these customers and helping them clean up their act (I can't say wether our ISP is effective - just a for instance) once listed you remain listed until the money is paid.
Unsurprisingly large ISPs have few mechanisms for making the charitable donations that SORBS demands.
So we avoid spam filtering decisions based on SORBS alone. As noted, SORBS is likely to cause collateral damage if used alone.
Andrew
Slashdot (online news forum) talka about SORBS abuse.
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/05/0031237
(emphasis added)
rootnl asks: "Recently I decided to upgrade my email server with better
spam detection and decided to use the SORBS blacklist. It is a very aggressive
blacklist and could be deemed quite effective. However, I discovered two totally
legal servers currently being blocked by their Spam 'o Matic service: a Google
Gmail server (64.233.182.185), and another server belonging to an ISP called
Orange (193.252.22.249). Now, normally one would think these providers would
probably get themselves de-listed, but the process provided revolves
around donating money. As I just happen to have a friend that is using
the said ISP, I have to seriously reconsider using SORBS. What is your experience
with SORBS? If you have alternatives, what would you suggest as a better blacklist
service?"
Kerio, a vendor of email server software, notes that SORBS improperly lists hosts.
http://forums.kerio.com/index.php?t=msg&goto=39722&S=b1d71390554bef9dcea0dcd2c5c263ac
Hello,
We have had multiple customers complain that legitimate mail from well-known providers (Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) is being blocked.
After some investigation, we have determined that the SORBS DNS blacklist (dnsbl.sorbs.net) is improperly listing hosts, and causing these lost mail.
To avoid this problem, either disable the SORBS blacklist in your administration console; or change it to add to the spam score instead of blocking the mail directly.
Here is a screen shot that highlights the SORBS list setup to add to the spam score.
Alfred University Administrator has Problems with SORBS: Or Sullivan long-winded
We were on the SORBS list for over a month and had great difficulty getting off. The list is run out of Australia and there is only one person that handles the section that wants the $50. While we were on list and sending email asking about the "fine" we received no response. I tried their fax number. It was not working. I finally called the guy in Australia and found out that he had a broken leg and had been in the hospital. He gave me the URL to see his x-rays. After listening to him talk for 15 minutes, he let us out without the $50 because of our inconvenience. You may try contacting him directly. The person is Mathew Sullivan. He emailed me from [log in to unmask] If you have an incident number include it. If you get real desperate, like we were, his telephone number in Australia is 061 38788282. The phone bill was offset by the "fine" we didn't pay.
We only had a couple of complaints from faculty about mail bouncing because of this list, but faculty being faculty we had to get off.
Good luck!
Dennis C King
Information Security Officer
IT Project Manager
Alfred University
McMahon 247 , Alfred, NY 14802
email: [log in to unmask] - phone: 607.871.2379