SpamWall Operations Manual

RBL Blacklists

The term "RBL" was originally an abbreviation for "Real-time Blackhole List" however this term has become widely associated with "blacklists" which are maintained by various entities which contain IP address and domain information of hosts that are known to be associated with Spam/UCE (unsolicited commercial email) activity.

There are a considerable number of email RBL/Blacklists in operation some of which are more accurate and reliable than others for blocking Spam/UCE and other unwanted email.

A number of RBL/Blacklist options are available on your SpamWall system such as sbl.spamhaus.org, xbl.spamhaus.org, pbl.spamhaus.org, bl.spamcop.net, dnsbl.njabl.org and others.

Currently we recommend that only the "bl.spamhaus.org" and "xbl.spamhaus.org" blacklists be enabled on your SpamWall as these are known to be the most accurate and reliable of the email blacklists.

SpamWall RBL Blacklists


In it's default setting with the "bl.spamhaus.org" and "xbl.spamhaus.org" RBL/Blacklists activated on your SpamWall will cause your SpamWall system to reject connections for all email received from any IP address or domain listed in these blacklists. This in itself will result in a considerable reduction in Spam/UCE and other unwanted email.

Connections from IP numbers or domains contained in any RBL/Blacklists enabled on your SpamWall will be rejected immediately and will not have to be processed.

This will result in reduced load on your SpamWall system and on the receiving email server(s) as well as increased capacity for the expedient processing of other email.

Unless you have a good reason to disable or change the default RBL/Blacklist settings on your SpamWall system it is recommend that the "bl.spamhaus.org" and "xbl.spamhaus.org" RBL/Blacklists at a minimum be enabled at all times.

There are also a number of others available for activation such as the well-known "SpamCop" blacklist service which you can choose to enable on your SpamWall.

It is recommend that you do some research on any of the other blacklist services available for activation on your SpamWall system before activating them so that you are aware of their blacklisting policies and reputation for accuracy and reliability.

If you would like to have a particular email blacklist available on your SpamWall system which is not already available for activation via the RBL Blacklists screen contact support for assistance with this.


 

next topic Spamfilter Config