discotank.com — I was playing with the customize toolbar feature in Mail.app when I saw a button labeled ?Bounce?. After using the bounce feature on the tens of spam I get daily for 3 days, my inbox is spam free. Incredible.
Nov 19, 2006 View in Crawl 4
innateNov 20, 2006
A properly configured server should almost never have to send NDRs. If your queue is clogged it probably indicates you are using Microsoft Exchange Server, and that it is configured in its stupid default mode, where it accepts *all* messages and then sends bounces for those that were for non-existent addresses. In addition to sending bounces to forged addresses, it also double-taxes your own bandwidth. Instead, configure it to reject mail outright at the SMTP RCPT stage by checking incoming messages against Active Directory. That way you never have to send NDRs, because you never accept mail you can't deliver.Oh yeah, the reason it accepts all messages is to protect you against what Microsoft calls a directory harvest attack -- apparently something that naive admins think is a problem. It's much less of a problem than the bounce problem it causes. What's more, accepting all messages *doesn't* protect you against a directory harvest attack! Using a legitimate or 0wned return address you can compare NDRs to see which addresses were valid. It's a stupid "security" feature that makes people feel safe who don't know what they're doing. Fortunately you can change Exchange Server to use sane settings.
8fansNov 20, 2006
This article just makes Mac users look stupid. Do you honestly believe bouncing some spam is going to make you stop getting spam. But then I guess a lot of PC users would fall for this as well.
Closed AccountNov 20, 2006
Terrilble idea.
edge001Nov 20, 2006
in theory, it bounces it back as an invalid email address... it is not a reply. they wouldn't know that it was "bounced"
maswellNov 20, 2006
@erwiasUh, did you read this article? It was primarily written to combat a virus back in 2004. Like 1 or 2 points made in this article apply today. Not that I agree or disagree with this whole bouncing spam debate, but I feel like this article doesn't add ammo to either side, really.
blackjack75Nov 20, 2006
What we need is to be able to filter spam at the moment it reaches our SMTP server (like a program that tells you when mail arrives instantly and lets you click YES/NO). If it can be recognized as spam within one minute and tell the sender that the user doesn't exist you might be removed from some list. But bouncing to some random e-mail address... pretty useless.
ceeayyNov 22, 2006
Using Gmail is a much better alternative to bouncing spam. I get ONE piece of spam every few days. Usually I get none. I use Mail to automatically retrieve my mail from the Gmail website and just call it a day. Any spam that I do get is sent directly to my trash via rules and is eventually automatically deleted after a week. I check the trash every once in a while to double check for mail accidentally marked as spam.
ceeayyNov 22, 2006
The problem is that there is profit in spam. If we didn't have so many stupid people in the world who actually RESPOND to these emails and buy these products, we would be better off. Spam exists because it works. If the companies who profit from spam could be held responsible that might help the situation. Maybe I'm naive...