* Dr. Internet columnist Steve Blass offers advice on getting Sendmail to listen to local requests * Help Desk columnist Ron Nutter says Barracuda is a good antispam option
* Getting Sendmail to listen to local requests
By Steve Blass
Q: I want to configure a Linux Sendmail server to deliver mail from localhost to support sending e-mail from a Web application on the same machine. The Sendmail service will deliver mail from remote systems, but mail originating on the local system results in a mail log message that ends with ‘dsn 4.0.0. Status: deferred, connection refused’. I added localhost to the ‘local-host-names’ file in the /etc/mail folder and restarted Sendmail but still get the error message for local mail.
A: It sounds like Sendmail is ignoring connection requests on the localhost address 127.0.0.1. This is the default behavior in newer versions of Sendmail and is meant to make it more difficult for spammers to relay spoofed e-mail through your mail server.
To read Steve’s response in its entirety, please click here.
* Giving a Barracuda box more bite
By Ron Nutter
Q: We recently moved from a homegrown Linux box running SpamAssassin and a few other components to control the influx of spam onto our network to a commercial solution offered by Barracuda Networks. This was done for several reasons – lack of time to properly maintain the other system, problems trapping image spam and writing the rules necessary to stop the spam. Since implementing the new solution, we haven’t been as successful as we were hoping for. This doesn’t seem to be the plug and play solution that it was represented to us as being. How can we get things running better?
A: None of the commercial antispam solutions is as plug and play as you would be led to believe. Barracuda is a good option and with a little bit of work, you can make it really good. Start by looking at the support forum section of the Barracuda website. There you will find other users who have same goal as you do – to get the best results for the investment that they have made.
To read Ron’s response in its entirety, please click here.
