Changes on the Mailserver

Normal mail servers handle mail as specified in the various standards defined for mailservers. Spammers are often not compliant with those standards. This is the basis for the Greylisting of mail. Each mail is identified by a unique triplet, sending mail server, sender and recipient. This first time a triplet is seen (in 30 days), mail is rejected with a try again later message. A mailserver properly implementing the mail standards will try again later. Many spammers never do. The second time a triplet is detected, mail is let through without any hindrance. The result is a substantial reduction in the volume of spam mails accepted by the mailserver.

This mechanism was implemented on the gloudemans.info mailserver today. This means, that mail sent to any gloudemans.info recipient might be delayed from a few minutes, up to one or several hours (depending on the settings of the sending server). A local whitelist is applied, so mail from some servers is let through unhampered. 

Mail from senders present on one of the various blacklists on the Internet was sent to the final recipient, with the tag {Spam?} added to the subject of the mail. From now on, mail from senders on the blacklist is rejected. If the mail was sent by a legitemate user, he or she will get a message from his/her own mailserver, stating why the mail was rejected and how to get in contact.

These two measures together should reduce the number of spam mails getting through the filters, while reducing the load on and traffic to this mailserver.