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Can I whitelist a list-server?


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I am a member of a very lively mailing list for preachers. It is hosted at the University of Louisville, USA. Unlike Yahoo it does not add anything to the subject line of posts to identify mailings as having come from it. Many subscribers use Comcast and other spammy ISP's and so their contributions end up in my held mail as spamcop (correctly) identifies the point of injection as spammy. I've whitelisted members as and when they've been 'held' but the lack of identifying subject makes some of them hard to spot. Newcomers are a real hazard, especially if the subject is a liitle 'generic'.

However, the list server must have good anti-spam as I never received spam through the listserver (more than I can say for Yahoo).

What I would like to do is to set up a general whiltelist to trust anything from the list server (rather than individual email addresses or domains. Can this be done?

If it helps, here is part of a spamcop parse:

1: Received: from erouter0.it-datacntr.louisville.edu (136.165.5.194) by mailgate.cesmail.net with SMTP; 3 Jul 2004 00:51:02 -0000

Hostname verified: erouter0.it-datacntr.louisville.edu

SpamCop received mail from sending system 136.165.5.194

2: Received: from listserv.louisville.edu (athena.louisville.edu [136.165.5.69]) by erouter0.it-datacntr.louisville.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id DE08D3B82A; Fri, 2 Jul 2004 20:50:59 -0400 (EDT)

Hostname verified: athena.louisville.edu

Anything with this I'd like to trust.

Any suggestions?

Derek

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Per other responses to this type of question, I believe the answer is simply a whitelist on " louisville.edu " (extra spaces placed to try to point out that there is no extra stuff added, just the Domain)

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To Derek T

I believe that your partial listing of the parse has caused Wazoo to misinterpert the question.

If I am reading between the lines correctly (and I may not be) Your readers send their replies to your list server which in turn forwards them to SpamCop for filtering.

If this is the case and if it is possible to white list servers (which I do not think is possible) the result would be that all mail sent to SpamCop, including spam, would be white listed because it came from your server.

Note: if mail was forwarded for other servers, that mail would be processed normally.

I think what you want to to add your entire server list to the white list.

This might be possible if there was a way to cut and paste a list of names to white list, but at the current time it appears to be limited to one at a time.

A related question would be is there any way to white list a sent to address?

If that were the case, then you could copy all of your sent mail into the held mail folder using IMAP and then white list it in bulk. But currently doing this would only white list your sending address.

If you get a lot of replies from a common domain, then Wazoo suggestion would apply, simply white list the domain.

I hope I helped, but am afraid that I may have just made it more confusing.

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A related question would be is there any way to white list a sent to address?

If that were the case, then you could copy all of your sent mail into the held mail folder using IMAP and then white list it in bulk. But currently doing this would only white list your sending address.

If you get a lot of replies from a common domain, then Wazoo suggestion would apply, simply white list the domain.

I hope I helped, but am afraid that I may have just made it more confusing.

No, you have it almost right. It's not MY server though: I am just a subscriber. From time to time contributions from fellow-subscribers end up spam-trappped (correctly) since the subscribers are using a spammy ISP (comcast most frequently because they are often the only broadband provider in town).

I can whitelist fellow-subscribers on the basis of the From: field (which the list-sever, unfortunately does not change, if it did there would be no problem) but new subscribers are always joining and new IP's are always being listed so I have to be very vigilant with my held-mail folder, especially as no identifying mark is added to the Subject: field. To all intents and purposes the mail appears to my client to have come direct from the fellow subscriber. It hasn't, of course, it's been relayed by athena.louisville.edu. I would like if possible to PERSONALLY whitelist anything that that server sends me as it has never, in the past three years, sent spam.

Hope that clarifies the situation.

There doesn't seem to be a way setting the whitelist to trust an IP rather than address or domain though. Even if I managed to add athena.louisville.edu to my mailhosts I don't thnk it would help as the parser would then simply look one stage further back to the spammy IP and still tag it (at least if I made a mistake I wouldn't accidentallty report athena...)

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OK, I'll admit to not being any help in the filtering issue ... apologies ... but will note that the Mail-Host thing is only used in the parsing of a spam submittal .. there is no connection at all to the filtering stuff ...

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Derek,

I've got some lists whitelisted...it should certainly be possible. However, I don't think you've given us the complete information. For example, is it one of the lists hosted at their "LISTSERV" installation? You'll find those at:

http://www.louisville.edu/it/listserv/archives/index.html

I see several religion-related lists there. The reason I ask, is that LISTSERV sends its messages out with a consistent "To" address, which you can indeed whitelist.

(update, 7/9: actually it's the consistent "Sender" address that will be helpful...see my later followup)

Please identify the list and the list platform/software.

David T.

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The reason I ask, is that LISTSERV sends its messages out with a consistent "To" address, which you can indeed whitelist.

Please identify the list and the list platform/software.

yes, that's it! a consistent PRCL-L[at]LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU in the To: field. Now how do I add that to my whitelists? just bung it in there with the From: s? or is there a special way of adding To: s?

Many tia

Derek

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The only thing I can point to is the web-based FAQ page at http://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache/356.html or the the FQ-inProgress here at http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=1895 .... I don't know the specifics of the "manage the entries" part of the process. Maybe you can add to the web-based one here with the answer to your question?

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yes, that's it! a consistent  PRCL-L[at]LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU in the To: field. Now how do I add that to my whitelists? just bung it in there with the From: s? or is there a special way of adding To: s?

Go to Options / SpamCop Tools / Manage your personal whitelist, click on "click here to add to your whitelist" and put the list address in the first box and click on "Submit." To be doubly-sure, you might want to add an entry for "LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU" -- it won't hurt. I've done that with my own LISTSERV subscriptions from Indiana.edu, and when I receive a message from one of those lists, there's a header line like this:

X-SpamCop-Whitelisted: listserv.indiana.edu

That's how you'll know for sure that it's working. BTW, according to the FAQ, the only headers checked during the whitelisting are:

# Envelope Sender aka Return Path

# From:

# Sender:

So it's not the "To" that will be matched, but rather the "Sender" field, which in your case, probably looks like this:

Sender: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary <PRCL-L[at]LISTSERV.LOUISVILLE.EDU>

David T.

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