Security - Email Info - System Notes

General E-Mail Info

E-Mail Myths – Sent to the KPLUG mailing list, 1999

Email Related Links

Anti-Spam Tools

How to secure your mail server
The Art of Spam Hunting – (Lots of links)

http://projects.puremagic.com/greylisting/ – The Greylisting Technique
www.abuse.net – test for open relay
For a very quick security check (anti-spam):

You can telnet to mail-abuse.net from within the network you want to test, and it will tell you if it thinks you are an open relay or not. This is a little more convenient than testing from the website, which requires an account (though it is free and easy to set up). The advantage of the website method is that you can give it an e-mail address to see if the mail actually gets relayed.

http://www.abuse.net/relay.html – relay tester
www.samspade.org – test for open relay
Spam Filters and Killers – How to block spiders from stealing addresses from web pages
spamcop.net
McAfee’s Anti Spam Tips

Non e-mail Related SPAM Blocking Information

Anti-Telemarketing Information
Defeat Telemarketers for FREE with tones

Anti-Adware / Spyware Information
Use Kazaa Lite, instead of Kazaa – may be hard to find
http://www.kazaalite.tk/ – also check out “supertrick” at this site, if you want to avoid web ads.
http://www.zeropaid.com/kazaalite/ (alternate site)

Ad-Aware – check for updates, and run occasionally
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Spy Bot Search and Destroy
http://www.safer-networking.org/

More adware stuff here:http://www.cexx.org/adware.htm

Peer to Peer

If you must use Peer to Peer file sharing software, try the File Donkey or Bit Torrent protocols.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/emule – eMule

http://www.bittorrent.com/ – Bittorrent

One of the most popular Bit Torrent sites is http://www.suprnova.org/

If you are afraid of being tracked for using a P2P network, you can block sites by using software such as PeerGuardian – http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/

—-——Other useful items
Windows Update – Use windows update (from start menu, or task bar icon) about once a month to check for updates
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Pop Up stoppers are no longer necessary, now that firefox is available

Pop-Up Stopper http://www.panicware.com/
Pop-Up Stopper, Free Version download
http://www.panicware.com/product_psfree.html

Spam blocking (Black Hole) lists
http://mail-abuse.org/
http://www.spamhaus.org
Old Black Hole Sites: http://www.orbs.org/—Taken down in June 2001
http://maps.vix.com—MAPS real-time black hole lists

Anti-Spam Information
www.cert.org
Internet Mail Consortium – Mail Relay Surveys
Internet Mail Consortium – Limiting Spam
Stopping Spam – The O’Reilly Pig Book
An Anti-Spam hacker gets revenge

Mailing List Software

Majordomo – The defacto standard mailing list manager
Petidomo – Free for non-commercial use

SMTP Servers

Sendmail Home Page – The defacto standard SMTP server. exim Internet Mailer – MTA developed at the University of Cambridge. qmail home page, The – New SMTP server with an emphasis on being secure.

Help for Aspiring Sysadmins

Linux / Open Source / Howto / Tips & Tricks

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