New Saix Smtp Policy

[wajason]

Policy Ratelimiting will be implemented on the SAIX SMTP servers to limit and manage the inflow of email relay traffic. This will be phased in from 24 October 2005 and the following restrictions will apply:
- Limit the number of messages to less than 360 per hour. (This limit counts all the recipient addresses as a message, thus a message with 10 recipients will count as 10 messages).
- Limit the total message volume to 250 Mega Bytes per hour.
- When one of the above limits is exceeded, a block will be applied to the offending source address for the remainder of the hour.

The amended policy is required to curb the small percentage of users sending in excess of 9600 mails per day

 

[Fudzy]

9600 mails per day? Who would that be? Spammers and the trojan/virus infected, let them be banned.

 

[DFantom]

Whole email, incase someone needs to pass this information to a client etc...

SAIX Network Notice Update
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Reference ID : STT000000004335
Failure Type : Information
Problem Description : Ammendments Saix SMTP Mail
Impact : Saix SMTP Mail Usage
Time Down : 24 Oct, 2005 at 00:00:00 (SAT)
Time Up : None
Sites : Saix SMTP
Services Affected : Saix SMTP
Update Description : Ammendments to the SAIX SMTP Mail Usage Policy

Policy Ratelimiting will be implemented on the SAIX SMTP servers to limit and manage the inflow of email relay traffic. This will be
phased in from 24 October 2005 and the following restrictions will apply:
- Limit the number of messages to less than 360 per hour. (This limit counts all the recipient addresses as a message, thus a message with 10 recipients will count as 10 messages).
- Limit the total message volume to 250 Mega Bytes per hour.
- When one of the above limits is exceeded, a block will be applied to the offending source address for the remainder of the hour.

The amended policy is required to curb the small percentage of users sending in excess of 9600 mails per day.

I'm guessing the 9600 per day people won't blink an eye since they will monitor there usage, when they hit a limit imposed by the server it will simply disconnect and reconnect and get a new IP and start again, leaving the old blocked IP for some poor soul.

All in all seems like a bad idea to me.

 

[Tim182]

WHAT?!?!?

Is that for all email servers?!? That the... Come on, 250mb/h is not very much for some businesses. I wonder if that is also going to affect gmail and the gmail drive...

 

[Scooby_Doo]

I think it will use the user name because u connect to an smtp server using an ip but access it with a username and password. So changing the ip will do nothing.

 

[Scooby_Doo]

WHAT?!?!?

Is that for all email servers?!? That the... Come on, 250mb/h is not very much for some businesses. I wonder if that is also going to affect gmail and the gmail drive...

This will only affect the smtp.saix.net address. (The address of the server) nothing else. so basically if u are using the SAIX network and their mail server then this is for u. If u use the SAIX network but use hotmail gmail or another web based mail system ur safe.

 

[Tim182]

coool...

just one quesion: who would use a saix email server anyway???

 

[DFantom]

I think it will use the user name because u connect to an smtp server using an ip but access it with a username and password. So changing the ip will do nothing.

Email states "source address" will be blocked so I assume that it means IP based rather than username based. Username based would be a slightly better system (nothing stopping someone from swopping between 3 or 4 accounts all the time)

just one quesion: who would use a saix email server anyway???

Lots of people. A lot of resellers point there mail server to that. For instance all Mweb ADSL users use smtp.mweb.co.za which is really a CName to smtp.saix.net (before someone tries to prove me wrong, Mweb checks the requesting IP and if it is an ADSL user gives them that. Non ADSL users checking smtp.mweb.co.za will get something else).

Also remember a lot of people relay mail through that server, so on there network they have a local mail server and it simply relays out to prevent the IP black list issues from sending from an ADSL IP.

Oh and this effects all SAIX users so not just ADSL. All dialup users are also effected, and I would guess all diginet users who do not run there own mail server.

 

[kaspaas]

This is going to hit the SMME's another time.

I know there is quite a bit of "jokemail" being sent by staff at my clients. The average list it is being sent to is about 15 addresses.

"Jokemail rush hour" is between 8 and 9 in the morning.

At 15 addresses it would take a mere 24 "joke mails" being sent to buddies to kill the boss's mail for an hour!

I can see a lot of trouble coming for a good number of employees!

 

[stoke]

Thanks 4 the headz up wajason. Munch appreciated.

 

[Scooby_Doo]

Just use an IS ISP... And i'm sure if they needed to send lots more they could ask Telkom to open up their accounts to send more... Or is that just wishfull thinking?

 

[allyoucaneat]

This is just really silly to ban/block dynamic IPs. Guess we are all getting static IPs now.

 

[Scooby_Doo]

Email states "source address" will be blocked so I assume that it means IP based rather than username based. Username based would be a slightly better system (nothing stopping someone from swopping between 3 or 4 accounts all the time)


Lots of people. A lot of resellers point there mail server to that. For instance all Mweb ADSL users use smtp.mweb.co.za which is really a CName to smtp.saix.net (before someone tries to prove me wrong, Mweb checks the requesting IP and if it is an ADSL user gives them that. Non ADSL users checking smtp.mweb.co.za will get something else).

Also remember a lot of people relay mail through that server, so on there network they have a local mail server and it simply relays out to prevent the IP black list issues from sending from an ADSL IP.

Oh and this effects all SAIX users so not just ADSL. All dialup users are also effected, and I would guess all diginet users who do not run there own mail server.

Well if they used the ADSL username password to check the number of emails sent then changing or having other address names wouldn't make a diff, or would it? I know i use siax smtp server, when i was on isdn at datapro my mail server was a datapro server but when i got adsl with datapro i had to change it to smtp.saix.net.

 

[bboy]

well they can only block on ip address, when you send through saix, you can send "from" any email address, even invalid ones, so they cannot block you by username!

 

[Karnaugh]

Is that for all email servers?!? That the... Come on, 250mb/h is not very much for some businesses. I wonder if that is also going to affect gmail and the gmail drive...

What the hell business is that? And what the hell business is that which doesnt have their *own* SMTP relay.

Lets straighten some things out. This applies to mail relayed through smtp.saix.net - if you have your own SMTP relay (not a good idea if you're on Telkom dynamic IP) then you can do whatever you like. This doesnt apply to gmail, or whatever else, only smtp.saix.net.

I say again, smtp.saix.net.

Also, that block is for an hour, as in (like it says in clear English) you can send 250Mb per hour. If you stumble upon an IP that doesnt work, an hour isn't going to kill you.

 

[DFantom]

Well if they used the ADSL username password to check the number of emails sent then changing or having other address names wouldn't make a diff, or would it?

If they use the ADSL username then you could not bypass it unless you had another account. But I still maintain it is IP based not username based

well they can only block on ip address

They could block on IP, ADSL username, or email address. So they could block using any of the above. Obviously as you pointed out email is the easiest of the bunch to bypass, then IP and finally ADSL username, although all can be bypassed.

What the hell business is that? And what the hell business is that which doesnt have their *own* SMTP relay.

SME's and SoHo's who can not afford it, which there are lots of.

If you stumble upon an IP that doesnt work, an hour isn't going to kill you.

Or just disconnect and reconnect with a new IP.

 

[James]

We have 45000 people in our DB that have asked for up-coming event infomation and a monthly newsletter. This once a month service does not warrant a mail server so I guess we must now look else where and spent even more money. Just another way Telkom is helping out in growing business's and our economy!

 

[mbs]

We have 45000 people in our DB that have asked for up-coming event infomation and a monthly newsletter. This once a month service does not warrant a mail server so I guess we must now look else where and spent even more money. Just another way Telkom is helping out in growing business's and our economy!

If you don't mind me asking, what are the reasons against not deploying your own mail server for your mail respondents? Given the numbers you have to serve, it would seem there is a justified case for at least deploying a box with something like postfix on it, imho...

 

[kaspaas]

We have 45000 people in our DB that have asked for up-coming event infomation and a monthly newsletter. This once a month service does not warrant a mail server so I guess we must now look else where and spent even more money. Just another way Telkom is helping out in growing business's and our economy!

I'm running a Linux box with G o D a d dy .com for just this reason.

At US$35 you can't afford to waste Telkom's bandwidth.

 

[Valerion]

And what the hell business is that which doesnt have their *own* SMTP relay.

Very simple - it's not a good idea to run your own relay if you're on a dynamic IP. I tried it on mine - relay through my own server, then send out directly to the net. Found out on just how many DNS blacklists the SAIX dynamic DSL IP ranges are ...

If the recipient is a major client and does use one of those services, and you consider email a business-critical tool, then it's either

1) Point your relay at smtp.saix.net
2) Use an open relay (yeah, probably blocked too ...)
3) Don't do business with that client

Which do you think is the best option?