[ale] OT: gmail question

[David Tomaschik]

On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 1:42 PM, Michael B. Trausch <mike at trausch.us> wrote:
> On Wed, 2011-02-23 at 09:42 -0500, David Tomaschik wrote:
>> IMO, running a mail server reliably and with GMail-like quality of
>> spam filtering is actually a difficult task.  Having a single MX seems
>> to be asking for failure to me.  Although I suppose I could invest in
>> something like http://www.dyndns.com/services/sendlabs/backupmx.html.
>> I'd still need to find the quality spam filtering, though.
>
> Both valid points.
>
> I have found Linode to be a highly reliable service, though, so the
> point on reliability is diminished.  I would not advocate running such a
> setup on a home network, however.

I run my web/vpn/etc. server off of Linode, however I have had one or
two kernel lockups (though none since I started using pv-grub).
Running e-mail securely is just not as easy as using Google Apps, even
with the privacy risks and IMAP issues.

> There can be problems in environments where not all systems are aware of
> the use user database, as well; for example, it's difficult to support
> the notion of immediate rejection of mails destined for invalid user
> accounts if not all of the secondary MX servers have the ability to look
> to see if a user is valid or not.  In that case, you can have problems
> with bounces back to invalid source addresses, which is of course an
> issue.
>
> I have found the amount of spam (using SpamAssassin) to be acceptable
> when the system is trained on a regular basis.
>
> Probably the most major problem, though, is that of the way we do
> Internet mail itself.  I do not see a solution for that, however; the
> problem really with the present Internet mail system is that while there
> is the ability to do things like be very strict about what you can
> accept and so forth, there is no universal method available that doesn't
> also waste bandwidth.

Absolutely agreed.  More support for OpenPGP (even though I don't sign
mail on the web interface).  I wish I could flag mail that is signed
with a trusted/good signature to be at the top of my e-mail at all
times, for example.

> Honestly, I would like to see some major changes to the whole Internet
> mail system.  I could probably write a book on everything that is wrong
> with the weaknesses of the way we are doing things at present, but I'm
> afraid it would not accomplish anything but waste my own time.  I think
> that even if there were better, stronger standards that worked more
> efficiently, even with other significant benefits, it would never be
> deployed.  The current system works "well enough" in the view of most
> people.  That means that there would never be a critical mass of people
> willing to change it that it'd ever actually change.
>
>        --- Mike




-- 
David Tomaschik, RHCE, LPIC-1
System Administrator/Open Source Advocate
OpenPGP: 0x5DEA789B
http://systemoverlord.com
david at systemoverlord.com