[General] Default Address Proposals

We have been sending out notices regarding the usage of client’s default addresses. The last notice we sent detailed some changes being proposed in regards to your default address. This post will aim to describe those proposals in further detail.

These are just proposals, nothing is set in stone just yet. We are receiving feedback concerning these proposals and will make a decision on implementing these procedures at a later date.

Right now we have about 80% compliance in regards to the recommended default address usage. I would prefer to get this up to 90% or higher before making any changes.

The first proposal has to do with users that forward their default address off of the server to a third-party e-mail address. Our studies have shown that your default address is just going to receive a lot of spam. It may receive some legitimate mails, but for the most part, these legitimate mails can be weeded out by setting up specific mail accounts or specific forwarders for those real e-mail addresses.

Just take a moment and consider this:

If a spammer wanted to get their spam message to as many people as possible, do you really think it would bother them to send the same spam message to tom@yourdomain, ted@yourdomain.com, sally@yourdomain.com, jim@yourdomain.com, etc? Spammer’s don’t care. If the absolute only e-mail address on your domain that you use is john@yourdomain.com then why should you concern yourself with all of those illegitimate addresses on your domain?

The problem with forwarding your default address off of the server, is that each time the spammer sends their spam message to tom@yourdomain.com, ted@yourdomain.com, sally@yourdomain.com, and jim@yourdomain.com then you are effectively sending spam to a third part e-mail address. This will cause the server to become blacklisted. When the server becomes blacklisted, nobody will be able to send out mail from the server.

I do realize that there are some circumstances where you may feel that your default address is necessary. I understand this. I am just asking that you understand why forwarding your default address is such a bad thing. The best way I know to combat this, is that if you are forwarding your default address off of the server, then any message destined for your default address would be automatically rejected. It is not fair to the rest of the users on the server to have to face a server blacklisting because a single user on the server wants to forward their default address off of the server. If you want to use your default address, that is fine, you just need to set it to be delivered locally.

The second proposal has to do with SpamAssassin and your default address. Again, because your default address just receives an inordinate amount of spam, using SpamAssassin to filter spam messages on your account is just wasting resources. If you know that a large percentage of messages coming into an account are spam messages, then why bother checking those messages for a spam score? This just results in a waste of server resources that could be better utilized in other areas.

Again, this won’t stop you from using your default address. It will just stop your account from being able to use SpamAssassin. It is just part of the cost involved in using this type of set up. If using your default address is absolutely vital to the well-being of your account, then not having access to SpamAssassin shouldn’t bother you. If you feel that SpamAssassin is absolutely necessary for your account, then you need to ask yourself if your default address is necessary.

These changes are just part of our aim to provide our clients with the best server performance and stable hosting environment.