On July 28, mail.msu.edu will begin blocking e-mail originating from known
spam sources. The system will rely on industry-recognized Domain Name System
(DNS)-based databases of known spam sources, such as Spamhaus. A message
originating from a listed host will be rejected and the sender will receive
an explanatory notice.
This new filtering will occur prior to other processing, which will
significantly reduce the amount of system resources spent managing
unsolicited e-mail. This will help alleviate current delivery delay issues.
MSU’s servers will synchronize with the database of blocked hosts hourly,
ensuring that mail.msu.edu users receive up-to-date spam protection.
Use of these lists will substantially decrease the amount of spam messages
our users receive. As a result, valid e-mail will be delivered more quickly.
The amount of spam forwarded from mail.msu.edu to other e-mail servers will
be greatly reduced, which will avoid classification of mail.msu.edu as a
known spam source.
Because this change will occur at the server level, all users will be
affected. Users will retain the ability to use additional spam filtering,
located in the mail.msu.edu Preferences menu.
The risk of additional false positives is extremely low. However, if a valid
message is blocked, the sender will be notified and can try a different way
to deliver the message.
This change will align mail.msu.edu with recognized industry standard
practices for e-mail servers. DNS-based identification of known spam sources
is widely used by Internet Service Providers. For instance, Spamhaus
protects over 650 million mailboxes worldwide.
For more information on mail.msu.edu, visit http://help.msu.edu/mail.
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