[Techtalk] simple mail filtering via whitelist - suggestions?

[Kai MacTane]

At 3/5/04 03:58 PM , Travis Casey wrote:
>What I'd like to do is create a "whitelist" of approved senders, and let
>mail from them go on to her.  Anything from someone else would be
>redirected to me.

For a 5-year-old, this sounds pretty reasonable. Especially given some of 
the stuff that's out there. Have you looked into TMDA?  I suspect it's very 
nearly what you want. I don't know about that "redirect to you" part; that 
might take a bit of hacking. But the rest of your spec is almost exactly 
what TMDA already does. When it receives an email from a non-whitelisted 
source, it sends back an automated reply asking the person to reply to it. 
When they do, they're added to the whitelist. Stops spam wonderfully well, 
since spammers don't bother letting mail come back to themselves.

So, if you can just redirect its output, you should be all set. (I have no 
idea how hard that would be; I don't actually use TMDA. I just know a few 
people who do.)

                                                 --Kai MacTane
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"There is no faith in which to hide; even truth is filled with lies.
  Doubting angels fall to walk among the living.
  I'm in this mood because of scorn, I'm in a mood for total war.
  To the darkened skies once more, and ever onward!"
                                                 --VNV Nation,
                                                  "DarkAngel"