Hi,
I've been silently following this (long misnamed) thread since its
inception, except for today's postings, if any, as I am usually subscribed
in digest mode. The Mail Archive is of no help as I write this since the
latest archived message for the IMail Forum is dated Thursday, August 14,
2003. Please forgive me if what follows has been addressed today.
I don't want to write about the respective merits of Declude JunkMail and
IMGate, nor do I wish to be perceived as addressing their authors on a
personal basis. This is, after all, a technical list :) Unless I am
mistaken, I believe that the real matter behind all the exchanges is the FP
ratio. I, for one, am very concerned about this measurement and how it is
performed, if at all.
Suppose that I am in need of an antispam solution. Let's disregard whether I
am an ISP or the Head of IT at XYZ Corp. Though I understand that some
people feel that my professional situation has a bearing upon choosing a
single-criterion vs. a weighted combination system, I contend that I still
want to know what either solution claims in terms of FP ratios. (I am thus
setting aside the question of single vs. multiple criterion/criteria.)
As I am a reasonable man, I am not expecting an exact answer ("We have an FP
ratio of 3.1416%") from either camp. I also realize that either side may
say, "Well, it depends. We have Customer A whose FP ratio is 0.1% whilst
Customer B -- using the exact same configuration -- experiences a ratio of
2%". I'm OK with this since different mail servers have different "spam
profiles". Furthermore, I am quite willing to accept that I must tweak the
default configuration for either product to lower my FP ratio to an
"acceptable" level, whatever this may be for me, and know that I can tweak
either solution.
The real question becomes, "How can I determine what is the FP ratio during
tweaking?" I obviously cannot go with the raw number of rejected e-mails.
Perhaps the logs of the single-criterion/reject-at-the-envelope-level system
can provide me with information as to how many were rejected at the envelope
level, owing (for example) to the sending mail server being listed in some
RBL for *some* reason, but I don't see how to get an FP ratio out of this.
Am I thus correct in saying that in order to know the FP ratio, I have to
accept and process the DATA segment (with the incurred overhead)? More to
the point, am I also correct that the aforementioned
"single-criterion/reject-at-the-envelope-level" solution *cannot* ever give
me *any* measurable FP ratio? If the latter is true, I'd have no choice but
to go with a system which can, even if said system were configured in
single-criterion mode, as a limit case.
Comments welcome,
Guy
--
Guy Isabel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To Unsubscribe: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/mailing-lists.html
List Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/imail_forum%40list.ipswitch.com/
Knowledge Base/FAQ: http://www.ipswitch.com/support/IMail/
