well, I didn't go into why we use it, just how it was implemented... outlook's built-in block list does not, of course, affect the global spammer list maintained by xmail and is geared toward blocking spam for individual users. our interest was in having point-of-use global spammer blocking; I and and other authorized individuals can block IP addresses or domains (the latter is accomplished by having xmail compare RDNS results against spam-address.tab. the outlook code I use in production can update either of those two files depending upon whether I want to block the IP or the MTA's entire domain). thus, any admin who receives spam (or email from a user reporting spam or porn or company email policy violations or whatever) can block it globally - not just for themselves - without running a standalone program to find the required information. If he or she opens a message and decides that it should be globally blocked (or if they receive a spam report from a user) they simply click. this is particularly convenient on Monday mornings when the logfiles have rolled a few times and we open our inboxes to find scores of spam reports (or spam messages). The log files don't include enough information to determine whether most messages are spam or not, but the messages themselves do. scripted automation of the task also permits inclusion of business rules into the process - such as the recordkeeping done when spam is reported to an ISP, and what those reports contain.
I am in no way ragging your program or method, our admins simply like our solution and it integrates into other business functions. Time that relatively expensive admins spend cutting & pasting or running external programs when an automated solution can be had costs money that I'd rather spend on hardware (or bonuses!). But similarly, for a single-user (or all-admin) deployment of xmail (e.g., at home), it provides maximum convenience; I find it distasteful if I have a message open on my desktop to have to go elsewhere to implement a block when the information is right there in front of me. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe xmail" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For general help: send the line "help" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
