[PLUG] Virus / Worm Check

[Tim]

> I appreciate everyone's help. In any case, I've figured out enough
> keywords and phrases to filter out 95%+ of the bounce-back (hopefully
> keeping the important stuff). If this happens again, I might just have
> to bite the bullet and start configuring my own email server for real. 

You don't want to get into the business of filtering keywords manually.
That's just a rabbit's hole.  For content filtering, you're going to
want to use a bayesian filter of some variety.  There's quite a few out
there, some built into mail clients, some stand-alone.  I personally use
CRM114, which is incrediby accurate, but takes some feeding and
maintenance.  You could plausibly use it without a mail server.  If you
do set up a mail server, you'll want to have something set up to block
known-evil source IPs.

> Any recommendations? I've played with sendmail and Postfix, hear good
> things about qmail.

I use qmail.  It's fast, very secure and quite simple.  However, it's
not really actively maintained, so you have to wade through a plethora
of third party patches when you want this or that feature.  (That might
start to improve soon, since it's been released into the public domain,
but only time will tell.)  I don't recommend sendmail, simply due to
it's blatantly poor security track record.  Postfix is pretty popular
and easy to set up, so it might be a good first mail server to try out.

good luck,
tim