[NTLUG:Discuss] Anti-Virus/Anti-Spamming for Sendmail on Linux

[Chris Cox]

JR Newsletters wrote:
...snip...
> 
> The only really free solutions involved clam antivirus, or amavis 
> antivirus....however you need to get a forwarding script to link the 
> antivirus program to sendmail/procmail's handling.  I've been trying a 
> couple of scripts, but they don't play well together at all.  The other 
> antivirus solutions I've found involved some $$$/yr., and, usually, two 
> copies of sendmail running while adding some sort of cryptic rule to 
> sendmail.cf (whatever happened to changing sendmail.mc instead?).

Sendmail has and ALWAYS is administered with sendmail.cf...
The sendmail.mc is simply a layman's way of making rule changes
easier inside of sendmail.cf.  Sendmail.mc handles "pre-canned"
sendmail configuration macro-to-sendmail.cf changes.... but if
you want to have full control, you have to modify sendmail.cf.

Something to keep in mind.  If you run sendmail.

I highly recommend
that you get a book (O'Reilly) and fully understand the sendmail rule engine.
Syntax is terse and hard to read...but also very, very powerful (also means
shooting yourself in the foot alot... the bullet is in the chamber
and not in Barney's pocket).

The reason why many choose a $$$ solution is that the really hate
spam and don't want to go through the process of learning how
to roll their own.... for those, the $$$ is well worth it.
Obviously, learning how to do it is part of the fun of Linux.

Wade Maxwell (bughunter) works for a free spam service for home users 
(www.maildeflector.com). Might be something for folks to look at.
Wade recently did a presentation at NTLUG and is willing to do a
follow-up one.