Confused about "Use RBL checks" on/off vs. DNSBL

[creeble]

The documentation has a clear explanation of "DNSBL":

To disable DNSBL checks entirely, remove any DNSBL Sites entries inMail Proxy Options.

but I do not understand what "Use RBL checks" in Spam Detector then means. When it is on, what RBL sites/settings are used? The (PMG) documentation says only:

rbl_checks: <boolean> (default = 1)
Enable real time blacklists (RBL) checks.

I tried to find this information in the Forum, but couldn't find anything but references to configuring DNSBL sites.

 

[Stoiko Ivanov]

To disable DNSBL checks entirely, remove any DNSBL Sites entries inMail Proxy Options.

This one sets postscreen_dnsbl_sites - see: https://www.postfix.org/POSTSCREEN_README.html

but I do not understand what "Use RBL checks" in Spam Detector then means.

This one sets the appropriate options for spamassassin to use their built-in dnsbl lookups - see
https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/spamassassin/DnsBlocklists

I hope this helps!

 

[creeble]

Okay, I think I understand.

The "Use RBL checks" is really a misnomer according to the (spamassassin) documentation you pointed to, and it actually activates a series of pre-programmed DNSBL checks, which are not configurable easily except by setting their result score to 0.

Seems like it's better to use the DNSBL settings, where servers can be named explicitly.

 

[Stoiko Ivanov]

The "Use RBL checks" is really a misnomer according to the (spamassassin) documentation you pointed to,

Why do you think so? - For me it fits quite well - given that the SpamAssassin Option to disable them is named skip_rbl_checks

Seems like it's better to use the DNSBL settings, where servers can be named explicitly.

some of the Spamassassin checks do other things - the postscreen_dnsbl_sites only checks the sending IP - on the other hand - the URIBL checks in SA do check the URLs occurring inside the mail - both have their merit - and for both the time of check is quite appropriate

 

[creeble]

The "Use RBL checks" is really a misnomer according to the (spamassassin) documentation you pointed to,

Why do you think so? - For me it fits quite well - given that the SpamAssassin Option to disable them is named skip_rbl_checks

I'm going by the documentation you pointed to:

DNS Blocklists are a common form of network-accessible database used in spam detection. They're also referred to as "DNSBLs", "DNS Blacklists" and "RBLs". (The latter usage is incorrect; see RBL.)

But it seems that they aren't entirely correct, as the SpamAssassin checks do both DNSBL checks and some actual RBL checks?