# Question regarding OVH spam filtering and providers that use them.



## KuJoe (Aug 7, 2014)

I ready that OVH does both outbound and inbound filtering on network, does anybody know anything about this (I can't find any details other than they have something in place)?


Additionally can somebody recommend a good VPS provider that uses OVH that I can grab a small VPS for remote SMTP? Thanks!


----------



## nunim (Aug 7, 2014)

Not sure about their SPAM filtering as my personal mail is handled via Google Apps which does an excellent job.

I can recommend MyCustomHosting(MCH) for very affordable KVM in OVH BHS.  Phil might know more about their filtering procedures.


----------



## DomainBop (Aug 7, 2014)

> providers that use them.


 not a provider but I do have 6 servers at OVH and another 5 at Kimsufi  

I'm going to be reallllllllly lazy and copy one of my WHT posts.



> They've been using Vade Retro to filter outgoing SMTP traffic since last summer and it doesn't catch everything (they claim a 99% success rate at catching outgoing SPAM).
> 
> For anyone interested, these 2 updates have a bit more info on the anti-spam process OVH uses on SMTP traffic http://status.ovh.net/?do=details&id=4889 and http://status.ovh.co.uk/?do=details&id=5669



to answer this question:



> Additionally can somebody recommend a good VPS provider that uses OVH that I can grab a small VPS for remote SMTP?


MCHPhil is the only one I can think of (at BHS/Canada)

edited to add a link to Vade Retro: http://www.vade-retro.com/en/


----------



## HalfEatenPie (Aug 7, 2014)

You can always buy a VM from OVH directly


----------



## DomainBop (Aug 7, 2014)

HalfEatenPie said:


> You can always buy a VM from OVH directly


Their slabbed OpenVZ VPS's....suck (unless you like the excitement of  frequent reboots).


----------



## KuJoe (Aug 7, 2014)

Thanks for the feedback so far. I'll do some more research on what my options are but it looks like setting up an OVH VPS as as a remote SMTP server will be the easiest route.



HalfEatenPie said:


> You can always buy a VM from OVH directly


I didn't know they sold VPSs, I'll probably pick one up to test with.


----------



## DomainBop (Aug 7, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> Thanks for the feedback so far. I'll do some more research on what my options are but it looks like setting up an OVH VPS as as a remote SMTP server will be the easiest route.
> 
> I didn't know they sold VPSs, I'll probably pick one up to test with.


The low end VPS Classic ones (from 1.99 euros) are OpenVZ slabbed inside VMWare.  Performance isn't the best and they're prone to reboots.  The VPS Cloud (9.99 euro, 2GB and above) are VMWare and fairly reliable.


----------



## HalfEatenPie (Aug 7, 2014)

Yeah their cheap VM line reboots frequently. So I mean if you just want to test it out go for it, but for reliability I'd say grab one from MCH.


----------



## KuJoe (Aug 8, 2014)

I don't need reliability since the people using it won't be paying for it so the cheaper for me the better.


----------



## wlanboy (Aug 8, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> I don't need reliability since the people using it won't be paying for it so the cheaper for me the better.


We do have a


----------



## KuJoe (Aug 8, 2014)

wlanboy said:


> We do have a


They're $10/year plan would probably be perfect for me but now I'm wondering if it's a good idea dealing with a middle man since the whole point of the server is that I expect to have quite a bit of outgoing spam so at least if I can deal with the data center directly then I won't have to worry about where the abuse reports go to and I can probably get the IP SWIPed in my name.

I'm stilling looking for a local solution but so far the only remote filtering option in my budget is OVH (and I still haven't ruled out disabling SMTP all together).


----------



## MCH-Phil (Aug 8, 2014)

I do not have any outbound email services at OVH.  From what I understand, they filter outbound spam.  Filtering in would be crazy for a DC, even OVH.  They usually block port 25 for the offending IP OR block the whole IP.  It's not a good thing really with any DC.  OVH, doesn't care for it either.  It also requires a ticket if it happens multiple times for an IP.  Ultimately, delaying the entire process.

If you have any specific questions please let me know.


----------



## splitice (Aug 8, 2014)

They do have filtering, requires tickets to get it fixed. Both times we saw it (both falseish positives from end users with bouncy forum mass emails), it was just port 25 blocked.

I don't know if there is an escalation where the entire IP is blocked, I haven't seen it but it sounds frightening if true.


----------



## HalfEatenPie (Aug 8, 2014)

splitice said:


> They do have filtering, requires tickets to get it fixed. Both times we saw it (both falseish positives from end users with bouncy forum mass emails), it was just port 25 blocked.
> 
> I don't know if there is an escalation where the entire IP is blocked, I haven't seen it but it sounds frightening if true.


Haha problems working with OVH sometimes.


----------



## Awmusic12635 (Aug 8, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> They're $10/year plan would probably be perfect for me but now I'm wondering if it's a good idea dealing with a middle man since the whole point of the server is that I expect to have quite a bit of outgoing spam so at least if I can deal with the data center directly then I won't have to worry about where the abuse reports go to and I can probably get the IP SWIPed in my name.
> 
> I'm stilling looking for a local solution but so far the only remote filtering option in my budget is OVH (and I still haven't ruled out disabling SMTP all together).


There are a few other local solutions that you can run however they are on the more expensive side, such as mailchannels. They have an on premise and "cloud" version


----------



## willie (Aug 9, 2014)

Yeah, I had the 3 USD/month OVH slabbed vps for a few months and it did reboot a few times, though it worked pretty well when it was up.  I wrote something about it in the reviews section.  I also have had two OVH dedis (both at BHS) with a combined 2 years or so of operation and zero downtime.  The OVH VMware vps doesn't seem that attractive compared to a Kimsufi dedi if you are ok with the box being in EU.


----------



## KuJoe (Aug 9, 2014)

I've decided to setup my own remote filtering setup using ASSP, hopefully it works (if not I have a failsafe that I wrote for qmail to shutdown the service if the queue gets too large).

Thanks everybody for all of the helpful replies. I know where to look if my solution doesn't hold up.


----------



## marrco (Aug 12, 2014)

I don't know if you yo use ASSP v1 or v2, but if you need i have startup and munin script to manage v1. Regarding VPS use any classic 1.99 ovh will do. And if i can offer a small suggestion, since i do knwow assp and its limits very well, why don't you try haraka. And of course, if you use clamav don't forget to setup sanesecurity additional lists.


----------



## KuJoe (Aug 12, 2014)

marrco said:


> I don't know if you yo use ASSP v1 or v2, but if you need i have startup and munin script to manage v1. Regarding VPS use any classic 1.99 ovh will do. And if i can offer a small suggestion, since i do knwow assp and its limits very well, why don't you try haraka. And of course, if you use clamav don't forget to setup sanesecurity additional lists.


Thanks for the suggestions. I setup a SMTP remote proxy using ASSP v2 and Postfix, it's been working nicely so far but haven't had any real world use yet, just my own testing.


----------



## splitice (Aug 15, 2014)

@KuJoe, any tutorials forthcomming? Sounds like an interesting setup.


----------



## KuJoe (Aug 15, 2014)

I used a tutorial I found online but it was a little old so I had to make a few changes to it. I don't even know if it works or not though since I haven't activated any accounts yet.


----------



## CentralHosts (Aug 18, 2014)

I would not recommend using OVHs spam filtering as if you have a false positive or need changes adjusted it will take awhile for them to have this accomplished for you. I would suggest looking at Office365 for email hosting.


----------



## KuJoe (Aug 18, 2014)

CentralHosts said:


> I would not recommend using OVHs spam filtering as if you have a false positive or need changes adjusted it will take awhile for them to have this accomplished for you. I would suggest looking at Office365 for email hosting.


Does Office365 offer extremely cheap remote SMTP services for outbound e-mail only? I can't find it.


----------



## Aldryic C'boas (Aug 18, 2014)

Office365 is a *nightmare*.  We're stuck using it at Coke... and I don't know what kind of fustercluck setup they have going on upstream, but I always end up having to use one of my personal IMAPs if I want to actually send mail to someone not on Coke's 365 group (IT claims they're not blocking anything, and they're just as baffled).


----------



## KuJoe (Aug 18, 2014)

Don't worry Ald, I have no intention of using it even if they did have what I was looking for which I doubt they do. My current setup is 100x better for my needs than a hosted solution could ever be.


----------



## datarealm (Aug 18, 2014)

have you ever tried mailcleaner?
we installed it once at a small provider who had a barracuda that bit the dust and thought it was fantastic.  would be curious how you thought it compared to ASSP.


----------



## KuJoe (Aug 18, 2014)

MailCleaner is not even remotely in my price range. They want $8.50 per mailbox, ASSP is free as is the server it's on.


----------



## datarealm (Aug 18, 2014)

They have an open source edition: http://www.mailcleaner.org/

Though it appears it hasn't been updated for 2 years, which is almost exactly as long as its been since i've looked into it.  (Did a fabulous job at the time though as a total drop in replacement for the barracuda that dropped dead)


----------



## KuJoe (Aug 18, 2014)

In that case it might be worth looking into if ASSP doesn't pan out. I really should start accepting clients so I can test it out.


----------



## splitice (Aug 19, 2014)

Testing on clients? Eeek. I hope it works, and then I hope for a tutorial. 

Ive done a bit of looking into outgoing SMTP filtering, didn't really find anything which I considered production worthy on it (with the restriction of open source / free and running on Linux). I did find spamd for OpenBSD but I haven't done anything on OpenBSD to date, and I dont really want to learn it just for spam filtering.


----------



## KuJoe (Aug 19, 2014)

splitice said:


> Testing on clients? Eeek. I hope it works, and then I hope for a tutorial.


I can't test it myself so I need spammers to test it and free web hosting attracts a lot of them.


----------

