[Info-vax] TCPIP tying up system

[Michael Moroney]

JF Mezei <jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> writes:

>Henry Crun wrote:

>> RBLs: zen.spamhaus.org
>> to cut out a lot of spam.

>This cuts spam, but doesn't prevent the SMTP receiver from bogging the
>system down to a halt for normal users.

>By the time it gets to process the RBL, all the overhead from process
>creation, running a .COM, activating the .EXE, having it read its
>config, accept the TCP connection etc has been spent.

Set the account priority of the TCPIP$SMTP account to something like 1 in
the UAF, so that all "normal" processes always get priority.  The 
drawback is if you run compute-bound number crunchers the TCPIP$SMTP
processes won't get CPU and legit email will get delayed or the links
drop after timing out --> very delayed or dropped emails.  But how
many hobbyists run number crunchers on our VMS systems?

BTW make sure your system is set up to not relay email (the default until
recently was to relay).  Perhaps the system is being attacked because 
spammers love to relay their spam through that system.