[Pre Announcement] VirusBlocker coming soon

Should VirusBlocker have an "Exclude Domains" list or an "Include Domains" list ?

  • Exclude

    Votes: 33 78.6%

  • Include

    Votes: 9 21.4%
  • Total voters
    42
nobaloney

nobaloney

NoBaloney Internet Svcs - In Memoriam †
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We're only hours (probably about 72) from releasing VirusBlocker but I need some advice.

SpamBlocker by default is turned off, and you turn it on by putting domains for which you want it to work into a file. In other words; it uses an "include" list. But in thinking about it, I'm thinking that most of us would want AntiVirus for most of our domains, and therefore an "exclude" list might be easier for us to maintain.

Since it'll be a while before we have a plugin, plesae let me know what's easiest for you.

Poll answers, please :) .

Jeff
 
I said include since its probably more desirable for customers to have features available to them but not automatically enabled.
 
How about a set and forget just like spamblocker?

I agree that the include list is most logical and then have the option for all domains to be included automatically.
 
That's SpamBlocker Pro. Yes, VirusBlocker Pro will eventually offer a "Set and Forget" with an exclusion list.

But that's not what's ready :) .

The include everything in SpamBlocker (not the pro version) is a link. Which must be unlinked before you install the SpamBlocker Plugin.

Jeff
 
Available but not on be default so they can turn it on if they want. I also second the option to turn it on for all their domains they currently have and add in the future.
 
Maybe you could do something like this:

DEFAULT=INCLUDE
firstdomain.com
seconddomain.com
thirddomain.com
which would 'include' all domains by default except for the domains listed.

The alternative would be:

DEFAULT=EXCLUDE
firstdomain.com
seconddomain.com
thirddomain.com
which would 'exclude' domains by default except for the ones listed.

That way both options would be possible.
 
We'll have an "all except list" in the Plugin version, which will, like the last one, cost money.

But I have no idea how to do what you suggest without programming or a very complex set of exim rules which would be hard for most of us to understand if we ever wanted to work on our own exim.conf file. (Rules equivalent to programming).

I'm leaning towards doing it the same way we do it in SpamBlocker, exclude all, then a list. That way it comes shut off by default, which is how it should be.

And also how the pollees seem to want it.

Jeff
 
jlasman said:
But I have no idea how to do what you suggest without programming
Click to expand...
Yes, I was thinking of a programmed solution, but I hadn't really thought about it from a 'lot-of-work' point of view. It will probably be a lot of work so never mind.

As for using an include-list vs exclude-list:

1. When I first installed SpamBlocker I was glad it used an include-list so I could test it first with 1 domain before enabling it for all domains.

2. Now that I've been using SB for several months I know it works and I want to enable it for all domains automatically. An exclude-list would be much easier because it would automatically enable it for new users without me having to remember to add their domain to the list.

I guess these same arguments apply to VirusBlocker as well. After thinking about it for some time I guess I find the 2nd argument more important in the long run, so I voted for an exclude-list.



On a related subject, have you ever used 'wildlsearch' successfully? I wanted to do something like 192.168.0.* in whitelist_hosts. So I changed lsearch to wildlsearch in exim.conf and put ^192\.168\.0\.* in whitelist_hosts. But that didn't work. I tried several different expressions, none worked. I also tried the \N option, as well as nwildlsearch, but no luck.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for your points and your vote. When we do the plugin we'll do the programming, and we will have a set-and-forget setting with exclusions, just as we do now for the SpamBlocker plugin.

We tried wild searches as well (there's a reason our stuff takes a while to release; we really do try :) ), and they didn't work for us either. I suppose if I had someone I could apply fulltime to exim, I could get it all figured out, but so far no luck.

Have you tried partial matches? (I'm trying to remember if I have or not, but I can't remember and my notes are at the office; it's Saturday morning here and I'm at home.)

Jeff
 
If you recall, I posted "probably".

I hope you'll agree that it's more important I take care of clients than work on new software. I know you would if you were a client :) .

And I'm still at a loss as to whether to do a default include or exclude, though I'll probably follow the poll results. The problem is that the poll results don't match the phone calls and emails.

I wanted to relax this holiday (in the U.S.) weekend, but I suppose I can go into the office and finish up the beta release.

Note that nothing in this email is a promise :) .

Jeff
 
Just kiddin, and yes: I'm a customer (bought Spamblocker plugin) and will be a customer again when you release Virusblocker! :)
 
The SpamBlocker plugin will be updated at no cost to manage the same functionality in VirusBlocker as well.

Jeff
 
I agree that is good news. I most likely would have purchased it anyways but I think you can pull in many more new clients by bundling it all together.
 
Things tend to get delayed at the end of the month through the first few days of the month as we manage our billing.

But that's out of the way now, so we can concentrate on getting the VirusBlocker into beta status. I should get it done by Monday or Tuesday.

Once a bunch of people tell us it works, we'll turn it into production code (shouldn't be more than a few days since it's working well for me), and Onno will make the changes to turn the SpamBlocker Plugin into the Spam&VirusBlocker Plugin.

Jeff
 
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