Important Update to Your Spam Filtering
All recent versions of Movable Type include a number of plugins for blocking spam, including a set of plugins called SpamLookup. We wanted to update you about a third-party service that’s affected the performance of one of the plugins, along with some easy steps you can take to fix the issue.
Recently, an IP blacklist service known as Blitzed ceased its operations. Movable Type’s SpamLookup plugin uses this service to process incoming comments and TrackBacks to determine if they are spam or not. With Blitzed shut down, a lot of you might be experiencing delays when publishing your readers’ comments.
Though we’re sorry to see Blitzed go (and thank the team for their efforts), the good news is that a free replacement is available. The SpamHaus Project has been in operation for over 9 years and has a long track record of providing excellent protection against known spammers. In addition to their technology that they allow people to use for free, Spamhaus works with Law Enforcement and cyber-crimes teams worldwide, helping them not only to block these miscreants, but also to bring them to justice.
Adding Spamhaus to your spam filtering rules is straightforward; You’ll need to make a small change to SpamLookup’s configuration. To fix follow these simple instructions:
- Login to Movable Type. (Your account will need to have System Administrator privileges.)
- Click on the “Plugins” link in the main navigation on the left hand side.
- Look for the “SpamLookup - Lookups” plugin set listed among your other plugins.
- Click “Show Settings.”
- Under “IP Blacklist Services” highlight and replace the text “opm.blitzed.org” with “zen.spamhaus.org”.
- Click “Save Settings.”
That’s it — your sites’s visitors should experience faster commenting times immediately, and your blog will keep blocking known spammers. If you need more information on fighting spam on your blog, take a look at the Movable Type Spam-Fighting resources on the community wiki, or contact Movable Type support for assistance.
2 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Important Update to Your Spam Filtering.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.movabletype.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/98
Back in Hawaii but my body thinks it is still on the East Coast regardless lots of great content on todays show. Sponsors: [Save 10% off on any order at GoDaddy.com!] Use Code Todd [Try GoToMeeting free for 30 days... Read More
Last month I found a post advising to setup Zen from spamhaus on Movable Type to filter spam. Since then,... Read More
Has there been a recent change to zen.spamhaus.org ?
They have now flagged up a dozen "false postive" IP addresses in the last couple of days, which lead to the plugin junking these legitimate comments. This is far more "false positives" than ever before.
www.spamhaus.org is offline again, presumably due to DDoS attacks, so I cannot check these IP addresses with their online databases.
I am seriously considering disabling the zen.spamhaus.org IP address notification service
from my blog(s).