Different locations on-campus, and around the planet, are allowed to hit Colby's mail server with different numbers of messages per hour. Any single machine (IP address) exceeding the maximum for a locale will be deferred for one hour. This control is enforced to prevent rogue clients (or spambots) from flooding Colby's mail server and bringing general service to a halt. This tactic also helps keep spammers at bay.
The maximum message per hour are current set at:
- dorm rooms, public labs, classrooms, and wireless connections: 30 per hour per machine
- Colby offices: 1000 per hour per machine
- Colby machine room: 3600 per hour per machine
- Colby modem pool: 100 per hour per machine
- Admissions office: 3600 per hour per machine
- Harris Publishing and The New York Times: 1000 per hour per machine
- North America and South Africa: 200 per hour per machine
- Europe, Russia, Africa north of the Congo, Greenland: 100 per hour per machine
- Mexico, Central and South America: 30 per hour per machine
- East Asia and the Pacific (China, Korea, Japan, the Indian subcontinent, Madagascar, SE Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands): 30 per hour per machine
- Colby's mail server itself: unlimited
- Everybody Else (including most edu addresses): 200 per hour per machine
The numbers above are determined ad-hoc, based on the amount of spam we get from various locations and the amount of legitimate e-mail we get.
