Spam Assassin

[pguelpa]

I was wondering if anyone has tried using their spam assassin feature on their e-mail. I want to use it to cut down on the amount of spam our company gets, but I also don't want to loose any relevant e-mails. Does anyone have any experience with Spam Assassin? Does it actually stop spam from getting to your inbox, or does it just flag it? Could you let me know how e-mails look when they come into someone's inbox (ie. are they altered in any way because of Spam Assassin).

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers,

Paul

[rfrench10]

Watch out for Spam Assassin. It works super well. When I first tried to use it I went from 7000 + emails in a day to ZERO emails the next day! Make sure you configure it completely. Yes, it modifies the email header so that you can filter on it with your email program(s). The instructions and descriptions are OK but could use clarification at times. There is a new emailbox that is created with the program so you can manually scan the 'killed email' with HordeMail, before finally deleting it, which is good because you will probably lose some of your good mail until you tweak the configuration successfully.

By the way, I don't use it any more, but some of my clients do swear by it.

[pguelpa]

How do you tweak the configuration? I'm just on a shared hosting plan, does this make a difference to how much I can tweak the configuration?

Thanks for the help,

Paul

[rfrench10]

These are the areas you can modify with a shared hosting account, if spam assassin is enabled on your account or server:

Change SpamAssassin Settings

blacklist_from
blacklist_from
blacklist_from
blacklist_from
blacklist_from
Used to specify addresses which send mail that is often tagged (incorrectly) as non-spam, but which the user doesn't want. Same format as whitelist_from.
required_score
Set the number of hits required before a mail is considered spam. "n.nn" can be an integer or a real number. 5.0 is the default setting, and is quite aggressive; it would be suitable for a single-user setup, but if you're an ISP installing SpamAssassin, you should probably set the default to be more conservative, like 8.0 or 10.0
rewrite_header subject
Text added to the Subject: line of mails that are considered spam. _HITS_ in the tag will be replace with the calculated score for this message. _REQD_ will be replaced with the threshold.
score
score
score
score
score
Assign scores (the number of points for a hit) to a given test. Scores can be positive or negative real numbers or integers. "SYM-BOLIC_TEST_NAME" is the symbolic name used by SpamAssassin for that test; for example, 'FROM_ENDS_IN_NU'. If only one valid score is listed, then that score is always used for a test. If four valid scores are listed, then the score that is used depends on how SpamAssassin is being used. The first score is used when both Bayes and network tests are disabled. The second score is used when Bayes is disabled, but network tests are enabled. The third score is used when Bayes is enabled and network tests are disabled. The fourth score is used when Bayes is enabled and net-work tests are enabled. Setting a rule's score to 0 will disable that rule from running.
whitelist_from
whitelist_from
whitelist_from
whitelist_from
whitelist_from
Used to specify addresses which send mail that is often tagged (incorrectly) as spam; it also helps if they are addresses of big companies with lots of lawyers. This way, if spammers impersonate them, they'll get into big trouble, so it doesn't provide a shortcut around SpamAssassin. Whitelist and blacklist addresses are now file-glob-style patterns, so friend@somewhere.com, *@isp.com, or *.domain.net will all work. Specifically, * and ? are allowed, but all other metacharacters are not. Regular expressions are not used for security reasons.

[SAVE]


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[Marleen]

I use Spam Assasin and love it! It's really very easy to set up and seems to work perfectly. I made a 'dummy' email account that I send all mail marked as spam where I can review it when time permits. That way I don't lose any mail, yet I am able to open my mailbox and generally find only actual mail. It's cut down my spam by a good 90%. I also use the "Email Filter" feature for mail that gets by my lower setting of Spam Assasin. As with my Spam Assasin configuration, I have mail that has been rejected by the filter sent to that same 'dummy' mail account where I review it before deleting it. They are both wonderful features that I was absolutely delighted to find offered.
Hope this helps! Now, off to vote!

Warm regards,
Marleen

[Hallweiser]

I enabled spam assassin on the weekend and it seems to have made no difference at all. I configured based on recommended settings for user preferences. Have no idea how to set up the spam e-mail box others are talking about. Nothing seems to have set up automatically. The spam on our e-mail accounts is getting out of hand.

[beezteez]

I have used spam assasin for quite a while now and like it but...it still puts the spam emails in a folder which does use space. I have had this domain for many years so unfortunatly am on many many lists. I have found that If I do not go and delete the emails from the spam folder every other few days there can be close to 20,000 emails in there. This takes up MB and can be hard to empty without timing out. Otherwise I do like this feature.