Cpanel Spam Assassin

[Maljonic]

Does anyone with cpanel hosting use spam assassin? If I turn it on all it does is label all the spam mail as [spam] but sends it to me anyway, am I doing something wrong of is that all it's supposed to do?

 

[SheepCow]

SpamAssassin just adds some headers and can modify subjects etc, then you're client can move it / ignore it. Chances are it's possible to set it up so that it just gets binned straight away, bit risky though

 

[Maljonic]

I don't have any clients using it, it's just me - hundreds of emails labeled [spam] every day. It does make it easier to delete them, but I'd rather they were just already deleted on their own so I didn't have to. It's mainly for Maljonic's Dreams really, it's been around for ages now so I get tonnes of the stuff for that site. I could just change the email address but I can't remember all the things I used it for and don't want to wipe some important contacts out that I forgot about.

 

[Whipped]

Mine does the same thing, but I like to be able to give all that spam a quick look over, just in case something jumps out as being geniune.

Of course, it could just be that every now and again I actually want to buy Viagra or invest in some new company whos stocks are going to sore

 

[SheepCow]

By client I meant Outlook / Mail etc

I have my spam filtered into a "Spam" folder which I have a peek at every so often to make sure important messages aren't dumped in there. Often confirmations from Papa Johns and Odeon end up there

 

[Maljonic]

I wouldn't use my website address for Papa John's though, or any other ultra important stuff. I use Outlook Express, if I knew how to send it to the Deleted Items that would be pretty cool.

 

[Jonty]

Hi Maljonic

You basically have three options:

1. Server-side removal Any messages that SpamAssassin considers to be spam are automatically removed by the server. Obviously this is risky because of false positives (i.e. genuine email being treated as spam), but SpamAssassin's default settings err on the side caution so most of the time there are no problems.
   
   To activate this service, login to cPanel and click Mail > Email Filtering > Add Filter. Using the two drop-down boxes, choose SpamAssassin Spam Header and begins with. Using the two textboxes, type Yes in the first textbox and Discard in the Destination textbox. Click the Activate button to apply the filter.
   
   (Please note that you could also use this method to forward all spam to a separate account (e.g. spam@yourdomain.com) which you can then check at your convenience. Just follow the same steps, but this time enter the desired email address in the Destination textbox.)
   
   
2. Server-side trap Any messages that SpamAssassin considers to be spam are redirected to a separate mail folder named 'spam'. You can read more about how to use this service on cPanel. Just click Mail > SpamAssassin. Personally I haven't tried this method so I cannot really comment on it.
   
   (Please note that this is different to the BoxTrapper Spam Trap option in cPanel, which is a white list service (i.e. everybody who emails you must be on an approved list of addresses/domains before their message is delivered). BoxTrapper will send a verification email whenever someone not on the white list tries to email you, but obviously this is no good for automated emails from online stores and the likes.)
   
   
3. Client-side removal Any messages that SpamAssassin considers to be spam are downloaded and then filtered into a spam folder by your email client.
   
   For Outlook Express (and Vista's successor, Windows Mail; and the successor to both of these, Windows Live Mail) just use the following steps. Please note, however, that Outlook Express-based email clients can only apply filtering to POP accounts, not IMAP or HTTP accounts (e.g. Hotmail).
   
   Firstly, login to cPanel and click Mail > SpamAssassin > Configure SpamAssassin. The only setting you want to change (or make a note of) is the rewrite_header subject. If this option is blank, type ***SPAM*** and click the Save button. Now whenever SpamAssassin detects a spam email, it will add rewrite the subject of that message to include ***SPAM*** at the beginning. This now allows our email client to easily filter the message (alternatively, you could filter based on the message's internal SpamAssassin header, but subject filtering is more straightforward).
   
   Secondly, make sure there is a folder in Outlook Express to store your spam messages in (e.g. Junk e-mail, or create a new folder etc.). Now in the top menu of Outlook Express, click Tools > Message Rules > Mail. In the new window, click Where the subject line contains specific words in the first box (Conditions), and Move it to the specified folder in the second box (Actions). In the third box, click the contains specific words link and add ***SPAM***. Still in the third box, click the specified link and select the folder where you want to messages to be redirected. Finally, click the Save Rule button to save the filter.
   
   (Please note that I'm basing this off Windows Live Mail running on Vista, but the basic idea can be applied to any email client, such as Thunderbird, Outlook (from the Office suite) etc. Please also note that your email client's own spam filtering may still be necessary given that SpamAssassin does not catch 100% of spam messages.)

Just as an aside, I personally use the first option (server-side removal) combined with my email client's spam filter. Yes, it's slightly risky, but SpamAssassin has never blocked any important email that I was expecting, and my host also claims to have extensively tested the system without ever having a false positive. Of course the system is not perfect, and some days you receive more spam than on other days, but that's where your email client's spam filters come into play as a second line of defence.

Anyway, good luck. I hope you're all keeping well. Everything is fine with me; life in Taiwan is amazing

Kind regards

Jonty

 

[Maljonic]

Thanks Jonty, and wow - nice to hear from you.

 

[Chilly]

jonty puts yet another thread to rest covering every angle