To be continued - Controlling SPAM in my domains

[jacauc]

Hi,

It is a bit difficult now to continue on a thread that doesn't exist anymore, but i'd like to recreate this thread for people to share best practices on controlling SPAM and setting up the Scores properly in SPAMASSASSIN.

In the old thread, I had a user by the name of richard (he still has to join the new forums again though) who discussed some methods in using the "sa-learn" command in SSH to teach the bayesian filters about uncaught spam.

If i remember correctly, the method he described was to create a folder under your mailbox called "uncaught" or something similar, and moving all SPAM messages that slipped through spamassassin in this folder.

The, to make SA aware of this, you run the command:

sa-learn -D --mbox --spam ~/mail/yourdomain.com/yourmailbox/uncaught

After running this command from SSH, SA will know about these messages that it let through, and eventually learn to mark these with a higher spam score.

richard can run this command on his bluehost account with no problems, but unfortunately, when I run this command on box77, I get some errors:

[31364] dbg: metadata: X-Spam-Relays-Trusted:
[31364] dbg: metadata: X-Spam-Relays-Untrusted:
[31364] dbg: message: ---- MIME PARSER START ----
[31364] dbg: message: main message type: text/plain
[31364] dbg: message: parsing normal part
[31364] dbg: message: added part, type: text/plain
[31364] dbg: message: ---- MIME PARSER END ----
[31364] dbg: message: no encoding detected
[31364] dbg: bayes: DB_File module not installed, cannot use bayes
Learned tokens from 0 message(s) (1 message(s) examined)
ERROR: the Bayes learn function returned an error, please re-run with -D for more information

Can anyone else confirm if this is working on their accounts, and how to enable the particular DB_File module?

And continue sharing new ideas please
Thanks!
Jacauc

[richard]

That's a good summary of where the thread was, jacauc. Me and DB_File.so are on box62. I guess I just lucked into a good one. Maybe you should take this direct to a support ticket?

[jacauc]

OK, logged a ticket.. they might be able to help me.

Richard,
Is it necessary to run this command on my "spam" folder too (to tell SA that it has correctly identified spam - kinda making it more confident for next time )

And also, should I run it with the Ham option on my inbox?

Cheers
J

[Mistywindow]

Most of you will be aware of this, but a surprising number aren't.
A lot of incoming garbage can be avoided by changing your IE privacy cookie control settings from the Windows default setting, which is not tough enough.
Either change it to Medium High at least:

or click on the advanced tab and block all 3rd party cookies:

Firefox doesn't give you as much control but you can check "For the originating site only" in the Options dialogue box.

[richard]

OK, logged a ticket.. they might be able to help me.

Richard,
Is it necessary to run this command on my "spam" folder too (to tell SA that it has correctly identified spam - kinda making it more confident for next time )

And also, should I run it with the Ham option on my inbox?

Cheers
J

I would just answer flatly, but since we already know our boxes are somewhat different, I'll tell you how to check:

Look at the X-Spam-Status header of a spam message. Near the end of the line you should see "autolearn=spam". If you do, then spam messages are automatically being routed through the spam learner. Also, inspect similarly a clean message and check for "autolearn=ham". That means it was learned as good stuff.

If you see something else, time for another support ticket! If you see what I've described, all you ever have to do is feed sa-learn the mistakes with the appropriate choice of "--spam" or "--ham". That will undo the autolearn damage and learn the message(s) in the proper category.

Please let me know how support resolves your DB_File issue. Just curious.

[jacauc]

Ok, got it!

Got a reply on my ticket on saturday stating:

I will forward this request to our tech2 group. They will be getting back to you as soon as they can.

Will wait for this one to resolve before going ahead. (might be related issues.) I Did quote this thread in the ticket though, so they'll see this.

I also noticed on mattheaton.com that they will be implementing a proper spam filtering system soon. YAY!

Shot!
J

[MikeKieffer]

One thing I have done is create a php script that goes through my inbox and removes spam several times an hour. The script is really basic, and works with the ability that Spam Assassin has to rewrite the messages header. I have it put a [SPAM] tag at the beginning of the subject line, and then the script deletes messages that have that tag.

It is not a very sophisticated script, but it does the job. If you are interested in using the script, you can download it by going to http://www.lakemicro.com/spam_killer.php

In the future, I will be modifying the script to go off of the header information instead of the subject line. But that is something that is on the "Will do when I have time" list.

[jacauc]

Well, isn't this the same as going into "email filtering" from the control panel, and setting up a filter like this:

To filter all mail that SpamAssasin has marked as spam, just choose "SpamAssassin Spam Header", "begins with", and then enter "Yes" in the box.

That'll do the same job right?

Cheers!
J

[MikeKieffer]

I did not know that was there... Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[jacauc]

Guess thats what makes this forum a great place