Make SpamAssassin Mark Spam in the Subject

               By default, SpamAssassin does not alter the Subject line of detected spam. This default setting is also the right one, I think (no need to remove "*****SPAM*****" when I reply).

If your email client does not allow filtering on arbitrary headers, tagging spam in the Subject: line is useful, however. Now you can tell the program to look for "*****SPAM*****" in the Subject: of incoming mail and send matching emails to the Trash immediately.
 

Make SpamAssassin Mark Spam in the Subject

Steps to make SpamAssassin mark detected spam in Subject:

•     Open /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf in your favorite editor.

•     Add "rewrite_subject 1" to it.

             If your SpamAssassin preferences file already has "rewrite_subject 0", change it to "rewrite_subject 1".

Since your personal SpamAssassin configuration file (~/.spamassassin/user_prefs) overrides all settings in local.cf, make sure "rewrite_subject" either is not in your personal configuration file or is set to "1", too.

And don't forget to remove "*****SPAM*****" from the Subject if you reply to a message erroneously tagged as spam by SpamAssassin...

Read More

Whitelist a Domain in SpamAssassin

          Using its comprehensive set of rules and Bayesian analysis, SpamAssassin catches an impressive amount of spam with hardly any false positives.

Hardly any. To reduce this number even further you can whitelist certain newsletters, top candidates for being erroneously classified as spam.

To make sure TechSupp247 updates always get through uninterrupted, whitelist "TechSupp247.com" in SpamAssassin.

Whitelist a Sender or Domain in SpamAssassin

Steps to whitelist individual addresses or domains in SpamAssassin:

•     Open /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf in your favorite editor for system-wide whitelisting.

•     To whitelist only for yourself, open ~/.spamassassin/user_prefs.

•     Append "whitelist_from_rcvd {address or domain you want to whitelist preceded by "*@"} {domain name which must be present in the Received: headers}".

•     To whitelist all TechSupp247 updates, for example, type "whitelist_from_rcvd *@TechSupp247.com".

The second parameter of whitelist_from_rcvd, a domain name which must be present in the Received: header lines, is some prevention against spammers easily getting past SpamAssassin by using an email address at a commonly whitelisted domain.

Read More

Filtering Foreign Language Spam

                 Not everything I don't understand is spam. Most of the things don't understand are not. But when the majority of the email in a language I can read is junk, the spam percentage is even higher for mail using charsets that make my computer pause (and, obviously, look for them in hidden corners of the disk).

By default, SpamAssassin treats all languages equally. But you can configure it to parse each message and determine the language used. If it is not one of the "allowed" languages, SpamAssassin automatically adds a few points the message's spam score. If SpamAssassin is not sure about the language used, no points are assigned.

Filter Foreign Language Spam with SpamAssassin

Steps to have SpamAssassin filter out mail in foreign tongues:

•     Open /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf in your favorite editor.

•     If not present, add "ok_languages " on a line of itself.

•     List the languages (from the list below) you want to accept, separated by spaces:

        af - Afrikaans
        sq - Albanian
        am - Amharic
        ar - Arabic
        hy - Armenian
        eu - Basque
        bs - Bosnian
        bg - Bulgarian
        be - Belorussian
        ca - Catalan
        zh - Chinese
        hr - Croatian
        cs - Czech
        da - Danish
        nl - Dutch
        en - English
        eo - Esperanto
        et - Estonian
        fi - Finnish
        fr - French
        fy - Frisian
        ka - Georgian
        de - German
        el - Greek
        he - Hebrew
        hu - Hungarian
        hi - Hindi
        is - Icelandic
        id - Indonesian
        ga - Irish Gaelic
        it - Italian
        ja - Japanese
        ko - Korean
        la - Latin
        lv - Latvian
        lt - Lithuanian
        ms - Malay
        mr - Marathi
        ne - Nepali
        no - Norwegian
        fa - Persian
        pl - Polish
        pt - Portuguese
        qu - Quechua
        rm - Rhaeto-Romance
        ro - Romanian
        ru - Russian
        sa - Sanskrit
        sco - Scots
        gd - Scottish Gaelic
        sr - Serbian
        sk - Slovak
        sl - Slovenian
        es - Spanish
        sw - Swahili
        sv - Swedish
        tl - Tagalog
        ta - Tamil
        th - Thai
        tr - Turkish
        uk - Ukrainian
        vi - Vietnamese
        cy - Welsh
        yi - Yiddish

To accept mail in English, German, Latin, Thai and Swedish, for example, use "ok_languages en de la th sv".

Read More

SpamAssassin : Security Add-on

             SpamAssassin provides efficient scoring spam filters, support for SPF sender authentication and Bayesian filtering. While SpamAssassin catches most spam out of the box, the threshold possibly has to be adjusted to eliminate false positives.

Advantages:

•     SpamAssassin has a high spam detection rate

•     Uses sophisticated scoring filters, Bayesian statistics, blacklists and SPF for authentication

•     SpamAssassin works seamlessly in just about every environment

Disadvantages:

•     Default SpamAssassin setup is a tad too aggressive

•     Ongoing training of SpamAssassin's Bayesian filtering is a bit cumbersome

Description:

•     SpamAssassin is a mail filter using a number of scoring heuristics to identify spam.

•     Employs header and mail body analysis as well as blacklists and collaborative spam databases.

•     Marks spam for later filtering (via procmail, the mail transfer agent, an email client,...).

•     SpamAssassin gives a detailed report of its scoring process for every identified spam message.

•     Defangs HTML messages to eliminate the risk of spammers exploiting your privacy with remote images.

•     Further advanced HTML parsing helps detect hidden text and other obfuscation tricks.

•     SpamAssassin can report detected spam automatically to community spam databases like Vipul's Razor.

•     When trained, SpamAssassin makes great use of Bayesian statistics to classify mail, too.

•     SpamAssassin supports SPF and DomainKeys sender authentication as well as Hashcash.

Read More

Whitelist a Domain in MailWasher Pro

                The various filtering techniques in MailWasher Pro are pretty effective.unfortunately, they can get too effective and catch good mail. Fortunately, it's particularly easy to prevent this for known senders in MailWasher Pro by whitelisting individual senders or domains.

   I have whitelisted "TechSupp247.com" immediately after signing up for an TechSupp247 updates, for example, to make sure MailWasher Pro never interferes.
 

Whitelist a Domain in MailWasher Pro

Steps to whitelist a domain in MailWasher Pro:

•      Make sure the Friends list tab is selected.

               ^  If you can't see the MailWasher Pro sidebar, select View | Filter sidebar from the menu.

•     Click Add.

•     Make sure Wildcard expression is selected.

•     Type the domain name, preceded by the wildcard character '*'.

               ^  To whitelist the TechSupp247.com domain, type "*TechSupp247.com", for example.

•     Click OK. 

MailWasher supports Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/ Windows XP/Vista.

Read More

Spam Filter in MailWasher

               The best way to combat spam in MailWasher Pro is its Bayesian filter. It works so well because it analyses everything about a message and compares it to existing knowledge, a lot like we humans spot junk mail.

Of course, MailWasher Pro does not have any previous knowledge when you first enable the Bayesian filter. It needs to be taught with a few messages so it learns what the good mail you receive looks like, and what kind of spam you get. Fortunately, training MailWasher Pro is swift and easy and, since it learns so fast, a satisfying experience.
 

Teach the Learning Spam Filter in MailWasher

Steps to teach the learning spam filter in MailWasher Pro:

•     Make sure you have turned on the Bayesian spam filtering.

•     Make sure the

                  *  Spam checkbox is selected for junk mail and the
                  *  Legitimate checkbox for good messages

•     In the message list's Learning column.

                ^   If MailWasher Pro can already classify a message based on what it has learned in the past, you don't have to teach it again. The checkbox matching MailWasher's classification is disabled.
       

              ^  To correct a mistake made by MailWasher Pro's analysis, make sure you select the other checkbox.

•     Press Process Mail to make SpamWasher Pro learn from the new classifications. 

MailWasher supports Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/ Windows XP/Vista.

Read More

Avoid important mail filtering : MailWasher

                Not all spam is dirty, but MailWasher aims to clean it all up. Sometimes definitely clean and good mail falls victim to the filtering, though. Newsletters are particularly likely to become false positives, even in MailWasher.

To prevent your favorite newsletters from being filtered as spam by MailWasher, you can add their senders as friends. I've whitelisted "about.com" in this way to ensure I'm always getting my techsupp247 updates, for example.

Make Sure MailWasher Doesn't Think Important Mail is Spam

Steps to tell MailWasher what important messages and newsletters are not spam.

•     Select Tools | Blacklist & friends list from the menu in MailWasher.

•     Click Add... on the right, the Friends list side.

•     Make sure Plain email address is selected.

•     Type email address you want to whitelist in MailWasher.

                 To whitelist a complete domain, precede the domain name with the wildcard character '*' which matches any character ("*domain.com", for example).

•      To whitelist all updates from TechSupp247 type "*TechSupp247.com".

•     Click OK.

•     Click OK again. 

MailWasher supports Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/ Windows XP/Vista.

Read More

MailWasher Pro : Security Add-on

          MailWasher Pro is a highly competent, usable, secure and time-saving spam filtering tool. Combining multiple approaches, MailWasher Pro achieves a solid spam detection rate and protects you from viruses to some extent, too. Still, MailWasher Pro could be a little bit more comfortable by integrating with email programs better.

Advantages:

•     MailWasher Pro can filter spam precisely using statistics and black/white lists

•     Optionally, MailWasher Pro profits from the real-time FirstAlert! database of known junk

•    Supports POP and IMAP accounts as well as Hotmail, MSN and AOL

Disadvantages:

•     MailWasher Pro cannot further categorize and prioritize good mail

•     It would be great if mail could be viewed, hidden or grouped by status in MailWasher Pro

•     MailWasher Pro does not offer POP and IMAP proxy filtering

Description:

•     MailWasher Pro is a junk mail filter for POP, IMAP, MSN, Hotmail and AOL email accounts.

•     You can check, safely preview and delete mail right at the server with MailWasher Pro.

•     MailWasher Pro uses both powerful rules-based and Bayesian filters to detect spam.

•     Additionally, it can check DNS blacklists for known spammers and keep local black- and white lists.

•     As a further option, MailWasher Pro checks FirstAlert!, a community-fed database of known spam.

•     All spam submitted to FirstAlert! is verified so false positives are practically impossible.

•     The Bayesian filter used by MailWasher Pro learns with every message and is easy to teach.

•     MailWasher Pro can bounce mail found to be spam to the sender (I don't recommend this, though).

•     You can submit spam to Blue Security for active deterrence easily from MailWasher Pro.

•     MailWasher Pro supports Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/ Windows XP/Vista.

Read More

Disable Filtering Newsletters as Spam

         With its Bayesian spam filtering, Spam Bully learns quickly what good mail looks like, and rarely will it produce a false positive.

But if Spam Bully is still in training, or to avoid a new newsletter mistakenly getting caught as spam, you can whitelist specific senders or domains in Spam Bully. I have whitelisted "Techsupp247.com", for example, to make sure the newsletters I am receiving never end in the Spam folder.

Steps to make sure Spam Bully never filters newsletters as spam:

•     Select Email address from the Spam Bully toolbar.

•     Click Add under Approved/Friends list.

•     Type the email address you want to whitelist under Email address:.

•     To whitelist a domain, use the '*' wildcard character (which matches every char) and the domain name  preceded by '@'.

           "*@techsupp247.com", for example.

•     Now type the contact or newsletter's name under Full name or company name:.

•     Click Add.

•     Click Close. 

Spam Bully supports Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/ Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 and Windows Mail/Outlook Express/Outlook.

Read More

How to Filter IMAP Automatically: Spam Bully

             Mail coming to your "normal" Outlook Express Inbox via a POP account is automatically filtered by Spam Bully. But what about IMAP or Hotmail accounts? Can Spam Bully eliminate in these accounts automatically, too?

Yes, eliminate it can. All you need to do is tell Spam Bully which folders you want it to clean automatically.

Filter IMAP and Hotmail Folders Automatically with Spam Bully

Steps to filter IMAP and Hotmail folders automatically with Spam Bully:

•     Select Spam Bully | Configure Spam Bully from the Outlook Express menu.

•     Go to the Check Folders category.

•     Click Add.

•     Highlight the desired folder.

•     Click OK.

                   Repeat the previous three steps to add additional folders.

•     Click OK. 
•    Spam Bully supports Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/ Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 and Windows Mail/Outlook Express/Outlook.

Read More

Organizing Feeds in folders: SharpReader

              In a way, the RSS feeds you have subscribed to in SharpReader are like a newspaper — your ideal newspaper with just the content you want. Like with any journal, reading these channels is easiest if they are organized in a useful way.

Again, in SharpReader this can be your ideal way with exactly the topical connections and synergies you want. You can separate the feeds you need for work from those suited for leisure, for example, or categorize all the recipe feeds according to your taste.

The best thing about sorting your feeds in folders is not even that they are neatly organized and you can collapse a (now) less interesting category easily. No, the best thing is that you can read all of a folder's feeds together. SharpReader automatically collects all news items from all subfolders in a folder. If you have a "Science" folder, for example, with all the interesting scientific feeds in it you can read and sort all relevant news from all these sources in one place, this "Science" folder.

Organize Your Feeds in Folders in SharpReader

Steps to use folders for organizing your feeds in SharpReader:

•     Click on the folder under which you want to place the new folder with the right mouse button.

•     To create a new top-level folder, use the Subscribed Feeds root folder.

•     Select Add category from the menu.

•     Type the desired folder name.

•     Hit Return.

•     Drag-and-drop all desired feeds to the new folder.

Read More

Sharp Reader : Add-on

       SharpReader is a great RSS feed reader that knows how to organize news and blogs in their logical order to make following them easy in your email client. Virtual folders and advanced searches would be logical next steps.

Advantages:

•     SharpReader threads articles and puts news in context

•     Integrating Feedster searches in a smart way, SharpReader makes you see more

•     SharpReader lets you organize feeds in folders

Drawbacks:

•     SharpReader does not support virtual folders

•     Lacking advanced or statistics-based filters, SharpReader does not auto-organize news

•     News items cannot be flagged or labeled in SharpReader

Description:

•        SharpReader is an RSS/Atom feed reader with a three-pane interface.

•     SharpReader automatically finds relations between articles and threads them logically.

•     Feeds can be organized and read in folders, individual items can be flagged to organize them, too.

•     SharpReader integrates Feedster searches and lets you access Technorati link cosmos easily.

•      Using system tray balloon notifications, SharpReader can let you know when new news come in.

•      SharpReader can automatically purge old news (based on age or number of items).

•      You can subscribe to RSS feeds by simply dragging the link on SharpReader.

•     You can search SharpReader feeds and folders by keyword and filter articles flexibly.

•     Plug-ins let you go to a page to compose a blog entry or open w.bloggar from SharpReader.

•     SharpReader supports Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/ Windows XP and requires the .NET framework.

Read More