Spamassassin
Our hosting environment uses Spamassassin to scan for and detect spam messages on incoming and outgoing email.
All of our servers have the ability to process mail with Spamassassin, however if you are noticing a lot of spam is being received it is possible that it is not turned on. If you are unsure, you can log on to your DirectAdmin hosting control panel (via the services page in the client portal). Once signed in, in the navigation view go to "Spamassassin Setup" under the "Email Manager" menu.
Once on the Spamassassin Setup page, you can verify if Spamassassin is enabled by looking for the blue button at the top right of the page that says "Enable Spamassassin" or "Disable Spamassassin".
On accounts with Spamassassin enabled, mail will be scanned when it is sent and received by the mail server. For incoming messages, you can control some aspects of how the mail is processed and delivered. The options are relatively self explanatory however, we recommend the following settings:
- Where do you want the spam to go? :: Send the spam to the user's spam folder
- What score threshold do you wish to use? :: Low threshold (5.0)
- Would you like to delete high scoring spam? :: No, do not block high scoring spam. Use only the threshold in the previous section.
- Do you wish to rewrite the subject of a spam e-mail? :: Yes, set the subject to the following: *****SPAM*****
- How should the spam be delivered? :: Use attachments.
You can also add mail to the Email Blocklist and Email Allow list. These will do exactly what they suggest, block mail from addresses in the blocklist and allow, no matter how spammy, any mail in the allow list.
Training Spamassassin
If Spamassassin is enabled on your account, you can help train the Spamassassin filter.
If you receive a message that is spam, you can move the message to the INBOX/teach-isspam folder.
If you receive a message in your SPAM folder that is NOT spam, you can MOVE A COPY of the message to the INBOX/teach-isnotspam folder.
PLEASE NOTE: The automatic training system processes mail ever hour. Once it processes mail in the teach-isspam and teach-isnotspam folders, it will delete the mail.
If you don't see the INBOX/teach-isspam or the INBOX/teach-isnotspam folders, you can open a help desk ticket to have them setup for you.
Client Side Mail filtering (not supported):
Your third party mail application (ie. Apple Mail, Postbox, Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, etc.) are all capable of providing the same level of filtering as the server as they receive mail. Due to the number of third party mail applications, we cannot provide support on how to create filters in these third party applications. Although we have compiled a list of URLs of common mail clients that you can follow for instructions on how to setup mail filtering on from several popular mail application vendors.
Apple Mail
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11738 (OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion)
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14906 (OS X 10.9, Mavericks)
Postbox
http://support.postbox-inc.com/hc/en-us/articles/202200660-Message-filters
Thunderbird
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/organize-your-messages-using-filters
Microsoft Outlook
http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/outlook-help/filter-email-messages-HA102749132.aspx (Outlook 2013)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/outlook-help/filter-email-messages-HA102534752.aspx (Outlook 2010)
http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/outlook-help/create-a-rule-HP005242897.aspx (Outlook 2003)
Further Questions?
If you are still scratching your head wondering how to set things up, please send an email to helpdesk@simplificare.net and request assistance – We'd be happy to help!
