Email Spam

I've recently been getting a lot more spam email (haven't we all) so
I'm looking into ways of dealing with it.

Many people I know use spamarrest. This is basically a subscription
service where you set up an email box with them and redirect your
current addresses to it. It compares any mail sent to it with your
allowed list and forwards on those allowed. Any that are not in the
list, a message get's returned to the sender asking them to fill out a
little verification form. If they correctly fill out the form thay are
added to the allowed list and their mail gets through.

Does anyone know of a similar script (preferably cheap or free) that I
could install on my server to do similar. So far the only php script I
have found cost =A3200+, a bit out of my price range.

Re: Email Spam

Email spammers dont use their own email address and every email you
bounce will be sent to a innocent user - thus - people like you
contrbute and add to the amount of spam and server load .







> I've recently been getting a lot more spam email (haven't we all) so
> I'm looking into ways of dealing with it.
>
> Many people I know use spamarrest. This is basically a subscription
> service where you set up an email box with them and redirect your
> current addresses to it. It compares any mail sent to it with your
> allowed list and forwards on those allowed. Any that are not in the
> list, a message get's returned to the sender asking them to fill out a
> little verification form.
>

Re: Email Spam

phill.luckhurst@googlemail.com wrote:

> Many people I know use spamarrest. This is basically a subscription
> service where you set up an email box with them and redirect your
> current addresses to it. It compares any mail sent to it with your
> allowed list and forwards on those allowed. Any that are not in the
> list, a message get's returned to the sender asking them to fill out a
> little verification form. If they correctly fill out the form thay are
> added to the allowed list and their mail gets through.

Argh! Challenge-Reponse systems are purest evil! I'm sure that anyone who
runs a reasonable sized mailing list will agree with me.

> Does anyone know of a similar script (preferably cheap or free) that I
> could install on my server to do similar. So far the only php script I
> have found cost £200+, a bit out of my price range.

Use amavisd+SpamAssassin instead. It hooks into your mail server to run
all your incoming mail through a barrage of different tests and gives each
message a "spamminess rating" in the message headers. It can automatically
bounce or silently drop mail that reaches certain scores too.

Whatsmore if you install a virus checker like ClamAV, it will hook into
that too to add virus scanning of incoming messages too.

ClamAV, SpamAssassin and amavisd are all free and open source.

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
[Geek of HTML/SQL/Perl/PHP/Python/Apache/Linux]
[OS: Linux 2.6.17.14-mm-desktop-9mdvsmp, up 9 days, 18:34.]

Sharing Music with Apple iTunes
http://tobyinkster.co.uk/blog/2007/11/28/itunes-sharing/

Re: Email Spam

Cheers Toby, I'll look into those right now. I'm getting fed up being
told I need my bits enhanced 75 times a day

Re: Email Spam

Cheers Toby.

The problem is that I'm on shared hosting so I'm not sure how they
world work hence the challenge response thought.

I'n fed up of being told I need enhancement 75 times a day.

Re: Email Spam

On Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:16:59 +0100, phill.luckhurst@googlemail.com
wrote:
> The problem is that I'm on shared hosting so I'm not sure how they
> world work hence the challenge response thought.

Any descent shared hoster offers some sort of spamfiltering. Possibly you
have to create your own mail-rules locally for dropping certain mails
above some score if their default doesn't suit you. SpamAssasin is widely
spread, I've seen Baracuda a lot too.
--
Rik Wasmus

Re: Email Spam

phill.luckhurst@googlemail.com wrote:
> On 4 Dec, 12:21, "Rik Wasmus" wrote:
>> On Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:16:59 +0100, phill.luckhu...@googlemail.com
>>
>> wrote:
>>> The problem is that I'm on shared hosting so I'm not sure how they
>>> world work hence the challenge response thought.
>> Any descent shared hoster offers some sort of spamfiltering. Possibly you
>> have to create your own mail-rules locally for dropping certain mails
>> above some score if their default doesn't suit you. SpamAssasin is widely
>> spread, I've seen Baracuda a lot too.
>> --
>> Rik Wasmus
>
> Lycos offers none at all. Unfortunately I am tied into them for
> another year.
>
> My only other option would be to switch to a virtual server but as
> I've never set up one before I'm very reluctant to do so.
>
> I really do not want to go down the challenge response route after
> looking into it.

Hi,

If serverside spamdetection is a problem, you could also solve this by
using Thunderbird client (Mozilla).
It has a clientside spamdetection that works quite well.
It also learns from your actions, so if some spam ends up in your
mailbox, you can mark it as spam with 1 mouseclick.
I think it filters away around 90%-95% of the incoming spam, and I never
has a false positive.

Regards,
Erwin Moller

Re: Email Spam

On 4 Dec, 12:21, "Rik Wasmus" wrote:
> On Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:16:59 +0100, phill.luckhu...@googlemail.com
>
> wrote:
> > The problem is that I'm on shared hosting so I'm not sure how they
> > world work hence the challenge response thought.
>
> Any descent shared hoster offers some sort of spamfiltering. Possibly you
> have to create your own mail-rules locally for dropping certain mails
> above some score if their default doesn't suit you. SpamAssasin is widely
> spread, I've seen Baracuda a lot too.
> --
> Rik Wasmus

Lycos offers none at all. Unfortunately I am tied into them for
another year.

My only other option would be to switch to a virtual server but as
I've never set up one before I'm very reluctant to do so.

I really do not want to go down the challenge response route after
looking into it.

Re: Email Spam

..oO(Rik Wasmus)

>Any descent shared hoster offers some sort of spamfiltering. Possibly you
>have to create your own mail-rules locally for dropping certain mails
>above some score if their default doesn't suit you. SpamAssasin is widely
>spread, I've seen Baracuda a lot too.

In addition to server-side filters there are also local spam filters
like SpamPal for example. One of its most powerful plugins is the Bayes
filter, which really helps to keep spam out.

Micha

Re: Email Spam

phill.luckhurst@googlemail.com wrote:
> On 4 Dec, 12:21, "Rik Wasmus" wrote:
>> On Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:16:59 +0100, phill.luckhu...@googlemail.com
>>
>> wrote:
>>> The problem is that I'm on shared hosting so I'm not sure how they
>>> world work hence the challenge response thought.
>> Any descent shared hoster offers some sort of spamfiltering. Possibly you
>> have to create your own mail-rules locally for dropping certain mails
>> above some score if their default doesn't suit you. SpamAssasin is widely
>> spread, I've seen Baracuda a lot too.
>> --
>> Rik Wasmus
>
> Lycos offers none at all. Unfortunately I am tied into them for
> another year.
>

Only if you choose to be. If it's such a hassle, just absorb the cost
and walk away. Find another hosting company who will provide what you
want and move.

> My only other option would be to switch to a virtual server but as
> I've never set up one before I'm very reluctant to do so.
>

It's a lot more control, but a lot more work, also. And more expensive
than switching to a shared host will provide you with what you want.

> I really do not want to go down the challenge response route after
> looking into it.
>



--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================

Re: Email Spam

On Tue, 4 Dec 2007 02:46:35 -0800 (PST),
"phill.luckhurst@googlemail.com"
wrote:

>I've recently been getting a lot more spam email (haven't we all) so
>I'm looking into ways of dealing with it.
>
>Many people I know use spamarrest. This is basically a subscription
>service where you set up an email box with them and redirect your
>current addresses to it. It compares any mail sent to it with your
>allowed list and forwards on those allowed. Any that are not in the
>list, a message get's returned to the sender asking them to fill out a
>little verification form. If they correctly fill out the form thay are
>added to the allowed list and their mail gets through.
>
>Does anyone know of a similar script (preferably cheap or free) that I
>could install on my server to do similar. So far the only php script I
>have found cost £200+, a bit out of my price range.

I don't know about any comparable php scripts... BUT... I use
newsguy.com principally for usenet, and my subscription (I think it's
in the neighborhood of $6 or $7 per month) includes 5 email boxes, and
they use SpamHippo, which works pretty damn well... it gray-lists new
senders, holds the message (for uhhhh a week or 30 days or whatever)
and sends a message asking the to click here and do a captcha type
Turing test. If they don't the message doesn't come through, if they
do, the message goes to your inbox. You can white list addresses or
domains manually... all in all a decent solution, and you get good
usenet access, too. Oh, and I think you can forward one or more
regular email accounts through it and get the spamhippo'ing for them,
too.

I like it - your mileage may vary.