Spam Assassin

[gioannides]

Hello!

I am hoping someone can assist me with this program I need to install on my network.

I am not very computer Linux savvy, however I do have extensive knowledge on how to use a computer system on a network.

Well, here is the deal, I need to install Linux 8.0 as a Gateway between our ISP and a GroupWise Mail Server running on a Novell platform.

Apparently, I am not sure how to do all this

I hope someone can give me some leads and help as my Executive Director is on my butt, whom is getting slammed with spam all day...kinda funny if you ask me!!

Anyhow looking forward to here from someone,

Thank You All for any support!!

G/I

[jasonlambert]

Really, it is just a case of put the CD in the drive, and follow on screen instructions to get the OS installed. The network configuration will depend on the specifics of your network archecture etc.

By linux 8, do you mean redhat? or something else?

You could also pester your boss to buy you a book on linux, tell him it will help cure the spam problem

Im not quite sure what putting a linux box in is going to do for this situation?

Jason

[gioannides]

Jason,

Thank You Much for the quick reply!!

Well, I am using RH for Linux. Now what about the Spam Assassin software that works on a Linux platform

Don't I need to do configure blacklists, filters, etc...

[jasonlambert]

Jason,

Thank You Much for the quick reply!!

Well, I am using RH for Linux. Now what about the Spam Assassin software that works on a Linux platform

Don't I need to do configure blacklists, filters, etc...

hmm...

You are talking about a gateway in your first post... Are you talking about an IP routing gateway? (a linux box acting as a router)?. Or are you talking about another "intermediate" mail server which checks emails against a set of rules?

Do you not have any anti spam software that bolts onto the GroupWise server?

Jason

[gioannides]

Well,

basically it is going to be setup as a gateway (intermediate) box between the mail server and our ISP, that will capture mail based on filters.

no, we don't have anything on the mail server now to control spam.

I did try something in the past, and it turned out to be a disaster.

I guess, what I am trying to say in a nutshell, I would like something setup to block spam mail on my GroupWise server, figured RH linux is the best source for my problem. It is highly rated, and besides I would love to learn this program

Thanks!!
George

[jasonlambert]

Have a look here, under the section about MS Exchange servers:
http://www.sng.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailscanner/index.html

Depending on your configuration, that may or may not do the job.

Is your local mail server connecting to the POP server of the ISP and retreiving mail the same way a typical email client in a stand alone environment would? or do you have an SMTP Feed from your ISP?

EDIT:
also, have you tried: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...sassin&spell=1

Jason

[gioannides]

Is your local mail server connecting to the POP server of the ISP and retreiving mail the same way a typical email client in a stand alone environment would?

yes.

I found your links to be very helpful!

I am going to make an attempt to do the install tomorrow morning at work, and hopefully it goes well.

Would you happen to have any more additional helpful tips as to setting it up ?


Thank You Very Much for all your help!!!

George

[flw]

We are forced to used it at work. You need to have a decent machine (500 MHz and 128/256 RAM in my opinion) to run it on despite what www.spamassassin.com says. There claims are just wrong. It run ones daemon then depending on volume of email, it spawn a child process for every (Every) email that comes in. My machine serves over 200 email accounts, two dozen internal mail list accounts and accepts outside mail. This comes to around 2400 msg's per day on avg. for us.

My machine handles qmail, the plugin for spamassassin, squid and acts as a gateway for net access. It handles everything fine until we start getting a bunch of email during the same time like from a interal email list or actual spam.

This is all shown clearly by starting "top -c" and just watch it on and off for a few days.

Features it claims are:

header analysis: spammers use a number of tricks to mask their identities, fool you into thinking they've sent a valid mail, or fool you into thinking you must have subscribed at some stage. SpamAssassin tries to spot these.

text analysis: again, spam mails often have a characteristic style (to put it politely), and some characteristic disclaimers and CYA text. SpamAssassin can spot these, too.

blacklists: SpamAssassin supports many useful existing blacklists, such as mail-abuse.org, ordb.org or others.

Razor: Vipul's Razor is a collaborative spam-tracking database, which works by taking a signature of spam messages. Since spam typically operates by sending an identical message to hundreds of people, Razor short-circuits this by allowing the first person to receive a spam to add it to the database -- at which point everyone else will automatically block it.

Unless you have very little spam and email, it not up to the task of handling hundreds of emails per day. Again it has to read every email that comes in which is a very big task which most people don't get.

If you must use it get a machine with some real horsepower- I'm done ranting now.