sus4.net internet services
Sus4.net Spamassassin and Quarantined Email
May 15, 2004 (updated August 23, 2004)
Introduction
If you are interested in what tools we are using, please read our policy on spam.
Quarantine System
We strive to stop spam and viruses before they get to your inbox. Our mail server filters identify messages likely to be spam or contain a virus and quarantine (not deliver) the message for your review. This quarantine list will be available to you in two ways: 1) through Squirrelmail’s Quarantine link or 2) through a bi-monthly email digest that will be sent to you every other Friday. The quarantine will give you the opportunity to scan through the list for legitimate messages that have been marked as spam and release them for delivery. All other true spam will be deleted after 14 days.
How do I view/release/delete messages in the quarantine?
The easiest way is to glance through the email digest when you receive it. Any email listed in that digest will be kept in the system for 14 days before deleted. If you do not see any legitimate email in that list, you can choose to do nothing since the system will purge these messages for you before the next digest is mailed.
If you see mail that has been incorrectly quarantined (false positives):
- Log onto our webmail interface using your email address and mail password.
- Click the [Quarantine] link in the top menu bar (see image).
- From here, you can release mail for delivery or manually delete messages.
Note that messages highlighted in RED have been detected as containing viruses—release these at your own risk.
Dealing with False Postivies
If mail from a particular address is getting marked as spam, that email address can be added to a “whitelist” meaning “this user’s email always gets delivered” versus the “blacklist” which is “this user’s email never gets delivered even if it doesn’t look like spam.”
To add email addresses to the white or black lists, log onto our webmail interface and click Options—> SpamAssassin Configuration. The first section is titled Personal Allow/Deny Addresses List where you can add/edit/delete an address. Some examples are given of the range of things that can be added.
Tweaking Spam Sensitivity and Preferences
The bottom part of the SpamAssassin Configuration is titled Message Scoring Policy. These are different configurations that give you control on how sensitive the server treats your mail. In short, the lower the numbers, the more mail will be quarantined for your review. You may choose to change your personal policy by clicking on one of the descriptions. Since the introduction of this program in March, we have had your default policy set as Aggressive.
In the first 6 weeks that I was testing using this set (levels of 5), I did not have single legitimate piece of mail end up in my Spam folders while over 3000 messages were successfully tagged and moved appropriately.
During the last 6 weeks, I have used the Very Aggressive Policy (levels of 3) with only 4 false positives and over 4000 messages successfully trapped. I consider this a very successful situation!
The other setting to point you to is the Quarantine Settings in the middle section of the SpamAssassing Configuration page. This lets you modify the defaults for how often you receive quarantine reports and how often mail is automatically purged from the quarantine.
Need More Help?
If you need any further explanation of this system or have any other questions, please do not hesitate to call or
![[Valid CSS]](/images/css.gif "Validate my CSS feed")