Talk:SpamAssassin

Discussion on SpamAssassin.

Single user?
It appears that this only allows filtering on a single account. It would be very useful to describe SA setup for multiple accounts.

New version
pico$ spamassassin -V SpamAssassin version 3.0.3 running on Perl version 5.8.4

--18:54, 11 Dec 2005 (PST)

I changed the version numbers. --Scott Evans

Why manual?
Spam filtering is available through the panel. There should be a section detailing why someone would choose a manual SpamAssassin setup vs. using the panel setup. --AdamBackstrom (talk) 06:45, 10 Oct 2005 (PDT)

A few possible reasons User... ...others?
 * wants to use Bayes filtering & training
 * doesn't want to log into webmail to find false-positives
 * wants a catch-all email (questionable, I know)

--Dequeued 05:06, 1 Apr 2006 (PST)

Bayesian Filtering?
With 3.0.3 in place, I see BAYES headers but I don't know if there's any way to train the filters... anyone? --Scott Evans 09:46, 17 May 2006 (PST)

From a DH tech 2006Oct18:

The m1234567 mailboxes are regular unix users, but only on the mail servers, so they're not accessible by shell or ftp. Unfortuneately this means you can't run your own spamassassin on them. Our spamassassin setup is systemwide, so beyond the settings accessible in webmail there's nothing more you can configure for it.

Instructions Fail
When I try to follow the instructions for installing the CPAN modules, I get errors and cannot continue. The instructions should be tweaked by someone who understands the system better.

I only tried the two modules listed below; with errors on both I did not continue.

When installing Net::IP
make install fails:

make: *** No rule to make target `pure_/home/username_install', needed by `pure_install'. Stop. /usr/bin/make install -- NOT OK

When installing Net::DNS
some of the built in tests fail:

Server [66.33.216.208] did not give answers at /home/.bengali/username/.cpan/build/Net-DNS-0.57/blib/lib/Net/DNS/Resolver/Recurse.pm line 85. Server [66.33.216.208] did not give answers at /home/.bengali/username/.cpan/build/Net-DNS-0.57/blib/lib/Net/DNS/Resolver/Recurse.pm line 85. t/10-recurse...............NOK 9#         got: undef t/10-recurse...............dubious Test returned status 4 (wstat 1024, 0x400) DIED. FAILED tests 9-12 Failed 4/12 tests, 66.67% okay t/11-escapedchars..........# Using the XS compiled dn_expand function t/11-escapedchars..........ok 95/141# t/11-escapedchars..........ok 98/141# t/11-escapedchars..........ok                                                t/11-inet6.................ok                                                        10/11 skipped: Socket6 and or IO::Socket::INET6 not loaded Failed Test   Stat Wstat Total Fail  Failed  List of Failed -- t/10-recurse.t   4  1024    12    7  58.33%  9-12 2 tests and 10 subtests skipped. Failed 1/24 test scripts, 95.83% okay. 4/1051 subtests failed, 99.62% okay. make: *** [test_dynamic] Error 255 /usr/bin/make test -- NOT OK Running make install make test had returned bad status, won't install without force
 * 1)     Failed test (t/10-recurse.t at line 92)
 * 1)     expected: '3'
 * 2) Looks like you planned 12 tests but only ran 9.
 * 1) disabling XS based dns_expand for a moment.
 * 1) Continuing to use the XS based dn_expand

Installing CPAN modules not currently necessary
Dreamhost has updated the Net::DNS module so that installing your own copy is unnecessary at the moment.

You can find out whether this is still true by starting cpan and typing

i Net::DNS

It will print out a description of the module, including the installed version. Right now that's 0.48:

Module id = Net::DNS DESCRIPTION Interface to the DNS resolver CPAN_USERID OLAF (Olaf Kolkman ) CPAN_VERSION 0.58 CPAN_FILE   O/OL/OLAF/Net-DNS-0.58.tar.gz    DSLI_STATUS  RmhO (released,mailing-list,hybrid,object-oriented) MANPAGE     Net::DNS - Perl interface to the DNS resolver INST_FILE   /usr/lib/perl5/Net/DNS.pm    INST_VERSION 0.48

Then check the SpamAssassin top-level INSTALL documentation to see what version of Net::DNS and other modules is required. For SpamAssassin 3.1.3 on UNIX, it's 0.34.

Note: A friend and longtime Dreamhost user says that rather than installing a module into your own account, it's better just to request that Dreamhost install or upgrade it. He tells me they're extremely likely to just do it. --Daedala 18:26, 26 Jul 2006 (PDT)

=
=========================

The page under discussion lists 5 additional modules required by the "country training" plugin, not just Net::DNS. Some of them are now installed by Dreamhost and some aren't. Of the two that are not, the user install for one of them still fails.

Summary:

* Net::IP                    0.48 * Net::DNS                   1.25 * Mail::DomainKeys           not installed, user install still fails * Crypt::OpenSSL::Random     0.03 * Crypt::OpenSSL::RSA        not installed, installs as 0.22

The latest Spam Assassin top-level install file also mentions the cpan module IP::Country::Fast which also sounds relevant. It is already installed as 604.001.

Spam Assasssin is now up to 3.1.7. Version 3.1.0 cited in the dreamhost wiki page under discussion here is no longer available at the source.

If Dreamhost is not going to upgrade 3.0.3 so that country code tests work system-wide, then the user installation instructions should at least be updated so they are correct.

ALL_TRUSTED issues -- what are the trusted networks for Dreamhost?
SpamAssassin has a known issue where it guesses what networks are trusted and fails for some virtual host setups. Dreamhost appears to be one of them. A lot of my spam was getting through, and most of it had the ALL_TRUSTED test noted in the header.

When an email passes the ALL_TRUSTED test, SpamAssassin by default assigns it a negative score. Some people recommend changing that assignment to zero, but the SpamAssassin guide instead recommends correctly setting trusted_networks in local.cf.

I don't know what Dreamhost's trusted_networks would be. If someone who knows that could post it, that would be great.

As a guess, I went to the Manage Domains panel and clicked on the [DNS] link for my domain. I added the networks I saw, down to two octets. In my case:

trusted_networks 208.113. 208.97. 66.33.

This seems to have fixed the ALL_TRUSTED problem so far, but I am not sure that it is the right solution. --Daedala 18:37, 26 Jul 2006 (PDT)

I just discovered this solution and was headed over to add it to the wiki. It has made a huge difference in my spam capture rate. In my case, I checked my MX records and got the IPs for mx1/mx2.balanced.spunky.mail.dreamhost.com. Both are in 208.97.0.0/16. I added "trusted_networks 208.97." to ~/.spamassassin/user_prefs.

Ideally, I think that Dreamhost should add the proper trusted_networks and possibly internal_networks settings to /etc/spamassassin/local.cf and then maintain the setting as needed. I believe that the only people who can spaek authoritatively on the proper IP ranges are the DH admins. They would also be the ones to know when it changes. In any event, I think it would be beneficial to get this info into the article.

Note: I'm a newbie at wiki's - I assume this is the proper way to contribute to the discussion.

--Jdaskew 14:22, 31 Oct 2006 (PST)

I think I found an authoritative list via spf records contributed by "A Customer" on the SPF wiki. The addresses are: 66.33.192.0/19 66.201.54.64/26 205.196.208.0/20 64.111.96.0/19 208.97.128.0/18 208.113.128.0/19 --Jdaskew 15:33, 31 Oct 2006 (PST)

I've been running with the new trusted networks for several months. It's working very well. I've added instructions to the main page.

--Jdaskew 06:27, 9 Feb 2007 (PST)

Where do the spams go?
When using the regular version of SpamAssassin activated from the control panel, spams apear in a special section in the webmail. How do I review spams with the manualy installed version?

-- I also would like to know since I'm getting notifications that there is spam in my Junk Filter. -Mike

Questions
(originally placed on article - please use talk pages for... er... talking! -- Scjessey 11:58, 14 Sep 2006 (PDT))


 * Bayesian filtering appears to be enabled since 3.0.3 was installed. Any way to train it?
 * Need suggested Dreamhost settings for trusted_hosts trusted_hosts, since by default, ALL_TRUSTED seems to pass far more often than it should
 * Can SpamAssassin be modified to work for all users in a domain (not just for a single user)?
 * How to add addresses to the black/white list? Do the settings made in the webmail interface work for the manualy installed SpamAssassin as well?
 * Where do the spams go? Can I review spams caught by this SpamAssassin in the webmail?
 * I followed the instructions given, however it appears SpamAssassin 3.0.3 is still my spam filter. My headers have not changed in my inbound emails. How can I troubleshoot this installation?

no more spam?
So I completed the instructions for Option 2: Using DH's spamassassin installation since I've replaced squirrelmail with roundcube. The spam it set up to forward to a folder in my inbox called "Junk". I used to get a few spam messages a week in there. Now I get zero which is frightening me a little since I'm worried that good mail might not be getting to me. I used the recommended settings in the SpamAssassin article and I'm receiving mail. I'm also sent a SPAMTEST email so the filtering appears to be working.

Maybe I shouldn't complain when things are working like they should. just seems like it's too good to be true.

Mike