Support: Spam

There is no magic solution to prevent spam. All spam solutions require learning and management. The more dilligent the end user, the better the results.

Method Description Pros Cons
SpamAssassin
 SpamAssassin is an automated mail filter that uses a wide range of heuristic algorithms on email headers and message bodies to identify unsolicited emails. SpamAssassin is designed to identify and mark emails that score beyond threshold value that you set. An email's SpamAssassin score is the sum of values given to certain known spam characteristics.

This score and/or spam flag can be used by SpamBox or your existing email client to filter messages accordingly.
  • On the most basic level, even without much end user input, it will help.
  • Being too aggressive with your settings can prevent legitimate email from getting to you.
SpamBox
(Server Side Filtering) 		The server puts mail flagged as spam by SpamAssassin into a separate folder on the server, under each pop account. The spam box(s) can be checked occasionally, via the web, if someone should "miss" a message they were expecting.
  • Each pop account can be managed separately
  • Spam is not automatically dumped, leaving the end user to look through the spam box, and retrieve ligitimate messages.
  • Spam mail can build up on the server (taking up valuable drive space) if it is not deleted and purged occasionally. The job of checking the spam box can be allocated to one person, or to individual mailbox owners.
  • If the end user does not manage his/her spam mailbox, the spam can consume the user's allocated drive space, causing legitimate messages to not get through.
BoxTrapper
(White List) 		Mail is only delivered if the from address is in your white list (a list of legitimate addresses that you manage). If you receive a message from an address that is not on the list, the sender receives a form letter (that you can customize), which just asks them to reply.
  • Only people who are paying attention will get through.
  • You get little or no spam.
  • Form letters can be customized per pop account.
  • A list of messages that have not been let through are kept on the server, so you can check it at your leisure to look for real people who did not reply to the message, or to allow mailing lists and automated messages through.
  • Only people, who are paying attention will get through. ;)
Third Party Solutions There are many third party solutions popping up, such as McAfee SpamKiller. They offer many different features, and interact with your system and email client in a variety of ways.
Client Side Filtering
(Eudora, Outlook, Mac Mail,etc.) 		In this case, the email client (Outlook, Netscape, Eudora, Mac Mail, etc.) is configured to check for the spam score in the headers, and filter into a spam box within the client.
  • Each mailbox can have different settings, giving the end user of the account the greatest level of control possible, without using a white list.
  • All messages are received to the local client (making it easy to check for messages that were inadvertantly junked.
  • If you have a lot of non-technical end users, support can getr hairy, but it beats managing their spam for them. And, it beats having to track down messages that were falsly marked, or to deliver the bad news that the message was deleted.