Archive for November, 2007

Spamassassin Filtering Without The Heartache

Permanent Link posted November 16th, 2007

On our shared hosting platforms we make use of Spamassassin filtering which as an open source project as part of the Apache Foundation integrates with most modern mailservers including Qmail (which we use).

The default spamassassin configuration is quite basic and whilst it will filter with reasonable success, spamassassin depends on user configuration as it ‘learns’ what is spam and what isn’t. Obviously this is a very personal choice. A rule for one person or company is not suitable for another. A church email server will not have the same rule requirement as a pharmaceutical company producing Viagra.

We found a community generated site called RulesEmporium that produces spamassassin rulesets in very specific groupings. We’ve installed a very customised selection into our spamassassin configuration with no particular bias for or against certain word groups. We consider it simply enhancing the default spamassassin configuration so spam does actually get marked as spam on a general web server serving hundreds of people. Obviously the rulesets require some tweaking which was done at the start, removing and adding groups etc..

The rulesets are constantly updated via a scheduled downloader called rules_du_jour (Rules of the day). I don’t actually remember where we obtained this file from, you may be best simply searching. Set up a cronjob (scheduled task) to call this file once a day with your configuration inside, simply edited by a text editor, and Bob’s your uncle.

Don’t forget though spamassassin is primarily a ’spam marking’ service. It’s not going to delete the emails that cross the threshold of spam unless you configure it to do so. I don’t recommend this, too much chance of a false positive. Simply configure your email client of choice to move emails with *****SPAM***** in the subject to a junk folder, and mark as read (so you don’t get told when they arrive). Check once a day.

Certainly works for us. I see an email that gets through maybe once every 2 weeks.

Tags: rules_du_jour, spam filtering, Spamassassin
Posted in Web Hosting | 1 Comment »

Super Mario Galaxy

Permanent Link posted November 15th, 2007

Looks like the best game out this year on the Wii. This is my weekend taken care of!

Tags: Super Mario Galaxy UK, Wii
Posted in Randomness | No Comments »

Splunk

Permanent Link posted November 15th, 2007

Cue tittering at the back of the classroom. Splunk; amazed by the fact I saw it on an advert on Slashdot I thought I’d visited a more disreputable brand of site. Not just a dirty word, indeed…

Actually looks quite good. More in the realm of SSH addiction versus the popular Crackberry addiction I monitor servers like it’s some kind of obsession. At least with Splunk I can see it all in one place without a multitude of windows open. Now I just need to find a spare server to install it on…

Tags: Splunk, Web Server Monitoring
Posted in Web Hosting | No Comments »

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