Topic: Anti-Spam contrib confusion

[Tom H.]

I noticed that there are a number of really good contribs that deal with spam.  I was wondering which is the best for a small network? (<25ppl)?  There are spamassassis, junkfilter, tmda, this new  ASSP (not sure what it does)....

What are the benefits of each and the disadvantages?

thanks for any clarity..

[Steve]

ASSP has been around a little while but its just had a new release adding a web interface for config, a few tweaks and features. Its simple to set up, maintains itself and does the job. See http://assp.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/total.pl to see it defeating the spammers. ASSP is an smtp proxy and therefore requires no messing with the smtp server (other than the listening port) and works on all incoming mail with spam being taken out before using resources on your network.

It can be run on the same box as your mailserver or on a seperate windows or linux box. Works on 5.1.2 and up.

The only other i can comment on is tmda which i found complex both in installation and function.

[Ben Morrisson]

Am trialling tmda ATM on 5.6
no rpm
but fairly straightforward to configure
requires python on the box - ew (python good - putting extra scripting environments on untested - bad)
but in the simplier configurations I have found tmda can reduce your spam to SPAM +-0 : ) great system
but as mentioned fairly involved with your system

tmda.sourceforge.net
someone mentioned rpms?
not sure though

[Brian Read]

..and I am using spamassassin with full bayes database as well. Cuts out 99% of my spam with no problem.

cheers

Brian

[Chris Woods]

I'm running SME 5.6 with spamassassin and the userpanel from dungog and it works like a charm.

[Patrick T Hickey]

I have tried them all, and find each has merits.

I use dungog's userpanel and it makes my life very simple. I mean, the command line is great but it is also often very sweet to use the GUI and get to the same point.

Ultimately, their TMDA package has been the most powerful and useful for our installation. I am unclear why others have strated it to be overly complex (or words to that effect). The generic setup, once installed, didn't require any configuration whatsoever. Users can login directly to their TMDA-queued messages via https and accept, whitelist, reject or even just read all of these pending messages. The users love this as it elimiates the issue of "did your spam stuff block message blah blah bah?"

I found the lack of reporting or visability of spamassisin to be a minor annoyance but it worked as advertised.

regards,

patrick

[Patrick T Hickey]

OK, I jumped the gun.

I have NOT tried ASSP.

In reading up it looks /very/ promising. I think I need to test it  as it appears to be much cleaner and potentially will generate far less noise (bounces, lists, etc.).

Thanks for the pointer!

Which version did you install?

regards,

patrick

[Steve]

0.2.1 is the one to use.

[marc sultan]

hi everbyody,

i tried assp, it was so sensitive i didn't get almost any commercial mails (which weren't spam actually) i tried without success spamassassin (i guess bcz i use the securemail package with ssl connections) i couldn't figure out was is the problem but so far i think spamassassin seem to be the best solution as all spams go to dedicated folder (junkmail) so it's easy and discret solution and u don't miss any mails...

Regards
Marc SULTAN

[Steve]

Assp will tune its self. Did you use the sample spam or start with no database.

[Bill Talcott]

FYI, I managed to install Vipul's Razor a while back. It helped, but new spams and incorrectly marked ones (there are quite a few people who don't understand the concept of unsubscribing from valid newsletters and such) were a big problem. I switched to SpamAssassin, and found it great. Its complex system of rules (where each rule adds a little to the overall score) combined with the Bayesian system was nearly flawless.

I called spamc from procmail to dump the spams into a separate IMAP folder as they came in. The emails were not altered in any way or deleted, just separated for users to verify. I did this without any of the packages that are currently available, but I did use one of the newer contribs to upgrade, without any problems.