Topic: Disable scanning outgoing email?

[penguinzrool]

Hi guys,

After upgrading to SME 7 I've been having problems with emails timing uot when sending large attachments. On SME 6 + contribs there was an option to disable virus scanning of outgoing email, but I can't find such an option in SME 7 - any ideas?

Thanks,
Chris.

[penguinzrool]

D'oh, was worrying that what sounds simple in practise might not actually be do-able! Is the email system in SME 7 so different that the same command that the disable outgoing scanning option in SME 6 doesn't work any more?

Looks like a server upgrade might be on the cards!

[gordonr]

Hi guys,

After upgrading to SME 7 I've been having problems with emails timing uot when sending large attachments. On SME 6 + contribs there was an option to disable virus scanning of outgoing email, but I can't find such an option in SME 7 - any ideas?

I strongly advise against disabling outbound virus scanning. Otherwise a virus on an internal machine will spread outside your network.

D'oh, was worrying that what sounds simple in practise might not actually be do-able! Is the email system in SME 7 so different that the same command that the disable outgoing scanning option in SME 6 doesn't work any more?

Yes, the front-end to the mail system in SME7 is very different from SME6+contribs. SME7.0 used the same configuration on internal and external connections and spam scanning is a real time sink, probably even more than virus scanning in most cases.

SME7.1 allows you to change the options for internal and external mail - see bug 1893. Spam scanning is disabled by default for internal connections, but virus scanning is enabled (if enabled in the panel).

[penguinzrool]

Thanks for the reply! I'm aware that disabling outgoing scanning does have its disadvantages, but I do have antivirus software on all of the network computers as well. The problem is that with the current setup it is impossible to send attachments larger than about 4MB as the SMTP connection times out.

From what you've said, though, would it be relatively straightforward to disable outgoing spam scanning on SME 7.0? Anything that reduces the processor drain must be a good thing!

Cheers,
Chris.

[gordonr]

Thanks for the reply! I'm aware that disabling outgoing scanning does have its disadvantages, but I do have antivirus software on all of the network computers as well. The problem is that with the current setup it is impossible to send attachments larger than about 4MB as the SMTP connection times out.

Do you have pattern scanning enabled? If so, and you haven't applied the available updates, you will see this problem.

From what you've said, though, would it be relatively straightforward to disable outgoing spam scanning on SME 7.0?

No, it's not straight-forward with 7.0, but is easy/done for you in 7.1

[penguinzrool]

Pattern scanning? I'm afraid I haven't even heard of that, let alone know whether it's enabled or not!

The server is up to the date with all of the packages released through yum, though, so if there was a bug in an earlier version it should have been ironed out. That said, Clam is complaining that it is currently version 0.88.6 and not 0.88.7 - would this update solve the problem?

Many thanks,
Chris.

[gordonr]

Pattern scanning? I'm afraid I haven't even heard of that, let alone know whether it's enabled or not!

Sorry - "Executable content blocking" - it's called "pattern scanning" under the covers.

The server is up to the date with all of the packages released through yum, though, so if there was a bug in an earlier version it should have been ironed out.

Good.

That said, Clam is complaining that it is currently version 0.88.6 and not 0.88.7 - would this update solve the problem?

0.88.7 is included in SME7.1

Maybe you're just out of CPU or RAM for the workload.

[penguinzrool]

Thanks again for the replies. I did think that the content scanning might be increasing the workload so have disabled it and the machine does seem a little more responsive.

The specs are very modest - its a 500MHz VIA C3 processor with 512MB of RAM doing software RAID which won't help. The upside to the low power chip though is that the server uses little energy and is near silent.

From what you've said I'll investigate upgrading to SME 7.1, at least then I can disable outgoing antispam, and a new version of Clam is always a good thing.

Thanks for all the help!
Chris.

[gordonr]

Thanks again for the replies. I did think that the content scanning might be increasing the workload so have disabled it and the machine does seem a little more responsive.

I don't think you'll notice pattern scanning on most machines, and it blocks a lot of junk from even hitting the virus scanner. See comment #23 here:

http://bugs.contribs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1532

The updated code was included in 7.0 final.

The specs are very modest - its a 500MHz VIA C3 processor with 512MB of RAM doing software RAID which won't help. The upside to the low power chip though is that the server uses little energy and is near silent.

Yep, though it confirms my suspicion that the box is underpowered for the workload.

From what you've said I'll investigate upgrading to SME 7.1, at least then I can disable outgoing antispam, and a new version of Clam is always a good thing.

Thanks for all the help!

No worries.

[william_syd]

disable outgoing antispam,

After doing a yum update using smeupdates-testing on a 7.0 final box I'm unable to find how to disable out-going antispam.

Where should I be looking ?

[gordonr]

disable outgoing antispam,

After doing a yum update using smeupdates-testing on a 7.0 final box I'm unable to find how to disable out-going antispam.

Where should I be looking ?

Compare /var/service/qpsmtpd/config/peers/0 and peers/local. The first is used for external connections and the second for local network connections, including webmail. You'll see that spamassassin is automatically disabled for local connections.

See bug 1893 for more details.