Re: [Evolution] Problem with junk and spam filters

[guenther <guenther rudersport de>]

Well, this thread is getting a little off-topic for this particular
list, but anyway... :)

On Tue, 2005-12-06 at 07:51 -0500, Brian Whiting wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-12-04 at 01:38 +0100, guenther wrote:
> > > > Slight correction: SpamAssassins built-in /Bayes/ filters need to be
> > > > trained. The default SA rules work from the very first message, as do
> > > > the network tests. Bayes needs to learn 200 Spam and Ham /each/, before
> > > > kicking in (default install).
> <snip>
>
> > [1] Actually, "mails" are never learned. Their contents, the words are
> > learned and identified with the overall score of the message. So
> > according to the Bayes filter, some words are strong signs of being
> > either Ham or Spam, whereas others aren't. (Basically, just keep in mind
> > that words are learned, rather than entire mails.)
>
> I find that the "learning" is still producing too many negatives.  I'm
> getting repeat spam that is similar to "learned" messages.

I assume your Bayes filter did not learn the necessary 200 ham and spam
messages each. See above.


> I found my SpamAssassin settings in webmin & the "Hits above which a
> message is considered spam" setting is at 5.  I don't know what a good
> SA setting is for this.  I'd like to make it more discriminating in
> reasonable steps, but need some practical pointers for a good way to
> fine tune it.  Is there a generally accepted start setting for this? Are
> the other settings more applicable to it?  I have:

> Hits above which a message is considered spam 5

Yes, this is the "generally accepted" setting. It is the SA default. I
highly recommend to keep this, unless you really know about SA internals
and what you are doing.


> Whitelist score factor .5
> Number of times to check From: address MX 2
> Seconds to wait between MX checks 2
> Skip RBL open-relay check? No
> Seconds to wait for RBL queries 30
> Number of Received: headers to check with RBL  2

Well, I do use SA for years already, though I never ever touched the
webmin module for it. :)  I assume these are default values, so they are
just fine.

Btw, most of em are effective only, if you do have "network tests"
enabled for your Evolution mail accounts Junk settings...

...guenther


-- 
char *t="\10pse\0r\0dtu\0  ghno\x4e\xc8\x79\xf4\xab\x51\x8a\x10\xf4\xf4\xc4";
main(){ char h,m=h=*t++,*x=t+2*h,c,i,l=*x,s=0; for (i=0;i<l;i++){ i%8? c<<=1:
(c=*++x); c&128 && (s+=h); if (!(h>>=1)||!t[s+h]){ putchar(t[s]);h=m;s=0; }}}