Re: [Evolution] filtering junk mail

[guenther <guenther rudersport de>]

> > The Junk filtering of Evo uses the well known and very good SA to flag
> > the mails. SA should identify most SPAMs out the box. However, results
> > get better, once the Bayesian classifier kicks in, which by default
> > needs to learn 200 messages each SPAM and HAM (non-Junk). So train your
> > Bayes good... ;)
>
> Another good explanation, guenther.

Thanks. :)


> I always wondered what engine evo
> used for its spam filter.  That amount of training would explain why I
> see the same HAM marked as spam again and again.  I'm thinking, why is
> evo just not getting it that this sender is good?  Now, I have some
> insight that it doesn't just store any given address as "not junk" it
> filters with more complexity than that.  

Very true.

SA by no means just filters on From: addresses. This would be no good at
all, cause most SPAM arrives from somewhat randomly chosen (or made up)
accounts...


> So, that raises the question: How can I create a "whitelist" of senders
> so not to wait a long time for the bayesian filtering to kick in? 

See the SA homepage for detailed information about this:
  http://spamassassin.apache.org/

You'll need to mess around with your SA configuration files. Either the
global ones in /etc/mail/spamassassin/ or your local ones [1] on a per
user basis, if enabled (default).

If you're running SA 3.0.x (which you should anyway, cause it triggers
far better than the aging 2.x versions) here are the relevant docs:
  http://spamassassin.apache.org/full/3.0.x/dist/doc/Mail_SpamAssassin_Conf.html

See the section "Whitelist and Blacklist Options", especially the
whitelist_from option. Add lines like this for any often incorrectly
tagged sender address. Run 'spamassassin --lint' (as the respective user
in case of user prefs) after that to verify the syntax is correct (no
output, no complaints).


Well, or LART your correspondents to *not* use spammy words... Using a
3.5 ft length of sucker rod [2] does help here... ;-)

...ninja guenther


[1] ~/.spamassassin/user_prefs
[2] man -P "less -isR -G +/SECURITY" 8 syslogd


-- 
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; }}}