SPAM

Vex.Net has SpamAssassin available for use. This is not enabled by default, but clients can use it if they wish.

If the instructions below seem too complicated to you, feel free to email support@Vex.Net and request assistance.

This is a bit on the technical side for some users, but to enable SpamAssassin on your account you need to create (or edit) a file called .procmailrc in your home directory. For the simplest configuration, it should contain the following lines:

:0fw: spamassassin.lock
* <1048576
| spamc

With the above procmail filter recipe no email will be discarded. Suspected spam will merely have the text "******SPAM******" inserted into the message subject. Also a spam report will be inserted into the top of the message; the original message will be preserved also.

Procmail considers your email insecure and will not operate until the .procmailrc file you created is readable only by you. Thus, make sure you restrict the file permissions by executing chmod 600 .procmailrc in your home directory.

If you want to completely discard any suspected spam, add the following rule to your .procmailrc file below the one shown above:

:0:
* ^X-Spam-Status: Yes
/dev/null

The first time that spamassassin filters an email a directory will be created called .spamassassin in your home directory, and it will contain a file called user_prefs.

In the user_prefs file you can adjust the "spam threshold" level. The default is that anything scoring 5 and above is spam. SpamAssassin tests have indicated that this threshold will block approximately 90% of spam for 90% of people. If you get false positives, however, then you may want to raise the threshold.

You may also consider simply "white listing" certain email addresses you never want to be considered spam. You can do this by adding lines (one email address per line) to the user_prefs file which look like this:

whitelist_from whatever@address.net

There are other options and customisations to the spam detection and handling process that can be done. Consult the SpamAssassin web site for more details.