It has been a long time since I used and configured Sendmail, and I don’t miss it one bit now that Postfix is on the scene, but the amount of spam I receive does bother me. My Junk folder had reached 160MB, mostly due to some idiots sending huge spam attachments, but also because spam still works and a majority of the email circulating is spam and not legitimate.
Spamassassin is how we fight back. Unfortunately it needs a reasonably powerful server, gobs of memory and CPU when there’s a lot of incoming email and time to configure. Using spamd/spamc makes things easier on your server but it’s still a hefty price to pay for being spam free.
Here are a few pages I found useful this morning when getting things up and running on my Ubuntu server:
- Fighting Spam with SpamAssassin and Postfix has some interesting Postfix rules I’m using.
- Simple Spamassassin setup with Postfix and Dovecot on Ubuntu Breezy – I used this to configure Spamassassin.
I also recommend running Postgrey to stop some junk mail before it gets into your system at all.
Now, if only there was a Spamassassin for the junk mail and clothes collection leaflets we get to the front door. How’s about a Defense Tower that would fire pellets when it noticed someone with leaflets calling to the door?
Edit: Justin talks about one of Spamassassin’s honeypot traps and about goings on at Blacklist.ie
Spamassassin is the best spam filtering software i think. it comes with plesk and i never think to change it any other spam software
I finally resolved my spam problem by subscribing to vqme.com Wonderful solution. Incoming trash has dropped from a high of over 500 msgs/day to zero. And I can still review unsolicited mail at the holding site. I have no interest in their service other than to pass along the well done to others.
If u find u need some more ‘help’ give me a shout. I’ve done several Postfix+ setups