Re: filter spam from inbox

So in a sense, what your saying is that I would have to convert all my 
users from POP3 to IMAP?

The reason I use POP3 is so that my server does not get filled up with 
users saving all their messages on the server. With POP3 they get 
downloaded to the client and then wiped off the server. Those few users 
that use Webmail exclusively or use the "save messages to server" option 
have been warned that if their mailbox usage is determined to be 
excessive we will go in and wipe their mailbox. That is done with 
periodic scripts, very little intervention on my part.

Maybe, I am misinformed of how the two (POP3 and IMAP) work but that is 
what I remember from my reading. IMAP does have advantages especially 
for my current situation, but POP3 looked like the right choice when we 
first set everything up. Can you all share your experiences and/or 
opinions of the two (POP3, IMAP)? Thanks again.

Sean



Paul L. Allen wrote:

> Sean Smith writes:
> 
>> Obviously, the users are able to setup filters and rules in their mail 
>> program (OE, Netscape) but some of them have asked about filtering in 
>> sqwebmail. I read that you can if you use maildrop. But, I would 
>> rather not have to reconfigure my server.
> 
> 
> Filtering in sqwebmail isn't really filtering in sqwebmail.  Sqwebmail
> in that case acts as a web front-end to define maildrop filters that act
> at delivery time.  This is the sensible way to do it because it only
> happens once and it doesn't matter whether you use sqwebmail or IMAP
> to read your messages.  This is sensible because even if you normally
> use IMAP you can use sqwebmail to set up filters that work with both.
> There are many ways to configure it to work, but the standard method
> is based around the techniques found on the qmailadmin mailing list 
> archive.
> Qmailadmin is configured to, if you tick the misnamed "enable anti-spam",
> create /var/vpopmail/domain/user/.qmail and put in it a command specified
> when you configure qmailadmin.  That command is typically |preline
> /usr/local/bin/maildrop /etc/mailfilter.  Typical /etc/mailfilters
> can also be found in the qmailadmin archive (not all work, not all work
> in all conditions).
> Usually /etc/mailfilter checks the message size and feeds it to
> spamassassin if it is below a certain size (so spamassassin doesn't choke),
> tests to see if the spam flag is set, if the spam flag is set it checks if
> a Spam folder exists for the user and creates it if it doesn't then
> delivers it to the Spam folder, if the spam folder does not exist it loads
> the user's .mailfilter (created using sqwebmail) if it exists then
> delivers it either as specified by a condition in the mailfilter or
> delivers it to the inbox if no other delivery instruction from the user
> disposes of it.
> This is good.  It means you can selectively control which users get mail
> filtering/spam trapping and which don't.  You can have /etc/mailfilter
> test to see if the domain directory has a file called, for example, .spam
> and only pass the message through spamassassin if the file exists (this
> is necessary if anti-spam is a chargeable extra to mail services for a
> domain).
> Trust me, this is the good way of doing it.  If you don't need to
> spam-trap everything then this lets you control which domains and which
> users get it, avoiding the load of spam-trapping everything.  It allows
> users to create/modify their own filters.  It fits in with how sqwebmail
> and qmailadmin work.  You'd need to find, or write, something to do
> per-user spamassassin learning on a daily basis if you want users to be
> able to move stuff into or out of the Spam folder if it has been
> misclassified, but that's simple script-type stuff.
> You don't have to go down this route, but it's there and it works.  Any
> alternative would have to be coded, and most people would be reluctant
> to code something when there is a good alternative.  Basically, all the
> answers you'll get will say "use maildrop/sqwebmail filters."