spam filter = fail

jim_h

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spam filter = fail

« on: July 18, 2010, 08:42:19 AM »

A few days ago I enabled spam filtering on my LP email address. It is stunningly, breathtakingly, ineffective. So far it's identified exactly 3 emails as spam, one of which was actually from my wife; and about 200 actual spams have sailed through untouched. With a false positive rate of 33% and about 1% effectiveness, it's useless.

I recently started checking my email on an iPod Touch which, as we all know, has no spam filtering. It's inundated with Viagra spam, every day.

I looked at the filtering options but they seem very weak. The 'training' thing looks pretty much useless because it can only be used while email is sitting on the LP server, which is never. I don't see a place to create my own rules or list of trigger phrases - if I could do that, I could block a lot of repetitious spam. Setting the sensiftvity higher doesn't make sense if it's already filtering valid mail.

Is LP's spam filtering unusually poor? I'd move my domain immediately if I thought I could get more effective filtering elsewhere....


« Last Edit: July 18, 2010, 08:59:22 AM by jim_h »	Logged

Ben Milbourne

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Re: spam filter = fail

« Reply #1 on: July 20, 2010, 11:02:56 AM »

Hello Jim,

We all know how annoying it is to find a bunch of spam e-mail in your inbox. Personally, I choose to host my domain's email with Google's Apps (good info: http://www.adiwebs.com/how-to-host-your-domain-email-at-gmail/), as I feel they have the best *free* filtration mechanisms, and I've never had to reconfigure it at all. Nevertheless, are you on a Basic (linux) hosting plan? If so, then you'd be using either the cPanel, or LPCP, both of which offer ways to enable & configure "SpamAssassin" to be more aggressive or filter emails based on rules you set.

cPanel - http://wiki.lunarpages.com/Anti_Spam_Configuration_in_cPanel
LPCP - http://wiki.lunarpages.com/Anti_Spam_Configuration_in_LPCP

If you get stuck or have any questions or concerns, you're always encouraged to contact our friendly Support Staff for assistance.


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Ben Milbourne
Senior Account Executive

Lunarpages ® Internet Solutions
1360 N. Hancock Street
Anaheim, CA 92807
1-877-586-2772 ext 2906

1-714-521-8150 ext 2906 (International)
ben.milbourne@lunarpages.com

jim_h

Spacescooter Operator

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Posts: 33

Re: spam filter = fail

« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2010, 02:37:16 PM »

I'm on a Windows host so the only options I know about are via Plesk.

I know spam is a big and complex problem. I see recommendations to use gmail as a filter; but gmail works very poorly with outside accounts. The polling interval is too long, it's not configurable and there's no way to force and immediate check. Google can't be the answer to every problem...


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Ben Milbourne

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Re: spam filter = fail

« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2010, 03:32:01 PM »

You should consider a Microsoft Exchange solution. Lunarpages has recently partnered with Hostlabs and we now proudly offer Hosted Exchange services. With Hosted Exchange, you can enjoy the peace of mind of having our Exchange experts managing the email system and responding quickly to security threats such as spam and viruses.

Here are some notable features of Hosted Exchange and Outlook:

•   Full MAPI Client Access (provides features as described below) with tight Outlook integration
•   Contact management, global contact lists, event and calendar management, resource scheduling and administration, task management and shared folders
•   Company-wide free/busy schedules
•   Ability to delegate access to allow others to check designated components like e-mail, tasks lists and calendars
•   Server and client-side rules and spam filtering to manage the flow of incoming messages
•   Multi-colored flagging to mark messages for follow-up, prioritization, searching and categorization
•   Recovery of sent and deleted messages
•   Ability to delete and replace an unread message
•   Out-of-office automatic reply

And if you don't already use MS Outlook, each user will receive a free license (a $110.00 per user value).

Premium Account Features:
-McAffee Anti-Spam triple protection
-Free copy of Microsoft Outlook or Entourage
-POP3
-Storage Unlimited
-Bandwidth Unlimited
-Alias Domains unlimited
-Calendar Management (other members in your group can modify your calendar or notes)
-MAPI
-OWA (Outlook Web Access)

Please feel free to contact me directly at the number/email provided in my signature if you have any further questions regarding Hosted Exchange.


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jim_h

Spacescooter Operator

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Posts: 33

Re: spam filter = fail

« Reply #4 on: September 10, 2010, 02:02:10 PM »

I just had to depend on my IPod to pull all my email for a few days, which means I spent 80% of my email time deleting blindingly viagra spam that LunarPages' "filter" passes through without complaint. It was so aggravating I felt the need to revisit this topic, even though we're obviously not going to get any acttion.

Here's a thought, LunarPages: instead of trying to sell me a bunch of expensive and complicated add-on services I don't understand, need or want, how about just exposing the keyword filter so I can add a couple of keywords - oh, I don't know, let's say "Pfizer" and "Viagra" - which would cut my spam by about 90% in an instant?

It's not going to happen - even though the capability alreadys exists - because ISPs like LP now see spam as an opportunity to extract more money from customers, not as a problem to be addressed.


« Last Edit: September 10, 2010, 05:25:37 PM by jim_h »	Logged

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