Spam Filters Upgraded
The spam filtering program used at Synfibers, SpamAssassin, has been upgraded from version 2.43 to version 2.55 to fix some problems users were having and to introduce new features.
No system is 100% perfect, however, so some junk mail will still get through. SpamAssassin should help you filter out most of it. The header it uses to identify junk mail is the same as described previously in this article.
However, there are two new features. SpamAssassin will now put in the headers of messages a detailed report of how it determines whether or not a message is spam or not.
In addition, it is capable of learning from its mistakes. If you receive junk messages that SpamAssassin does not tag as spam because it doesn't quite meet the criteria (currently the threshold is 5 "spam points", a number built by scoring the message in many different areas) you can do the following. Redirect or forward the message to:
spam at synfibers dot com
Mail sent to this address will be periodically scanned, and its contents analyzed so that SpamAssassin can better filter typical spam you receive.
However, it is also possible that SpamAssassin might incorrectly identify as spam a legitimate email message. For this reason, we urge you to configure your mail program to put SpamAssassin-tagged messages in another folder and routinely browse through them quickly to find such errors.
There are two ways to help alleviate this problem.
First, collect a fair sample of legitimate messages and forward or redirect them to:
nonspam at synfibers dot dom
These messages will not be read. They will be scanned by SpamAssassin so it can better determine what messages are not spam, and then deleted.
Second, if you have an address book file, or a list of addresses that you receive mail from commonly, send it to:
webmaster at synfibers dot com
SpamAssassin can be configured to not filter mail from these addresses, so you will always receive it, regardless of content. (This can be useful when a friend or co-worker forwards you a piece of spam, or a fraudulent virus warning, along with a question about it; SpamAssassin would very likely tag such a message as spam.)
