spam/notspam w/sa-learn

Wed May 7 17:39:45 IST 2003

Many thanks to you for all your help.  I really appreciate it.
This should work nicely for us and my users will find the feature very nice.

I'm still, when I get some time, going to work on a little script that runs
on my Linux box that
does the same thing as I think this feature would be highly desireable for
many MailScanner/SpamAssassin
users.

Using your script will probably give me some good ideas.

N

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrea Cogliati [mailto:AndreaC at GOTECH.IT]
Sent: 7-May-03 5:01 AM
To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Re: spam/notspam w/sa-learn

Nicholas,

I see the problem. My solution is not using Forwarding at all. I created
two Public Folders on Exchange (2K) where users can copy (or move) spam
& ham messages. Then I use a very quick & dirty perl script (I'm not a
perl guru either) to feed the spam and notspam accounts on the
MailScanner gateway where another script (Julian's one) runs sa_learn.

I'm attaching my script to this message: it's really dumb and completely
uncommented but it's working for us. Should you find it useful, please
feel free to use it.

Bye,

Andrea

-----Original Message-----
From: Feasey, Nicholas [mailto:nfeasey at UTPRESS.UTORONTO.CA]
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 5:05 PM
To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Re: spam/notspam w/sa-learn

The improvement that we are discussing is the ability to merely allow
any mail user to FORWARD a message to spam or notspam and have it
processed through SpamAssassin's sa-learn script and treated
accordingly.

The original problem, as Julian stated, is that Outlook, Outlook Express
remove the headers when a message is forwarded so instead of the message
being marked as spam or ham, depending on which email address
(spam/notspam) you sent it to, it would incorrectly mark the end user.
This is not the desired affect.

I was mulling over the possibility of any user sending a email to either
spam or notspam which merely contains an address (or series of
addresses).  Then a script runs which processes this messages through
the sa-learn script which, in turn, teaches SpamAssassin about them.

Unfortunately, although I pretty good in C and PHP, I'm not much of a
Perl wizard. Perhaps what I describe above is exactly what your perl
script does?

If so, why not share it with the rest of us so we don't have to
re-invent the wheel :)

Many thanks.

N

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrea Cogliati [mailto:AndreaC at GOTECH.IT]
Sent: 6-May-03 4:14 AM
To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Re: spam/notspam w/sa-learn

Kevin,

I'm currently using Exchange 2K Public Folders exactly for this purpose
and I wrote a very simple Perl script for getting spam&ham from there.

What 'improvement' are you talking about? Am I missing something?

Bye,

Andrea

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Spicer [mailto:kevins at BMRB.CO.UK]
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 9:26 PM
To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Re: spam/notspam w/sa-learn

A couple of us on the list have been experimenting with ways of using
the 'public folders' feature in Exchange to get round this problem with
Outlook.  I understand this works with Exchange 5.5.  But due to an
'improvement' Microsoft made in Exchange 2000 it doesn't work with that
(which I personally find damn annoying). The basic way it works is by
creating two public folders for spam and ham then using a script on the
MailScanner machine to grab the messages using IMAP.

The most important thing when feeding messages to sa-learn is that the
message ID should not be changed (since sa-learn tracks which messages
it has learned using this).  Should the message ID change, which is
likely to happen when forwarding, SA may well learn the same message as
both ham and spam!

On Mon, 2003-05-05 at 19:33, Feasey, Nicholas wrote:
Hmm?  So then, by forwarding I would place my address in the
spam/notspam mailboxes and be identified as such. Any ideas on how to
"fool" the app so that it will work with Outlook or am I going to have
to try to write some sort of script - if, in fact, that is possible.

N
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Julian Field [mailto:mailscanner at ECS.SOTON.AC.UK]
    Sent: 5-May-03 2:22 PM
    To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
    Subject: Re: spam/notspam w/sa-learn

    At 19:16 05/05/2003, you wrote:

        Forgive my ignorance/stupidity on this subject but what do you
        mean by redirect?
    Different mail apps call it different things, but it is usually
    bounce or redirect. It sends the message on with the headers intact,
    so that replies go back to the original sender and not the person
    who redirected it.

    Outlook and Outlook Express cannot do it.
    Why, I don't know, it's the simplest job in the book :-(

        Yes, the cron job is in place, just want to give my users
        CORRECT instructions on using the "auto-learn" feature.

        N

            -----Original Message-----

            From: Julian Field [mailto:mailscanner at ECS.SOTON.AC.UK]

            Sent: 5-May-03 2:07 PM

            To: MAILSCANNER at JISCMAIL.AC.UK

            Subject: Re: spam/notspam w/sa-learn

            At 18:40 05/05/2003, you wrote:

                I just want to be clear on the usage of the spam and not
                spam accounts used in conjunction with the sa-learn
                script.

                I can have my users forward any message received to
                either spam (to have it identified as spam) or notspam
                (to have it identified as ham) and it will

                be automatcially learned (sa-learn)??

            It is important that they "redirect" and not "forward" their
            mail to the addresses, as forwarding will destroy the
            headers and make it appear that your users are the spammers.

                Is this correct?

            You do, of course, need my cron job script to do the actual
            work, mailboxes aren't magic :-)

                I don't want my users showing up as spammers because
                they are listed as the forwarder.

            --

            Julian Field

            www.MailScanner.info

            Professional Support Services at www.MailScanner.biz

            MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support

    --
    Julian Field
    www.MailScanner.info
    Professional Support Services at www.MailScanner.biz
    MailScanner thanks transtec Computers for their support

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