How do I filter spam *well*?

I am seriously tired of spam. I get so much that Squirrelmail is useless to me; even though the Junk Mail thresholds are set to 0 (zero!) I still get loads of spam into my mailbox. I'm autoforwarding all my mail to Gmail, and that does a *remarkable* job of even filtering that which survives to my Squirrelmail Inbox. I don't really want to use Gmail (I want to send mail from my own domain, not from Gmail), but that's the only useful defense I can manage. For me to come home to my own mailbox, I need a better antispam solution than the current DH junk Mail Filter.

There have been posts about how to implement custom solutions with SpamAssassin installations, and these seem to work -- at least if you're a web/linux expert with time on your hands. I'm not...

I am interested in a solution that would work well for all the users on my domain, rather than simply for one user only.

Help?

Gmail allows you to have an alternate from address. (Under Settings > Accounts.) Also, you can use gmail as your mailbox, read messages with POP, but send mail through your domain's SMTP server. It's not that scalable to multiple users, although I think Google is testing a version for a whole domain.

You don't have to be a super Linux expert to install SpamAssassin, but it does take some command line knowledge and it can take time if you want to tweak rules/scores. The other alternative is to sign up with a mail hosting service that can run SpamAssassin (or something like it) for you. IMO, the problem with the DH junk mail filter is that it doesn't support the network or Bayes tests, which are the most effective tests. (The other tests are too static and easy for spammers to work around.)

Thanks for the response!

> Gmail allows you to have an alternate from address. (Under Settings > Accounts.)
Yup, I have that, and when people reply to my mail, it *is* sent to my own domain, but it still shows up as coming from Gmail, which is what I don't really like. But I like less the amount of spam I get outside of Gmail so I stay on Gmail yet.

> Also, you can use gmail as your mailbox, read messages with POP, but
Hey, then I can get rid of the forwarding rule and POP it instead. Thanks!

> send mail through your domain's SMTP server.
Really? How?

> Google is testing a version for a whole domain.
Yup, and I applied for that because it would be awesome to have for the entire domain, but I didn't get a response from them.


> You don't have to be a super Linux expert to install SpamAssassin,
There are very good and useful guides out there, even directly concerning DreamHost installs, but the thing is that all SA installations would then only be for a specific mailbox, or filtered mail would only go to one mailbox, so it's not useful for multiple addresses to multiple users.

> sign up with a mail hosting service that can run (SA) for you
DreamHost does that, but not openly tweakable. And we're even allowed to mess up on our own, so it's really not a bad service!

> The other tests are too static and easy for spammers to work around.
True. And with something like spam, I'm thinking that having a poor spam filter is worse than having none at all, because you have the cost of handling the quarantine without getting the benefit of a spam-free inbox. Don't get me wrong, I am, or rather I used to be, fairly happy and impressed with DH Junk Mail filtering, but it just doesn't fulfil my spam filtering needs now.

I'm not sure how soon this will happen but we do have plans to put some work into improving our junkmail filter. As has been pointed out, it's far from perfect.

- Dallas
- DreamHost Head Honcho/Founder

Thanks Dallas, it's nice to know you're aware of this and that you have some plans in that direction. I'll be keeping an eye out for any DH updates about the filter.