SpamAssassin help

[tensigh]

I need some tips for settings on SA.

When I use Sonic's default setting (I think 4.0), I get a good amount of very obvious spam.
I've set my number to 2.0 or 2.5 but I still get spam. So I've tweaked some of the settings that seemed low and now I get about 2-3 false positives. They're mostly direct mails but they're ones I've signed up for.

Can someone give me some recommended settings so I don't get false positives daily but I keep the dating sites, viagra ads and Nigerian fortune offers out of my Inbox?

Thank you.

[bobrk]

I set mine at 1, and visit graymail a lot to whitelist.

[cdkeen]

Bobrk's suggestion is a good one. You can also customize individual scores here: https://members.sonic.net/email/spam/scores/

If you increase the score the more likely it is to be flagged as spam.

For example in your current configuration:
DRUG_ED_GENERIC 0 Customize Reset Mentions Generic Viagra
The score for mentioning viagra is 0!

Increasing the score for things you do not want combined with adding exceptions for things you do want will dramatically improve the filtering of spam emails. If you need assistance with this you can call Sonic.net support as well!

Thanks for choosing Sonic.net!

[tensigh]

I set mine at 1, and visit graymail a lot to whitelist.

I've been doing that as well, but it's kind of annoying to have to do it every day. One of my friends uses Gmail (something I don't want to do) and he almost never gets spam. He spends maybe 10 minutes a month dealing with spam, whereas I spend about 5-10 minutes a day. I'm trying to find a way to reduce that.

[bobrk]

Don't forget you get the reminder mail each day, and a quick visual scan should tell you if there are any emails you want in there.

[tensigh]

Bobrk's suggestion is a good one. You can also customize individual scores here: https://members.sonic.net/email/spam/scores/

If you increase the score the more likely it is to be flagged as spam.

For example in your current configuration:
DRUG_ED_GENERIC 0 Customize Reset Mentions Generic Viagra
The score for mentioning viagra is 0!

Increasing the score for things you do not want combined with adding exceptions for things you do want will dramatically improve the filtering of spam emails. If you need assistance with this you can call Sonic.net support as well!

Thanks for choosing Sonic.net!

Thanks for the tip. I've tweaked a number of those but I still get a lot of false positives. I guess I'll just have to keep working with it. The one above is good, but I was hoping for some specific suggestions, such as:

1.9 DCC_CHECK - how to set this one, etc.

It's okay, looks like I'll just have to Google it. More time.

[tensigh]

Don't forget you get the reminder mail each day, and a quick visual scan should tell you if there are any emails you want in there.

Right, that's the problem. I get the reminder, so I have to click on a link, log in AGAIN, and mark legit email and whitelist it. The good news about the reminder is that it puts the least likely spam messages at the top. That's been helpful.

[bobrk]

Wait, it does? I never noticed that. I thought they were in chronological order.

[tensigh]

Wait, it does? I never noticed that. I thought they were in chronological order.

At least that's how it seems to me. The ones I usually want to keep appear at the top of the list. I usually just have to scan the first 4-5 messages. The more I go down the list the more spammy they are.

The system that Sonic has is pretty cool, I guess I'm just griping a little.

[kgc]

I'm really not happy hearing that you've had trouble with false positives and need to review your graymail report at all. We're discussing the possibility of switching to a commercial email security/spam filtering service with the hope of improving the overall reliability and accuracy of our filtering.