I have mail

For those of you who are wondering what I did to my email setup I thought I’d jot down the details here. Firstly I have to say that this has all been done for another domain that I own and not theenglandproject.net. The level of SPAM received through this domain is not at painful levels yet.

My main problem was the number of emails I was receiving with viral payloads hidden in attachments containing Microsoft executable files (of one form or another). I would often get 30 pop-up warnings about quarantined viruses when I checked mail and this was making the whole process of communicating via email a real pain. It got to the point where I didn’t want to click my check mail button because the ensuing process was just too damn painful.

Now, because my hosts give me my own Virtual Private Server my domain, to all intents and purposes, exists on what looks like its own linux server with all the paraphernalia that comes along with that. This means I have full access to the configuration for a program called procmail. This program is what all mail to my problematic domain gets routed through and in its configuration it’s possible to add rules or ‘recipes’ which instruct procmail what to do if any mail it is asked to handle fits in with certain rules. I chose the nuke option which means I told procmail to delete any incoming mail that includes attachments that contain any Microsoft Windows executable files. Kaboom. I never even get to know they were sent to me. They are deleted by the server before my email program ever gets to see them.

Ultra-effective.

The other issue was the various viagra style emails, business marketing stuff, free online diploma offers and the spoofs that looked like they came from ebay or paypal. These I had to handle differently from the executable attachment style email. I mean, I was happy for all executables to be deleted without a second thought because no-one I want to talk to would ever email me an executable so that was that but other types of email are harder to spot for definite as SPAM.

Again, my hosts provide a solution in the form of SpamAssassin which they will install on request. This is a program that will scan incoming email and add various information about how likely the email is to be SPAM to the email headers in special fields. This allows the user agent (my email program, yeah I know they like calling stuff agents and whatnot) to filter email into a SPAM box according to the information added by SpamAssassin. The great thing about it is that the rules SpamAssassin uses to classify email are configurable and most of the rules you will ever need are freely available on the Internet.

So, now when I check mail, the number of valid emails that end up in my inbox relative to the amount of SPAM has increased significantly. My inbox is once again information rich, and that’s the way I like it.

As for the mail in my SPAM email box, I maybe take a look every now and again to make sure they are being correcly classified as SPAM. Maybe I just delete the contents without looking, it all depends on the mood I am in. SpamAssassin is very good at spotting SPAM and the longer you use it the more you trust its decisions.

Just to finish the story and to satisfy any reader curiosity the email program I use to view my mail is Poco Mail. I’ve tried a number of mail programs in my time (Outlook Express, Eudora etc) and Poco Mail is by far the best. Ultra configurable but easy to use and simply great looking. The thing is a pleasure to use.

So that’s it. Technodull. Brought to you by The England Project.