CUUG Spam FAQ

  1. What is CUUG doing about spam and viruses?
  2. I have a spam filter on my computer. Why would CUUG want to filter my email?
  3. How do I Use SpamAssassin?
  4. Where can I read more about Spam Assassin?
  5. Someone emailed me a file but I never received it
  6. How do I Stop SpamAssassin filtering?
  7. Is SpamAssassin up to date?

1. What is CUUG doing about spam and viruses?

  1. CUUG has installed SpamAssassin which deletes spam before your computer gets a chance to download it. Spam Assassin is turned off by default, but you can install it by following the procedure below.
  2. CUUG automatically deletes any email that has attached windows executable files (.exe, .bat, .com, .scr, etc.). Before we did this, whenever there was major virus incident, everyone's email box got clogged with this virus spam.
  3. Spammers use programs called "spambots" or "spiders" to collect email addresses from web pages! A CUUG member figured out how to hide emails from spider programs, but leave them visible to people who visit your site. Go to http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~babulicm/spam and see how it's done.

2. I have a spam filter on my computer. Why would CUUG want to filter my email?

CUUG attempts to filter spam out of incoming email at the server level, before it reaches addressees. Spam costs time and it costs resources... and it's not just the time that you waste by downloading mail that you don't want to read.

Spam slows down our internet connection by wasting bandwidth because we have to receive messages that you don't want to read from the sender... only so much data can move through the "pipe" at any time. Then we waste hard disk space storing the messages that you don't want to read, so that you can pick them up. Our mail server has actually crashed a couple of times because hard disks filled up! Our volunteer sysamins, and they are few, have to waste time cleaning up these messes instead doing something productive. Finally, spam slows our internet connection even more when you download the messages that you don't want to read.

3. How do I Use SpamAssassin?

To install SpamAssassin, you must

  1. Login to CUUG
    ssh your-login@igor.cuug.ab.ca
  2. Login to the mail server once you are "inside CUUG"
    ssh cola.cuug.ab.ca
  3. Run the SpamAssassin setup command
    sa-setup.sh
  4. logout
  5. logout

If you don't already have a personal .procmailrc file, then the standard CUUG .procmailrc will be copied to your home directory (from mail:/etc/mail/spamassassin/procmailrc). This file tells CUUG's mail server to filter your email with SpamAssassin

The very next e-mail you receive will be checked by SpamAssassin. Every email will be given a "spamminess" score. Email that scores too high will be thrown out.

Email that is probably spam will be stored in a mail folder called "probably-spam". You should read this mail folder from time-to-time for false positives (using pine or elm) and delete the rest of the mail

4. Where can I read more about Spam Assassin?

SpamAssassin's home page is at http://www.spamassassin.org

5. Someone emailed me a file but I never received it

CUUG automatically deletes any email that has certain types of file attached. Some of these files have names that end with:

.exe .com .cmd .bat .pif .scr
These are windows executable files and are sent by most viruses. Before we did this, whenever there was major virus incident, everyone's email box got clogged with virus spam.

It you need the file, tell the person who sent it to either:

  1. "Zip" the file and send the compressed copy, or
  2. change the file extension to something that won't be filtered

If you don't understand the above advice, please consult a geeky friend for help. It's actually very simple to work around the filter and removing the filter is not an option. Virus spam would inconvenience our members even more, perhaps even endanger them!

6. How do I Stop SpamAssassin filtering?

To uninstall SpamAssassin, you must

  1. Login to CUUG
    ssh your-login@igor.cuug.ab.ca
  2. Login to the mail server once you are "inside CUUG"
    ssh cola.cuug.ab.ca
  3. Run the SpamAssassin remove command
    sa-remove.sh
  4. logout
  5. logout

This renames your .procmailrc file to .procmailrc-disable, stopping SpamAssassin filtering

7. Is SpamAssassin up to date?

At the time of writing (November 2003), CUUG is using an older version of Spamassassin (2.55). The current version of SpamAssassin is 2.60, which was released on Sept 23, 2003.