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Spam filtering question

Annie
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Registered: ‎25-09-2007

Spam filtering question

I have been using all spam filtering off as I don't want to miss a genuine email. However, lately my husband's email address is receiving too much spam to manage. Is there a way to just filter his email address and not mine? We're both using the same domain with different prefixes ie. hisname@domain.plus.com and myname@domain.plus.com. We both have bought domain names which are hosted in my non-plusnet hosting account. Emails sent to our domains are redirected to these Plusnet mailboxes. I don't have any problems on my account but my husband is getting 200+ emails a day. The emails are addressed to his paid for domain and he doesn't want to change his email address. We could, if needed create a different Plusnet address as most of his contacts don't actually know this address but I don't think this will overcome the problem.

I have a feeling you're going to say this is not possible without affecting my address too.

Annie
11 REPLIES 11
Oldjim
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Re: Spam filtering question

the obvious question is whether the spam filtering can be beefed up on the non Plusnet hosted account by the hosting company or whether you can introduce some filtering rules on that account (Plusnet one perhaps) to cut out some of the more obvious spam

Annie
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Registered: ‎25-09-2007

Re: Spam filtering question

I'm in discussion with the hosting company but, as the email address is, in essence, a forwarding address I'm not certain anything can be done at that end.

The spam is so prolific that I don't think filtering rules is going to be practical. Looks like I'm going to have to come up with another solution.

Annie
Oldjim
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Re: Spam filtering question

you could try forwarding to a gmail address and from that to Plusnet

Annie
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Registered: ‎25-09-2007

Re: Spam filtering question

Interesting idea. Would Gmail filter the mail if it was just being used as a forwarding address?

Annie
spraxyt
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Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Spam filtering question

As mentioned by @Oldjim in earlier replies tackling spam before forwarding would be best. However I think the answer to your original question is that the Plusnet spam filter is set per domain and not per mailbox so turning spam filtering on would affect both addresses.

I know there are several posts here complaining the filters block far too much, though that hasn't been my experience and I'd suggest giving it a try. It can soon be turned off again if you find non-spam messages are being blocked. If you choose to give it a try I suggest changing the "Discard obvious spam" setting to "off".

If mail from some senders is incorrectly tagged as spam (this sometimes happens with mailing lists) whitelisting the sender domain should help - but note this has to be the "Envelope from/Return path from" address and not that displayed as "From" by email programs.

The emails being forwarded causes me concern on which server will be seen as the sender (for reputation assessment purposes), but that might apply with Gmail too.

David
Annie
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Registered: ‎25-09-2007

Re: Spam filtering question

Thank you for your input @spraxyt. I'll have a word with my husband to see which way he wants to proceed.

I didn't quite understand your last comment about reputation assessment. Would sending from the Plusnet account but putting the paid-for domain email address in the from field be problematic for recipients?

Annie
spraxyt
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Re: Spam filtering question

No sending from Plusnet (relay.plus.net) with a third party From name like me@mydomain.co.uk shouldn't be a problem for you and your correspondents' replies.

My reference to server reputation related to where spam messages come from. If that address is harvested by spammers they might send a message to it using perhaps mail.spammers.net (though no doubt a less suspicious name). If that came directly to Plusnet the Cloudmarks (spam appliances) might look up that server address, find its reputation (as an email source) is poor and refuse to accept the message even without checking if you've whitelisted it.

However if the message went to a forwarding address, the forwarder could send it to Plusnet using (say) server mail.forwarder.net. Then to Plusnet the message seems to originate from that server. If that has a good reputation the message is allowed to pass. I don't know if the Cloudmarks are clever enough to backtrack through the forwarding chain to assess the real sender and refuse delivery. The same applies if it was Gmail doing the checks.

The message would be spam assessed after receipt and could be moved to the spam folder. But might that lead to the reputation of the forwarder server being downgraded?

These problems would be avoided if the spam check was done by the original receiver.

To conclude, your original question seemed simple but there could be unexpected side effects. I might be being over cautious but it's best you are aware. However this doesn't change my suggestion to give spam filtering a try.

David
Annie
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Registered: ‎25-09-2007

Re: Spam filtering question

Many thanks David for your detailed reply.

Annie
Annie
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Registered: ‎25-09-2007

Re: Spam filtering question

I'm trying to set up the anti-spam facility and there are a number of options. If I leave it at 'Move to the Spam Folder' will this mean that spam on my email address will be in a different folder to the spam on my husband's email address? In this case, is the only way to access that spam to log in to webmail or can I view it in Thunderbird?

I use POP3 as I like my emails to be deleted once they are downloaded into Thunderbird. However, I filter the email in MailWasher on my PC before I download them. I also use Aquamail on my Android devices which does make use of the IMAP system but I want to delete the spam whilst using the PC. Not sure if I can make the system work for me like this.

If I create a mailbox for the spam instead and choose the 'Move to an existing Mailbox' option, would this incorporate my spam and my husband's spam together? I'm trying to have a system where I can separate out our spam from each other without having to log into webmail which is laborious.

Annie
spraxyt
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Re: Spam filtering question

If you leave the spam setting at "Move to the Spam Folder" there would be a separate Spam folder for each of the hers and his mailboxes each collecting its own spam. However these folders cannot be accessed using POP, only by IMAP, which Webmail uses. You could access the folder using IMAP with Thunderbird but using POP and IMAP on the same mailbox in the same client can be problematical.

I haven't tried "Move to an existing mailbox" but my guess is that puts all spam in the same designated Inbox. Addressees would have to be determined using the "To" addresses but that mailbox could be accessed using IMAP in Thunderbird.

However I think its fair to say that initially you want to see what happens to build confidence that Plusnet spam filtering works for both you and your husband. I think a convenient way to check this could be to set "Add [-SPAM-] to the subject line" (the default) along with "Move to Inbox". That would mean you could still process the messages using Mailwasher (and POP) but you would see which messages the filter thinks are spam. Hopefully confidence will build and you might then choose one of the other "Move" options (my feeling is that "Move to an existing mailbox" which you create might suit you better).

There are still the "forwarding" issues which I mentioned before, but the effect of that might be not to block spam from servers with poor reputation. However giving the "Tag and Inbox" suggestion above a try will provide facts rather than speculation.

If messages weren't being forwarded it would be entirely feasible that the "200 per day" you mentioned initially dropped to a handful (or even none) which can be unnerving. False positives I'd hope would be none.

David
Annie
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Posts: 374
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Registered: ‎25-09-2007

Re: Spam filtering question

@spraxyt, I'm so sorry for not acknowledging your post. I usually get an email when messages arrive but I have just logged in and there are 4 notifications waiting for me.

I will give your suggestion a try. Many thanks.

Annie

Annie