Description of Settings for Spamassassin


General Settings
Use Filtering:   Set this option to "No" (off) if you do not want to use the filtering system. While this option is set to "No", you can't make any General Settings changes (Besides "Yes" to this option). If the filtering is enabled (Yes) and you select "No", any other changes that you are selecting will not take place.
Note:   You can make changes to the other General Settings as long as you are also clicking "Yes" to this option. You can also add/delete people from your White/Black lists as well as Manage Spam Rules. (All this is available while "No" is set) We do not recommend disabling the filtering so usually you do not need to check this item at any time. (Unless you have it turned off "No")

Required Hits:   As rules are found within an email, the values of each rule are added together. This is the threshold that you set for these rules. If this number is reached, then the email is marked as spam. This should not be set below 5.00

Subject Tag:   This is the text that will be written to the subject of any email that has gone above the Required Hits setting. A simple tag is suggested. This helps you notice what email has been flagged as spam.

Defang Mime:   With this feature turned on, any flagged spam email with an attachment will have that attachment turned into a text/plain attachment. This is good if you are concerned about viruses, but if the email was legit, then the attachment is useless.

Use Theme:   If you want to use your Webmail Theme colors, turn this on

Spam Folder:   This is the folder where your flagged spam will get sent to. Be warned if you choose Delete then the email will be lost forever and can't be recovered. The only way to get it back would be to have the user send it again. We suggest that you put it in your Trash folder if you use IMAP, or keep it as INBOX if you use POP3.

Manage Spam Rules
This is a list of customized spam rules that spamassassin runs on incoming email. If you think a rule's value is too low or too high, then you can change it here. There is a small description of each rule listed in the last box. The total value of your rules is listed for your knowledge. It does not include the default values set by spamassassin. You do not need to configure any rules if you feel comfortable with the way spamassassin has things set.
Note:   A good way to get a feel for the rules that you would need to customize would be to check the message details of any email. If you feel that an email has slipped through spamassassins checks, then you might need to setup a custom rule. Here is an example output of the Message Details:

X-Spam-Status: No, hits=4.1 required=5.5
tests=PLING,CALL_FREE,CLICK_BELOW,FREE_MONEY version=2.20

the "tests=" shows the rules PLING,CALL_FREE,CLICK_BELOW,FREE_MONEY have been found. So you would go to the Manage Spam Rules and add a higher value to all or one of these rules. This will result in a higher chance for any future spam that contains these rules to be caught.

Manage White List
The manage white list section allows you to specify "OK" email addresses which could contain any of the rules. If any of these entries are found, they are assigned a default score of -100.00 which is usually more than enought to let the email pass. If you feel that -100.00 is not a good value, set this in the Manage Spam Rules section. (USER_IN_WHITELIST).
Note:   This value should be set to a - (negative) number. The idea of a whitelist is to allow the user on that list. The entries can be in a number of formats (wildcards are ok).

Examples:
help@domain.com (this allows the email address help@domain.com)
joe@* (this would allow joe@ such as domain.com, domain.net, aol.com, ...etc)
help@*.domain.com (this would allow help@dom1.domain.com, help@fdafdsa.domain.com ...etc)
*@domain.com (this will allow any @domain.com such as help@domain.com, support@domain.com)
*@*.domain.com (Similar to above but instead of *@domain.com you could have dom1.domain.com, dom2.domain.com)


Manage Black List
This is similar to the Manage White List section, but instead you are preventing a user from getting mail through. Say you get email from somebody who does not meet any of your spam rules, but you still want it to be filtered. You would add that email (or wildcard, see Examples above) to this list and it would be assigned a +10.00 which is usually good enough for most Required Hits. (USER_IN_BLACKLIST can be set for a higher value)

Other Notes
This software is meant to be used by the webmail system. It carries no warranty and is to be used as-is.We are not responsible for lost email, nor the functionality of this plugin. It has been tested as functional and you must take our word for it. If you ever do run into an error on this system or need some general info on the plugin. Contact your local support team for help.

The Manage Spam Rules descriptions are fairly vague, but we can't answer all questions regarding what they mean. Try things out and see what rules are right for you. The best way to see what is going on with the filter is to look at the Message Details (or View Full Headers) which can be found when you view an email from the webmail system.

If you do not understand IMAP and how it works, we can try to answer your questions as best as we can. If you use IMAP for your mail needs or use the web interface instead of a normal POP3 client, we suggest you set the Spam Folder option to a different folder other than your INBOX. This can increase the speed of the webmail system. POP3 users should leave the Spam Folder optionas INBOX because POP3 is not capable of reading messages outside the INBOX.