Help test new spam/virus setup on beta server

[rjlov]

Hi All.

This is to let you all know that we are now testing the new spam processing on http://www.fastmail.fm/beta .

So, if you'd like to help us test (and if you'd like easier to configure spam protection) then log in and configure your spam and virus settings from the options screen.

If you use the new spam protection, then the mail delivery mechanism that is used for your email will change. For this reason we DO NOT recommend you participate in the test if reliable delivery is critical in your situation. I'm failry confident in it, and I'm using it, so I'm certainly not aware of any problems, and I'll be working to fix any issues as quickly as possible.

Currently the Bayes database on the test machine is empty, but it will gradually fill up as more spam gets processed by the tests. So the more email it processes, the better it will get.

There is an automated transition to the new system, which you should see the first time you access the Spam/Virus Protection screen on the beta server. The upgrade mechanism attempts to understand whatever spam processing you currently have in place. There are lots of warnings about existing rules, but it's still "caveat emptor".

New features:
* Address book whitelisting or scoring. You can set configure it so that email from addresses in your address book is never rejected. Or, you can weight email from those addresses so that it receives a lower spam score. This is done per-user.
* Subject rewriting. You can add the spam score to the beginning of email subject lines, to make it easy to tell what is spam when browsing your folders. We've tried to set this up so that it will sort correctly as well - if you sort by subject then the email should be ranked in order of spaminess.
* Easy to setup. There's just one setting for you to turn on all the spam processing.

A Custom setting does exist, but 'Normal' mode is what we want 95% of people to use. The aim is that over time we will tune Normal to "just work" as much as possible. Address book whitelisting is a big benefit here, because if you're having problems with mailing lists or the like, just add them to your address book!

The virus check has changed slightly. When you receive a virus infected email, the sender is no longer notified. We removed this because most of the time a virus will forge the "From" address, so notifying them won't do much good. We still notify you when email is rejected because it contains a virus, in fact we are contractually obliged to do this. There is no option to "clean" email of a virus, because nearly all the time the virus creates a new bogus message (as opposed to piggybacking on a valid message) so once you remove the virus there's nothing useful left..

At the moment your Junk Mail folder is just a normal folder. It will eventually sort after Drafts and have an [ Empty ] link like Trash, but that doesn't work right now.

If you have problems please send me email at: support AT rjlov DOT fastmail DOT fm and I'll fix things as soon as I can!

Have fun,

Richard.

[vidvandre]

I must admit that I like the sieve script I currently have setup at my account. Furthermore I've twaked the spam setup a bit, and I'm nearly satisfied with how it works.

So initial questions about the beta setup is;
- Will my origianl sieve script survive the beta test?
- Will I be able to revert back to the old setup if I'm not satisfied with how the new spam/av system works?

[aha]

Originally posted by rjlov
Currently the Bayes database on the test machine is empty, but it will gradually fill up as more spam gets processed by the tests. So the more email it processes, the better it will get.

Who will be training the Bayes database? Who will be correcting the false positives?

[Jeremy Howard]

Hey Richard, looking good! I've put my faith in you and moved one of my accounts over...

I tested out the subject rewriting and it worked perfectly:

Subject: {SPAM 10.4} MAKE MONEY FAST!!!

I also tested the address book whitelisting, and it correctly whitelisted an address in my address book.

My rules were correctly migrated to the new system.

I've also turned on the POP/Hotmail checker on the beta server, which I tested by doing a manual retrieve. That worked very nicely too.

So, good job!

[Jeremy Howard]

Originally posted by aha
Who will be training the Bayes database? Who will be correcting the false positives?

It's just auto-learning at the moment. We haven't yet set up a proper training system. Still, empirical tests so far have shown great results even with this system...

[petergh]

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong here, but I tried retrieving a load of spam from a Hotmail account with settings set to "Normal". The subject rewriting worked like a charm, but even though some messages received scores of 16 or higher, none were filed into my Junk folder?

[aha]

Originally posted by petergh
I don't know if I'm doing something wrong here, but I tried retrieving a load of spam from a Hotmail account with settings set to "Normal". The subject rewriting worked like a charm, but even though some messages received scores of 16 or higher, none were filed into my Junk folder?

Same here. No messages were filed to "Junk Mail" folder even though they should have been.

[aha]

Originally posted by aha
Same here. No messages were filed to "Junk Mail" folder even though they should have been.

Hmm .. Maybe its because the default rules for filing into "Junk Mail", and subject re-writing are same, viz. spam score > 5.0

[JeffK]

The new spam protection beta didn't work for me for a while but when I turned the old protection off in the Account Preferences screen it is working now. I just got a support reply from Richard and he fixed it. Thank you Richard.

Jeff

edit: so that the post would not be misunderstood in the context of the thread.

[rjlov]

vidvandre:
If you are using "Advanced Rules Only" then your existing sieve script won't be touched, but you will get only limited benefit from the new spam settings.

I've had a suggestion to output a suggested sieve script for "Advanced Rules Only" user, that people can then cut and paste and tweak by hand. (Thanks Onno!) This seems like a good idea to me.

There's no easy way to rollback from this test. If things go pearshaped, we can roll back an individual user by hand. If you would like to try the new system I would recommend backing up your sieve script (cut and paste into a text file on your local machine). Then if things go wrong you can always put it back. (Setting a mark threshold equal to your old Spam Protection level should produce compatible behaviour in this case.)

petergh, aha:
When you clicked save/done did the status message tell you "Not generating sieve rules for advanced user"? If you have customised your sieve scripts by hand then it does not overwrite them, so you really only get subject marking out of the new system. If you don't fall into this category then it sure sounds like a bug.

In any case, it would be helpful if you could send me a copy of your current sieve script. You can find it by going to the production server (not the beta test), in Options -> Define Rules -> View filter source (down the bottom).

Thanks !

Richard.
support AT rjlov DOT fastmail DOT fm

[DrStrabismus]

I guess that once one goes past that first warning screen ones mail is indefinately diverted through a parallel mail delivery system.

I wouldn't mind playing with it late at night, provided I could paste back my current sieve script and have things work normally - including my virtual domain and pop-links.

Is that the case?

[aha]

Originally posted by rjlov

petergh, aha:
When you clicked save/done did the status message tell you "Not generating sieve rules for advanced user"?

It did say that for me. So if I turn off Advanced Sieve Rules, I can get this new Spam Protection to work as advertised?

[Jeremy Howard]

Originally posted by DrStrabismus
I guess that once one goes past that first warning screen ones mail is indefinately diverted through a parallel mail delivery system.

I wouldn't mind playing with it late at night, provided I could paste back my current sieve script and have things work normally - including my virtual domain and pop-links.

Is that the case?

Once you're on the parallel delivery system, you can't turn it off. You can go back to your old Sieve script, but if the beta delivery system is buggy, that won't help.

You'd be better off using a guest account set up just for testing, or an account you've got for mailing lists.

[jpbug]

It seems that the 'whitelist' feature has a behaviour that does not fit with my current setup: I have a university UNIX account where I have a .forward file that forwards my email to my fastmail account. The emails that I receive through this account are treated as if my university email address is the original sender, and therefore get a whitelist bonus... and spams are not filtered.

Any idea how to solve that issue?

[Jacobl]

Originally posted by jpbug
It seems that the 'whitelist' feature has a behaviour that does not fit with my current setup: I have a university UNIX account where I have a .forward file that forwards my email to my fastmail account. The emails that I receive through this account are treated as if my university email address is the original sender, and therefore get a whitelist bonus... and spams are not filtered.

Any idea how to solve that issue?

I would think if instead of forwarding the emails you could redirect the emails this would work. Since redirecting keeps the from and to fields intact.