So here you are for your first day of class with your black footsie-pajamas on and plastic Katana in hand. You are wondering how you too can become a renowned SpamAssassin (http://www.xmission.com/help/email/spam/spamassassin.html). Well, maybe you are just bothered by spam? You can read on too.
This article aims to provide some helpful tips on what you can do to: reduce spam, while still keeping your legitimate emails flowing in; help improve your local neighborhood XMission; and perhaps even strengthen your Ninjitsu powers while you're at it.
Using the XMission Filters
The first step is to log into the XMission Filters (http://webmail.xmission.com/filter/index.cgi). This interface provides the ability to simply activate predefined filters or, if you need more control, create your own advanced filter rules. Start out by clicking the [delete my spam] button. This will create a filter to delete any message scoring eight points or higher. Most XMission customers should have this enabled by default already but it can't hurt to be sure. If spam is still getting through, activating some or all of the filters in the 'Pre-defined Filters' option will help to block out additional spam. XMission support suggest activating the 'Delete any mail with a SpamAssassin score of 5 or more' filter last, since most legitimate emails score below five points but it is impossible to say however that they all do. Some people will instead filter anything that scores between 5-8 into a "spam" folder to inspect in case anything legitimate is filtered by mistake.
Please select the [Let XMission use my email to improve their spam filters] button to send a copy of all of your good email (e.g., "ham") to our Bayes filter database to help make it more effective. The Bayes filter database is an automated system that is trained to tell the difference between ham and spam emails. More ham coming into the system for training helps reduce the likelihood that it will falsely classify an email. Please understand that a Systems Administrator does occasionally glance at some random messages to help prevent spam from being improperly submitted. Privacy is, as always, of the utmost importance.
If you want to ensure that legitimate emails from a specific source never have the possibility of being caught by the filtering system, you can do so by creating a white-list rule in the 'Create advanced filter rule' section. The rule should look something like the one pictured below, replacing 'email@domain.com' with the email address you wish to white-list.
NOTE: Filters are applied in the order, from top to bottom, that they are listed in the "List existing filter rules" option. Therefore, put white-lists at the top and your filters after, in whichever order you think most appropriate. More information available on our Email Filters Help pages.(link to filters help page)*
Never Reply To Spam
Clicking on links to remove your email address from spam mailing lists or replying to spam usually does little more than let the spammers know that they are in fact spamming a valid email address. It's best to only reply/click on messages that you can verify are from legitimate companies or newsletters, such as amazon.com or the Linux kernel mailing list.
Forward Messages and Headers
When messages do get through the spam filters don't just delete them, pass them on to us so we can use them to update the spam filtering system. If you are using our webmail system we have a simplified process you can use: just select the message and click the "Report as spam" link for the message to be sent to us and deleted from your mailbox. If you are using a third party email client, such as Mozilla Thunderbird or Outlook Express, please forward the message with full headers to spam@xmission.com. If you are unsure how to forward emails with full headers, please refer to this help page.
Now, new spam ninjas, go forth and help us slay spam.