Spam Assassin is a product created by Apache, the same company that created the most popular web server. Spam Assassin is a free, open source product. Similar to the web server, it is a command line managed product with various configuration files. At this level, it meant for advanced users. You can find the documentation on the Apache Spam Assassin web site.
The product has been adopted by many hosting companies. In an effort to provide ease of use for novice users, hosting companies have created a graphic interface for the most common controls. However, there is generally a lack of good notes for use of this interface.
The following example is taken from Blue Host:
On the first page:
These are the simplist settings for an average eMail user. Here, SpamAssassin can be turned on or off.
There is a score entry, with the default set at 5, which is average. The lower the number, the more aggressive filtering.
On the configurations page:
This area is for more advanced users, who need to tailor the spam filter for specific needs.
Required_Score – Decimal number starting at 1
This is the score threshold that triggers spam identification. 1 is a very high level of spam protection, 5 is average and 8 – 10 permissive.
Rewrite_header – This inserts preceding text in the subject, if the email is flagged as spam. Typically, most people use “***Spam***” or similar
Score – initially, 6 slots are available for score. For each spam parameter, the use can change the default score. See a list of parameters and scores on the Futurequest web site.
For example:
MONEY_FORM detects if money is beign asked for. The default is 1.258.
However suppose you are in the finance business and this is a typical item found in your eMails. You could reduce the score, or set to “0” (zero) to eliminate this parameter.
Blacklist_from – shows at 5 at a time, sender eMail address maybe entered here for blocking as such:
Full eMail: person@company.com
Domain: *@company.com
Whitelist_from – opposite of blacklist_from, these would be addresses or domains to allow.