Spam has been a major concern across the users of Internet.Organisations and Enterprises are constantly trying to find different ways to avoid spam. A SPAM filter is a software that helps in avoiding unsolicited mails. Most of the Web Hosting providers offer Spam filters with all the shared web hosting packages. You can even enable the spam filter through the control panel provided by the web host.Usually a third party Spam Filter is not recommended to be installed on the servers of the web host, as genuine E-mails too are filtered out.

An ideal spam blocking software is the one which can ensure that it blocks 100% of the unsolicited emails.But, if you think practically,it is never possible to do so.Spammers are constantly on the look out for newer ways and techniques.Some of the available anti-spam softwares have the capability to take decision about spam messages based on the E-mail address of the sender.They analyze the message content and the subject line. Few of the anti spam programs offer the option of blocking the E-mails. More or less all the anti spam programs are designed to detect and delete spam E-mails before reaching the Inbox.

There are anti spam softwares that enable you to customize the filter.In these type of filters you are capable of customizing the filter according to your personal requirements.

Some filters contain spam blockers which prevents junk emails to enter the inbox.They instead of deleting it directly, quarantine the emails and store them for limited number of days and then delete it permanently.This enable oneself to review the E-mail and then take the necessary action.

Few of the Spam filter programs come with an option of E-mail recovery.Usually they are stored in the Trash bin from where one can recover any email.

There are provisions made in certain spam filters where you can create a Whitelist and Blacklist of contacts and email addresses.You can update the lists at any point of time.

Few of the spam filter programs come with an Automatic mode. In this they are capable of checking inbound mails at fixed intervals and also delete spam without your intervention.

You may contact the Web Hosting service provider to understand more about various ways to avoid spam.

You may also refer the following links for an indepth explanation :

1. Steps To Configure Spam Assassin and Mail Filter From cPanel

2. Configure spam filter from cPanel

3. Tips to prevent spam.

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A Spam Assassin is a software, that analyzes messages in the form of E-mails. It differentiates and determines other E-mails from spams. You are required to set rules inorder to compare the different parts of an E-mail. Every rule adds or removes points from a message’s spam score. This spam score helps to determine the difference between spam and business E-mails. Its an E-mail spam filtering system that is deployed with the account to help block or mark the spam mail.

To get access to the Spam Assassin, you need to first of all login to your cPanel control panel provided by your Web Hosting provider. Here in the Mail section you can find the tab of Spam Assassin. If you click on the tab, you can check if the filter is enabled or disabled. From there you can enable the filter. Inorder to configure the settings you need to hit the Configure Spam Assassin tab.

Below is a pictoral description of Spam Assassin

Steps to Configure Spam Assassin

Here you can find number of boxes to be populated :

The first one here is the blacklist_from here you need to specify the e-mail address/es you wish to be marked as spam.

Then is the required_score tab, here you need to set the number of hits required before a mail is considered spam. “n.nn” can be an integer or a real number. 5.0 is the default setting, and is quite aggressive, it would be suitable for a single-user setup. Below you would find ‘score’, here you need to Assign scores (the number of points for a hit) to a given test. Scores can be positive or negative real numbers or integers. “SYM-BOLIC_TEST_NAME” is the symbolic name used by SpamAssassin for that test; for example, ‘FROM_ENDS_IN_NU’. If only one valid score is listed, then that score is always used for a test. If four valid scores are listed, then the score that is used depends on how SpamAssassin is being used. The first score is used when both Bayes and network tests are disabled. The second score is used when Bayes is disabled, but network tests are enabled. The third score is used when Bayes is enabled and network tests are disabled. The fourth score is used when Bayes is enabled and net-work tests are enabled. Setting a rule’s score to 0 will disable that rule from running. Then comes ‘whitelist_from’ here you need to specify addresses which send mail that is often tagged (incorrectly) as spam; it also helps if they are addresses of big companies with lots of lawyers. This way, if spammers impersonate them, they’ll get into big trouble, so it doesn’t provide a shortcut around SpamAssassin. Whitelist and blacklist addresses are now file-glob-style patterns, so friend@somewhere.com, *@isp.com, or *.domain.net will all work. Specifically, * and ? are allowed, but all other metacharacters are not. Regular expressions are not used for security reasons.

You can Enable or Disable the Spam Assassin whenever you wish to. This simple tool simplifies your task of filtering out spam E-mails reach your mail box. With the ever increasing number of spam E-mails reaching your mailbox, tools such as cPanel Spam Assassin have gained popularity at a fast pace.

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