Re: [gentoo-user] Handling a sizable amount of spam and Dovecote question

[Dale]

Marco Rebhan wrote:
> On Thursday, 20 January 2022 14:22:02 CET Dale wrote:
>> What do others do with spam to minimize it?
> Hi Dale,
>
> I'm not sure if you're talking about self-hosted mail because you
> mention dovecot, if you do:
>
> I use postfix's smtp_recipient_restrictions to block mail coming from
> servers marked as spam by RBLs:
>
>     smtpd_recipient_restrictions =
>             reject_rbl_client zen.spamhaus.org,
>             reject_rbl_client bl.spamcop.net
>
> I'm not sure if this is doable through Dovecot configuration, but
> without an MTA like Postfix you can't receive mail anyway. This alone
> seems to block most of the spam I get. And additionally I have rspamd
> and some filters set up because some stuff does get through. I think
> Postfix also lets you block IP ranges directly in case you get spammed
> by some network that isn't listed on spamhaus but I haven't needed that
> yet.

Once I get Dovecote set up, that could be a option.  Sounds like a good
one at that.  ;-)


>> I'm considering setting
>> up another email address and switching then closing current account.
>> Yea, it's that annoying.  Is there someone I can report them too?  Is
>> there something I'm not recognizing in the message headers that I can
>> use to report them too?
> In case you're using some other email provider (is this about your Gmail
> address?), what you can do regardless is set up filters (ideally server-
> side if they provide the capability...) filtering mails by e.g. From
> header (I have a whole list of those), and if they have a well
> configured spam filter you should be able to move the spam mail into
> your spam folder and it should eventually start to classify similar mail
> as spam automatically. (but this is specific to the service so I can't
> tell you a way that works everywhere)

If I understand you correctly, I have filters set up for different
messages.  Gentoo-user for example gets sent to a Gentoo-user folder.  I
have similar set up for most anything that I get on a regular basis;
ebay, Amazon, bank, family, friends, gentoo lists or forums and lots of
others.  Seamonkey comes with a spam filter and most go to trash as I
have it set to do.  Thing is, I'd rather not get them because who knows
what mischief they can do or what can be attached.  I have Seamonkey set
to not load anything, except for highly trusted sites, but still, I
don't like them sending me their junk.  In all honestly, it doesn't do
them any good because of my own policy.  I never click on ads, not since
2003.  While I use adblock to block most stuff, even if a ad gets
through, I never click on them.  As a matter of fact, there are some
that have paid for some really annoying ads on sites that I've blocked
because of their ads.  I don't do business with them.  Why reward bad
behavior??



>> By the way, I have dovecote set up and the service seems to start.
>> What do I do after getting the service to start to set up where to
>> get email etc?
> If you aren't self-hosting your mail but want to (be warned, it's a fair
> bit of setup connecting it all together), you first need a domain, a
> server with a static IP address (don't use some box in your home) that
> has the correct rDNS record set in addition to DNS, so the hostname can
> be resolved from its public IP. To actually be able to receive mail, you
> also need an MTA. Dovecot is just a way to access a mailbox, it doesn't
> actually handle receiving mail from other servers or sending mail.
> Postfix is what I use for that, they work well together. I followed
> these wiki articles among some others I can't find right now to set it
> up initially:
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Mail_server
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Postfix
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dovecot
>
> I hope this helps!
>
> -Marco


Well, for the moment, I want to use it for gmail that I'm posting with. 
My reason for this, Seamonkey is in a iffy state.  I've already started
using Firefox and containers for most other things but use Seamonkey
mostly for emails.  My hope, set up something local so that I don't lose
any older emails and then be able to access those emails with whatever
web browser or other tool I want, like Firefox.  Of course, I'd want to
be able to send email as well.  Maybe this is a bigger task than I think
it is.  Either way, I have Dovecote installed, think it is working but
no idea what to do with it. 

Thanks.

Dale

:-)  :-)