Spam Filtering in DirectAdmin

Managing Spam with SpamAssassin

SpamAssassin is an open-source spam filtering system available on your DirectAdmin hosting account. It analyzes incoming emails and assigns a spam score based on various criteria. Messages that exceed the score threshold are flagged as spam.

Enabling SpamAssassin

1. Log in to DirectAdmin.
2. Navigate to Email Manager.
3. Click on SpamAssassin Setup (or Spam Filters).
4. Click Enable SpamAssassin if it is not already active.

Configuring Spam Score Threshold

The spam score threshold determines how aggressively spam is filtered:

• 5.0 (default) - A balanced setting that catches most spam while minimizing false positives.
• 3.0 to 4.0 - More aggressive filtering. May occasionally flag legitimate email as spam.
• 7.0 to 10.0 - Lenient filtering. Only the most obvious spam will be caught.

Spam Handling Options

You can configure what happens to messages identified as spam:

• Deliver to Junk/Spam folder - Spam messages are moved to a separate folder for review. This is the safest option.
• Add spam headers - Messages are tagged with spam headers but delivered to your inbox. You can create client-side rules to filter them.
• Delete spam - Spam messages are discarded immediately. Use this only if you are confident in your spam threshold setting.
• Rewrite subject - The subject line is prefixed with [SPAM] or a similar tag for easy identification.

Whitelisting and Blacklisting

You can manually control which senders are always trusted or always blocked:

• Whitelist - Add trusted email addresses or domains to ensure their messages are never flagged as spam. Example: *@trustedcompany.com.
• Blacklist - Block specific email addresses or domains so their messages are always treated as spam. Example: spammer@annoying.com.

Reviewing Spam

Periodically check your Junk/Spam folder in webmail to ensure no legitimate emails have been incorrectly flagged. If you find a false positive, add the sender to your whitelist.