Things eMail

A Guide to “Things eMail” on the Net...
(servers, clients, SPAM Countermeasures)

eMail graphic

This page was last updated on 24-June-2009

(Other “Things Mac” pages: UNIX | FOSS/OSHW & 3D-Printing | Webmaster | Mac OS X | Developer | Misc )

General eMail info
Mail – Primer on eMail (including storage, transport and distribution); a bit PC centric, but useful anyhow eMail Explained – eMail nuts & bolts (e.g. routing, encoding, MX records, MTA’s, etc.) Understanding eMail – O’Reilly “On Lamp” primer The MIME Information Page – Info about MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
Mac OS X eMail Clients
Thunderbird – Freeware / Open Source GyazMail – Shareware GNUMail – GNUMail.app is an open-source clone of NeXT/Apple’s Mail.app Secure Mail Reading on Mac OS X – How to protect your passwords, and more
Mobile Phone
Sending eMail to Mobile Devices – Useful info Verizon – Send a text message to a Verizon mobile phone
SPAM Countermeasures Bayesian Filtering
A Plan for Spam – Bayesian analysis of the frequency of words used in spam as an adaptive SPAM filter Better Bayesian Filtering – Paul Graham’s update to “A Plan for SPAM” BogoFilter – A Fast Bayesian SPAM Filter; open source SpamProbe – A Fast Bayesian SPAM Filter; open source SpamSieve – A shareware Bayesian Filter for many eMail clients (e.g. Mailsmith, PowerMail, etc.) SpamBayes – A variation on Paul Graham’s approach; open source OpenSource or free “Bayesian” filters – A links page SpamAssassin – Now includes a Bayesian-like filter; open source
Anti-SPAM Resources
SPAM – From Wikipedia Fighting Spam on Mac OS X Server – Apple Developer Article (Panther) sendmail Anti-Spam Configuration Control – Configure sendmail’s built–in anti-SPAM options Protect Your Webserver From Spam Harvesters Fight Spam on the Internet! – Numerous anti-SPAM resources Tips and help for regular users – Numerous anti-SPAM resources Junkbusters Links to Other Resources The Spamhaus Project - SBL – Realtime DB of verified SPAM IP addresses CBL Lookup – DB of verified Spam BOT IP addresses
Anti-Relay Resources
Mail relay testing – Test your mail server for open-relays Anti-Relay: Stop Third-Party Mail Relay – Useful info for those who run their own mail servers
Other SPAM Filters
Vipul’s Razor – A distributed, collaborative, spam detection and filtering network SPAM Bouncer – A procmail based anti-SPAM tool; free, some assembly required (i.e. you have to get procmail going) Mailfilter - The Anti-Spam Utility – Open Source Using Mailfilter on Mac OS X The Spamometer – A Perl 5 filter which may be called via procmail Macintouch Reader Report: SPAM Macintouch Reader Report: Bouncing SPAM – Note: Bouncing SPAM may be futile; filtering is more useful Stopping SPAM with SpamAssassin – Perl based SPAM filter Active SPAM Killer – Offers some of the features of SPAM Bouncer Trebor's Obnoxious Lunchmeat Detector – A lightweight SPAM Bouncer designed for EIMS (Eudora Internet Mail Server) Mailshell – A fee based service SPAM Cop – Another fee based service see also: procmail
Anti-Virus
ClamAV – A GPL antivirus toolkit for Unix (especially mail servers) amavisd-new – High-performance interface between MTA and content checkers: virus scanners, and/or SpamAssassin; best with Postfix
Mail Servers/Gateways
Qpopper – Simple POP3 Server; PAM, TLS/SSL Project Cyrus – Highly scalable mail system designed for use in a small to large enterprise environments using standards based technologies Hula – Calendar and mail server; goal is to be “fun and easy to use, while scaling effortlessly from small groups to large organizations with thousands of members” Beating Spam and Viruses with amavisd-new and Maia Mailguard – A mail filtering tools overview Postfix-Cyrus-Web-cyradm-HOWTO – A mail server solution Fairly-Secure Anti-SPAM Wiki – Create an Anti-SPAM Gateway Using OpenBSD, Postfix, Amavisd-new, SpamAssassin, Razor and DCC ISP-style Email Service with Debian-Sarge and Postfix (2.x) – Tutorial: how to set up a mail server that can handle thousands of domains and user accounts
eMail Hosting
Tuffmail – Personal and Business eMail hosting solutions RegisterFly – Cheap eMail hosting

Postfix
Home Page – A secure MTA (sendmail compatible replacement) Documentation – Postfix Documentation, Howtos and FAQ's Simple Mail forwarding – HowTo do simple mail forwarding Virtual Domain Hosting – HowTo host multiple Internet domains; local or remote delivery Converting Sendmail to Postfix, Part One: Why Convert? Converting Sendmail to Postfix, Part Two: Configuring Postfix
Postfix UCE Filtering
My Understanding Of How UCE Actually Works – Actually, how Postfix filters work Postfix Configuration – UCE Controls – Official doc Filtering spam with Postfix – A HowTo Filtering E-Mail with Postfix and Procmail AFP548.com's Anti-SPAM Measures – Postfix anti-SPAM configuration
Security
Secure Mail Reading on Mac OS X – How to protect your passwords, and more Sanitizing Mail on Panther Server – How to scan eMail messages for dangerous file attachments, malicious JavaScript, pass attachments through an anti-virus program, and more Using encryption and digital signatures in Mail.app
TLS – Transport Layer Security
An introduction to TLS – TLS transparently encrypts email from MTA to MTA Postfix/TLS – TLS extension for Postfix Postfix/TLS - Configuring main.cf and master.cf StartTLS for Opportunistic Email Encryption with Postfix RFC 2487 – SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over TLS OpenCA Labs – Open Source out-of-the-box Certification Authority
SASL – Simple Authentication and Security Layer
Postfix SASL2 & TLS Configuration Guide – A HowTo for OpenBSD 3.2 SASL: Simple Authentication and Security Layer – Overview; resources Postfix with SASL and TLS – Mac OS X compatible instructions Postfix with TLS and SASL – FreeBSD compatible instructions Postfix + SASL2(using pam mech) + TLS HOWTO for FreeBSD
Backscatter/Joe-Job/Outscatter
Postfix Backscatter Howto – HowTo for blocking backscatter mail Spam-links Backscatter – Everything you didn’t want to know! Why you shouldn't jump on the SPF bandwagon – Problems with SPF, and better alternatives SPF is harmful – More problems with SPF
procmail
ProcMail Homepage Procmail Mini-Tutorial: Automated Mail Handling ProcMail Tutorial for Beginners Timo’s procmail tips and recipes ‘procmail’ Mailing List Archive Procmail FAQ Infinite Ink’s Processing Mail with Procmail Procmail Links Procmail Mini-Tutorial: Automated Mail Handling procmail tips – Large file! Part of the procmail documentation project UnixWorld Online: Tutorial Article: No. 017 anti-spam procmail rules – Some useful ideas to borrow, but not a plug-n-play filter Procmail reference and examples More complex filtering Procmail Quick Start – An introduction to mail filtering with a focus on procmail Filtering Spam with Procmail – O’Reilly “On Lamp” article Procmail SPAM Buster – This procmail recipe “eliminates spam completely” - YMMV Calling procmail from qmail
fetchmail
Fetchmail Home Page – UNIX fetchmail utility Fetchmail FAQ – UNIX fetchmail utility eMail Filter – Step-by-step instuctions for activating fetchmail
Mailing List Software (ListServ)
Mailman Overview – GNU mailing list manager Mailman Home Page – GNU mailing list manager Majordomo – The original mailing list manager (Perl) SmartList FAQ – procmail based mailing list manager SmartList Documentation
sendmail
Eliminating sendmail Permissions Errors – Sendmail not working? What’s wrong and how to fix it sendmail – How to enable; eliminating startup hangs DontBlameSendmail and Enhanced File Security – About sendmail security (and how to override) Mail Administration – sendmail configuration and aliases; SMTP server, Mail.app sendmail FAQ – FAQ at sendmail.org Other sendmail related links – from sendmail.org Newsgroup: comp.mail.sendmail

Other pages in the “Things” series are:

Things Mac OS X – for Mac OS X GUI related, data security and encryption, etc.
Things UNIX – for Mac OS X CLI related, UNIX tools, Terminal.app, general UNIX, etc.
Things Webmastering – for Webmasters, Server Admin’s, HTML, CGI, etc.
Things Macintosh (Developer’s Corner) – resources for Macintosh software developers
Things Macintosh (misc) – hardware, shopping, news, vintage (including OS 8-9), etc.

This page was last updated on 24-June-2009