Using Mail's junk filter for entire domain -> possible?

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hi.



Do you know if would be possible to use mail's junk filter to ......filter incoming mails before passing them to a mail server?



Basically we have our own mail server in house, but need some sort of spam filter.



Any ideas?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    go into mail>prefs>rules, then explore and create.
  • Reply 2 of 15
    Sorry, probably i'm not being specific enough.



    Imagine a server with 250 mailboxes which is receiving mails, now how do i stream all these messages through mail's junk filter?



    (either before they hit mail serv., or after, then scan, then shoot them back..)



    So far my idea is as follows:



    1. Set up a routing on that server, so every incoming message will be relayed to ONE mailbox (instead of being delivered to a recipient).

    2. Have mail app check that box, retrieve messages, scan and relay back to mail server for delivery.

    3. set-up some sort of a flag on mail server so messages relayed are not being dumped into that mailbox again (that would be a nice loop), but instead are released for delivery.



    Does that make sense?
  • Reply 3 of 15
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    It does... but not really.



    What mail server are you using? Most have filtering capabilities built in, or at worst, there are plenty of free mail filtering solutions out there for Unixy systems.
  • Reply 4 of 15
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    It does... but not really.



    What mail server are you using? Most have filtering capabilities built in, or at worst, there are plenty of free mail filtering solutions out there for Unixy systems.




    Domino, it runs on OS/400. (IBM's iSeries Servers)



    It has 'some' functionality, but nothing dynamic, you can block domains, or specific addressees, or deny any e-mails not addressed to your domain(s).



    There are couple of products available, some of them require change in your MX record, so outside company will do filtering for you, which is unacceptable, others require dedicated box in order to do that, or there's ONE product which costs close to $100/seat.



    We'll be getting XServe for file server soon, so it would make sense if i can do junk filtering on it as well.
  • Reply 5 of 15
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    I don't think you can use mail.app to filter junk on the server. Mail.app is for client filtering. I don't know what to use for server-side stuff, but mail.app isn't it. If you do turn something up, please post it here so we can all benefit.
  • Reply 6 of 15
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Getting an Xserve?



    postfix is included. It would be easiest if you were to change the MX records to point to the Xserve, let it filter, then forward on to the Domino server for user access.



    But... you could also perform a fetchmail from the Domino to postfix (with deleting the mail), let it eat the baddies, then push it back to the Domino.



    Or, heck, have the Domino forward the mail to the Xserve, let it processed, then routed back to the Domino for user consumption.



    Lots of ways.
  • Reply 7 of 15
    Kickaha,



    Quote:

    postfix is included. It would be easiest if you were to change the MX records to point to the Xserve, let it filter, then forward on to the Domino server for user access.



    That's not a problem, i can change it internaly, so no MX change would be needed, but then HOW would you integrate it with mail?



    I will try to find more info about postfix, and post any further questions.



    THANKS EVERYONE!
  • Reply 8 of 15
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Er, you wouldn't. You'd use postfix's hooks for spam filtering and set up a server-specific solution.



    Mail.app never enters into the equation, and it shouldn't. It's a client-side solution, never intended to handle server-size loads.
  • Reply 9 of 15
    if you can get all the emials in one mailbox, you can use the rules to send them out to the different respective mailboxes.
  • Reply 10 of 15
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kickaha

    Er, you wouldn't. You'd use postfix's hooks for spam filtering and set up a server-specific solution.



    Mail.app never enters into the equation, and it shouldn't. It's a client-side solution, never intended to handle server-size loads.




    Thanks, i will do some reading tonight.



    I was under the impression that junk mail filter is totally integrated into mail.app and not stand alone 'module' which can be used in a way such as this.
  • Reply 11 of 15
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Right.



    There are many junk mail filtering systems out there that are free, run on MacOS X, and interact with postfix.



    What they *are* I couldn't tell you offhand, I haven't researched such beasts yet, but I do know they exist.



    Mail.app has *nothing to do with this solution in any way, shape or form*.
  • Reply 12 of 15
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ipodandimac

    if you can get all the emials in one mailbox, you can use the rules to send them out to the different respective mailboxes.



    That works for a single user, but he wants to have something that works for many users behind the scenes - they'll never see the spam in their mail client at all.
  • Reply 14 of 15
    Thank You for all your help.



    I found a nice page on apple's site which provides access to documentation on running various services on OS X Server.



    here it is





    Thanks stupider...likeafox for that link, really helpful.



    Kickaha, big help as always, thanks!



    Few more questions, maybe you know the answers:



    In Postfix there's an option of setting up relay host for SMTP messages.



    Right from the manual: Click "Relay all SMTP mail through this host" and enter the DNS name or IP address of the server that provides SMTP relay.



    Now as i understand it, it will relay outgoing messages only, but not incoming ones. Is that correct?



    How do i make it relay INCOMING mail?



    Edit: And you know what, the more i read about OS X Server, the more i like it, i downloaded manuals for sharing files and printing services, and the way it's all configured ... mmmm mmmm mmm, makes perfect sense, easy to use and so straightforward.
  • Reply 15 of 15
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Just ran across this...



    http://www.macosxhints.com/comment.p...0&type=article



    Maybe it'll help.



    And yeah, OS X Server is a *NICE* Unix server to configure... simple, straightforward, and if it turns out that there's something under the hood that the GUI doesn't do for you, you will find that Apple has provided a nice partitioning of GUI-controlled and non-GUI-controlled setups. This is unusual. I can't tell you how many times I've used a server GUI setup app and had it stomp on some other custom bit of setup, or worse, have to perform the custom setup by hand, and have the GUI app just plain not run... with no explanation.
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