Hello,

Am I right in saying that if I've got a domain name hosted with 123-Reg and I point the MX records and all that stuff to the cpanel, I have no spam protection whatsoever?  This seems odd because in all my previous hosts I've been able to set up a spam filter.  Can anyone explain the process to me because I'm currently getting about 6 'enlarge your penis' emails a day.  (It's the two from my mum that really hurt.... lol....  Jimmy Carr joke!)

I'd like to think I can put on a spam filter on my xxxx@mydomain.com emails which are being handled by my cpanel!

 

Hello,

OK! in response to your questions. I have a domain which I purchased through A-Q domains and my site is hosted by Zen on the cPanel server and I can confirm that any email (pop3) being sent to your domain wont get any spam filtering. You can of course turn off the "catch all" mail status, which helps to some degree.

I personally think this is one area (spam filtering) that Zen offers little or no help. So like you I got pretty fed up of the volumes of spam I was receiving as I was getting 30-40 spam an hour 24/7. I looked for a more permanent solution I looked at x3 main services a) SpamCop b) Spam Arrest and c) SpamFence.

**I chose Spamfence because its free and it's pretty good too. My spam volumes have gone down drastically to 3-4 spam per 24hrs which is more acceptable. SEE:- http://www.spamfence.com Spamfence works by examining each emails header & the eXpurgate analysis filters on the spamfence servers have a very high accuracy rate of detection between clean mail & spam. Spamfence doesn't look at the emails actual contents only the header information. To set up this service all you need is x2 different email address (address1 your current domain based email account & address2 you should use your Zen normal mail address which would be something like zen11111@zen.co.uk) any email service being pointed to your cpanel server needs to be pointed at the Spamfence server first.

Works like this incoming mail from WWW>>>>>>>>>any mail to your domain email>>>>>>>>>spamfence (mail in) >>>> Filtered by eXpurgate) >>>>>>>>>>>(mail out) >>clean mail goes to Zen mail address. 

**Spam & Junk & Viruses etc are voided you dont get them.

**You need to create a free account with spamfence & it takes about 24hrs before it kicks in & starts working.

Hope this might be of use?

Regards Ivan 

Here's another option - loop your e-mails via Googlemail.

Gmail is very good at catching spam, so you could use this to your advantage, as follows:

1. Set up a new cpanel e-mail account, eg called  SpamFree@yourstruly.myzen.co.uk

2. Create a Gmail account, eg anything@gmail.com

3. Set up a redirect from your original mailbox in cpanel to go to anything@gmail.com

4. Set up Gmail so that incoming mail sent to anything@gmail.com is redirected back to your SpamFree@yourstruly.myzen.co.uk

 Gmail will stop the spam, and in addition it will provide a useful backup of any incoming e-mails

 

Thanks for taking time out to post guys.  Both are good suggestions!

 Am a bit disappointed that Zen don't provide this.  Shame cos they seem to excel in all other areas - I find the whole package really great.

 

Come on Zen - get us some spam filtering!  :)

Agree!! its the ONLY area I have any criticism of Zen. i.e. the lack of free anti spam solutions for home customer email services.

Ivan

The other thing that I really like about Spamfence is that once the service is up and running. The service can easily be configured to send you weekly or monthly reports to your mailbox on how well the service is performing for you. I get weekly filtering reports which show me with great satisfaction just how much spam is being voided.

**Spamfence also has a free anti virus feature that you can enable on your account. Spamfence will just strip out any virus ridden attachments which are detected. So this gives you a high degree of protection from wider virus pandemic internet attacks. i.e when millions of people are sent the same virus infected files. 

**Spamfence has an even more powerful level of control you can enable if you want it , you can just ask the service to void any spam or junk & viruses without even being informed. Of course it does mean a much higher level of protection but the risk of legitimate emails being deleted without you knowing does go up of course. But this proves how flexible it is I guess it does give you a number of options to play with if required.

Ivan

Hang on a mo'

If I remember right, it is possible to set up filters on cPanel to catch spam.

e-mail headers contain some fields related to spam

X-Zen-Test-Spam-Score:
X-Zen-Test-Spam-Bar:

These are populated with values and you can set up filters to delete/redirect etc, based on these values.

Have a look at this thread http://forum.zensupport.co.uk/thread/23135.aspx

Agree with you BUT its not quite what I would call user friendly though is it??

Ivan

And it won't work with a 3rd party domain name with the MX record pointed direct to the cPanel server, as the e-mail never passes through our main mail cluster, where the headers are added.

---

Kindest regards,

James Sweet
http://www.zen.co.uk

If I were only using a mail client I'd just install a spam filter.  However, I'm collecting my mail mostly on the move from my iPhone so the antispam solution needs to be at source.  Unfortunately I have to point my MX records at the cPanel because hosting email with the registrar seems expensive!

I agree that lack of antispam support is the weak point in the service Zen provide... everything else has been superb.  But as these spam complaints / requests go back as far as they do, I'm guessing Zen isn't big on picking up customer suggestions either?

I may very well go and cry in a corner now.   

Not really though.