Once you have enabled Apache SpamAssassin as per our instructions, you can now configure it further to make it more effective.
The most basic configuration you can go with would be as follows:
Turn on Automatically Delete New Spam (Auto-Delete) (again, blue toggle switch for the ON position).
The default score for the auto delete is 5.0, this means that any email marked as spam (with a Spam Threshold Score of 5.0) will be deleted (and completely non-retrievable).
As such we can recommend keeping the Spam Threshold Score of 5.0 but increasing the Auto-Delete Threshold Score (to 6.0 or above).
Most legitimate emails will have a score of below 5.0 so how this will work is that some spam mail may arrive in the inbox and be marked as "****SPAM****" (this could be actual spam or legitimate mail) and then any emails that would be obviously spam (score 6.0 and above) will be the only mail that is automatically deleted.
To further customise your spam filtering you can add email addresses to an Allow or Block list.
By adding an email address to your Allow list, you ensure that all incoming emails from that address will not be filtered and go straight to your inbox.
By adding an email address to your Block list, you ensure that all incoming emails from that address will be marked as spam.
To add an Allow or Block, click the 'Show Additional Configurations' under the "Additional Configurations (For Advanced Users):" section.
For an Allow click 'Edit Spam Whitelist Settings'
Click '+ Add A New “whitelist_from” Item'
In the whitelist_from textbox that appears enter the email address you would like to Allow, this can be repeated as necessary.
Click 'Update Whitelist (whitelist_from)' to save your settings.
For a Block click 'Edit Spam Blacklist Settings'
Click '+ Add A New “Blacklist_from” Item'
In the blacklist_from textbox that appears enter the email address you would like to Allow, this can be repeated as necessary.
Click 'Update blacklist (blacklist_from)' to save your settings.
Do not add an Allow for your own domain (for example, “info@letshosttutorials.com”) because if you do, spammers who attempt to impersonate your domains may be more effective.
You can add multiple email addresses at the same time, by adding having them all in one line, with the following syntax:
email1@letshosttutorials.com email2.letshosttutorials.com email3.letshost.ie etc.
To Allow or Block all email addresses from a domain (e.g. letshosttutorials.com) this can be added with the following syntax:
*@letshosttutorials.com
The Apache SpamAssassin feature that comes with your account is a basic filter that works most of the time, but you may find some spam email still coming through to your account. In this case, we recommend taking a look at our paid-for spam filtering service. This is an industrial-strength spam filter that LetsHost use for all our own mail.
If you require further information/assistance on this, please submit a ticket and a member of the team will be happy to assist further.