Removing spam mail with CRM114 and KMail

KTools: Spam Filter

Article from Issue 77/2007
Author(s):

The CRM114 filter program, which is integrated with KMail, helps fight spam in POP3 and IMAP mailboxes. Because this flexible filter does not require server-side changes, it is a good choice for users without root access to their mail servers.

As if the flood of normal spam isn’t bad enough, spammers are now aggravating large parts of the literate world with image-based spam and with messages that don’t contain any meaningful content at all. This new spam is a challenge for even the most sophisticated of filters. For example, the database in our lab using the Bogofilter program grew to a size of 100 MB. Receiving mail via KMail on an IBM ThinkPad T23, with a Pentium 3 1.13 GHz CPU and 768 MB RAM, became a time-consuming experience. The KMail interface freezes for the most part, as it does not call the spam filter program as a background task as of this writing [1].

It seems unlikely that the developers will find a solution to this issue before the KDE 4 release, since it would mean rewriting major parts of the program. At the same time, much junk mail remains unfiltered due to image spam and messages with meaningless content. One thing is for sure, I needed a more powerful solution.

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • SpamAssassin

    Even if you do not have a mail server of your own, SpamAssassin can help you filter out unsolicited junk mail. This article describes how SpamAssassin collaborates with Evolution and KMail. Thunderbird, on the other hand, has its own simple spam-detection feature.

  • Email Suites

    We examine the strengths and weaknesses of four popular mail clients: KMail, Evolution, Thunderbird, and Claws Mail.

  • IMAP spam filter

    We’ll show you a custom solution for moving spam to a separate folder and adding new spam signatures to SpamAssassin.

  • Secure Email Intro

    Don’t look now, but your mailbox is full of junk, and a snooper is live on a distant server, reading your opinions of your boss. Remember when email used to be easy? To restore some sanity to your correspondence, you’ll need the right tools.

  • KMail Revisited

    KMail offers a rich feature set, but a number of minor nuisances persist, making it a less than ideal email client.

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News