Thunderbird 38.5 junk mail and ISP spam

[BretMan]

Hello,

I read the description on TB junk mail controls but didn't see a clear answer to my question.

My ISP and email service is by AT&T and it's POP. It seems that I may get spam from the same source a few times, which I've designated as Junk in TB and then it finally seems to stop. My question is, when I designate an email address as Junk in TB, does TB communicate to the ISP so the ISP will automatically designate the same email address as spam on its end, thereby filtering it out at the ISP from the start the next time such spam is sent to me?

Thanks

[DanRaisch]

does TB communicate to the ISP so the ISP will automatically designate the same email address as spam on its end, thereby filtering it out at the ISP from the start the next time such spam is sent to me?

No, it does not. You would have to see if there are junk mail controls available to you on the server side to accomplish that.

[BretMan]

Thanks for the reply. From what I can see, the ISP Webmail only has the option of designating an email address as spam by having to login to it and manually moving it from the inbox to the spam folder. It also has the option the add the spam email to a block list but that block list is limited to only a few hundred addresses.

The ability for TB to do what I described would be a great add-on/plugin for everyone. Going to the ISP is a hassle and kind of negates the convenience of a local email client. Even if TB filters the spam to the junk folder, I still check it to be sure it's not a false positive, since sometimes that does happen. So not having to do that because the ISP already filtered it out would be another time saver.

Thanks very much for the clarification.

[makaiguy]

The method to place a given email address on the ISP's block list will vary with each ISP. It is not something that could be easily added to a mail client like TBird.

[DanRaisch]

The method to place a given email address on the ISP's block list will vary with each ISP. It is not something that could be easily added to a mail client like TBird.

And then there is the fact that, particularly with a POP type account, there is very limited interaction between the email client and servers. Thunderbird can only see the server inbox with a POP account so there would be no way for TB to cause a message to be moved to a SPAM folder on the server side.

You might want to consider using something like SpamAssassin. See this article for more information -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Junk_Mail_Con ... nd_SpamPal

[BretMan]

I just stumbled upon in my TB settings that the POP3 is for my inbound and SMTP is for outbound. I thought they were one or the other for both. Sure enough, I checked my settings and the outbound is SMPT. Does this now change the former conclusion about my Junk selections to be communicated and learned by the ISP server?

[DanRaisch]

No, it does not. As I said above,

...particularly with a POP type account, there is very limited interaction between the email client and servers. Thunderbird can only see the server inbox with a POP account so there would be no way for TB to cause a message to be moved to a SPAM folder on the server side.

SMTP servers are only involved in sending outgoing messages and have nothing to do with your definition of SPAM or Junk or the like. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Ma ... r_Protocol

[LIMPET235]

BretMan,
You may want to check the section at the bottom, "Add-ons interfacing to external services"
in the link that Dan posted & try either MWPro or the free version.

(NB: I have no affiliation to either MWP or Firetrust. I just use MWP.)