Spam Assassin Items Not Displayed?

[rodhudson]

Hi. My ISP is INMOTIONWEBHOSTING, and I've set up their SPAM ASSASSIN to help get over this ever increasing issue.

The items it picks up according to my 'score' setting are then displayed [to avoid accidents] in a SPAM Folder, and marked as 'SPAM ASSASSIN' in the HORDE Webmail.
How can I set that up to happen in T-Bird, as they don't seem to arrive there anywhere !

I don't really want to log into the Webmail every time just to check the SPAM !

[DanRaisch]

How is the account set up in Thunderbird, as POP or IMAP? Find out using menu path Tools->Account Settings->Server Settings->Server Type at the top right of the dialogue.

[rodhudson]

It's set up using POP3

[DanRaisch]

How can I set that up to happen in T-Bird, as they don't seem to arrive there anywhere !

You would have to switch from POP to IMAP. A POP account can only access the server inbox folder.

[rodhudson]

OK. Thanks. I don't want to use IMAP. I did a few years ago, but prefer to keep everything on my own PC's.
[I have stuff dating back to the 1990's !!]

So is their SPAM ASSASSIN picking stuff up BEFORE their servers ?
From what you've said, I suppose it must be.

[DanRaisch]

No, it picks up stuff at/on their servers. Why would you think before?

[rodhudson]

Only because you said...." A POP account can only access the server inbox folder "
So I assumed those 'spams' never even got there.

But if they do, why can't they be picked up by POP ?

[DanRaisch]

That would be because the messages on the server wind up in a folder other than the inbox. It might be called Spam or Bulk, or something similar, which the POP protocol does not make accessible to an email client like Thunderbird.

[rodhudson]

But with IMAP [ and Webmail ] it's OK.

So do those systems access ALL the Inbox folders more directly ?

[DanRaisch]

Yes. With web mail you are accessing the server "directly" and IMAP provides for access to all server folders.

[rodhudson]

OK. Thanks for explaining that.

I do understand that is the 'way it is'.......but not really the reasons for POP to be different from the other ones.

[DanRaisch]

POP is the older protocol and originated when connection speeds were low, making it less resource intensive to download all messages from the server inbox at one time and to not deal with any other folders on the server. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Office_Protocol

[rodhudson]

Sure. I do understand.

But you think they might have updated it by now.

Things progress. But they seem not to have done so.

[tanstaafl]

"I don't want to use IMAP. I did a few years ago, but prefer to keep everything on my own PC's. "

You can configure message filters to run automatically on more folders than just the inbox. They could each move the message to a folder in "Local Folders". The inbox, spam and sent folders would probably be the most useful to do this for. You would have to figure out some way to detect what folder the message is in, to be able to specify the desired target in the message filter action. There is built-in support for a sent filter already in Thunderbird which you could use instead to save a copy in Local Folders\Sent. For spam, perhaps you could test the custom header that SpamAssassin typically adds that specifies the spam score. For example, with my Fastmail account SpamAssassin adds a X-Spam-score: header. I'm configured to treat any messages with a spam score over 3 as spam. I don't know what spam detection engine Yahoo uses but messages in the bulk mail folder get a X-YahooFilteredBulk: header that contains a IP address. So you probably could test whether that header contains a period.

Why go to all this trouble? Because one file stores all of your message filters for the account. So you need to determine when you're not using the inbox, if you want to copy/move messages to the corresponding folder in Local Folders.

https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/th ... ubfolders/ is obsolete but mentions "It turns out that there's already functionality to do filtering on subfolders in Thunderbird, it's just not well documented. It can be enabled by setting the preference "mail.server.default.applyIncomingFilters" to true, or can be applied per folder by setting the "applyIncomingFilters" property to a folder. FilterQuilla (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunde ... ltaquilla/) is reported to be able to set that property, although I haven't tested it."

[rodhudson]

OK. Thanks. Very interesting. I will look into some of those options. I do already have quite a complex set up, as I have 4 domains sharing my T-Bird, and each one has several folders. The main 2 have about 8 each, which do automatically get routed to the right ones. The ones for SENT messages I re-move manually, but not a problem.
I am with INMOTIONWEBHOSTING, and it's THEIR Spam Assassin I am using. I have my 'score' set to 4 at the moment, which seems OK.
I have been going onto their WEBMAIL just to check that nothing has 'slipped through' - but it seems to be working quite well at the moment.
I would like them to send the SPAM CATCHES to T-Bird, but as you explained, that doesn't happen.

Might I be better to NOT use their Spam Assassin, but use the T-Bird one ? The main advantage being that I could see what it's 'caught' without having to log into their Webmail to do so.

But I will examine your very detailed notes and suggestions.
Many thanks for all those !