Book details of 'Removing the Spam: Email Processing and Filtering (Addison-Wesley Networking Basics Series)'

Title	Removing the Spam: Email Processing and Filtering (Addison-Wesley Networking Basics Series)
Author(s)	Geoff Mulligan
ISBN	0201379570
Language	English
Published	March 1999
Publisher	Addison-Wesley Pub Co

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Removing the Spam: Email Processing and Filtering (Addison-Wesley Networking Basics Series)':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
No one likes unsolicited electronic mail. Even though you can easily delete messages describing ways to MAKE MONEY FAST, they take a toll on network bandwidth and reduce your productivity. The key to gaining the upper hand in the battle against spam is to understand the tools at your disposal. In Removing the Spam, Geoff Mulligan names those tools and then describes how to use several of them. Mulligan begins explaining the operation and management of two widely distributed Unix e-mail tools: Sendmail and Procmail. In his section on Sendmail, the author answers the question asked by everyone who's ever been harassed on e-mail: How do I automatically trash mail from X? He shows you how to block mail based on mail attributes like sender, subject line, message size and several other parameters. Coverage of Procmail in Removing the Spam includes the essentials of recipe files, but more ready-to-use mail-management recipes would be welcome. In addition to covering Sendmail and Procmail, the author addresses mailing lists under Majordomo and SmartList. He also provides a handy guide to the user and administrator commands that control these popular programs--just the thing you need the next time you're on a list and want to unsubscribe. If you're generally unfamiliar with Unix and use a Unix-based Internet Service Provider (ISP), you will find this book to be an adequate orientation to how Unix machines manage e-mail. If you're more familiar with Unix mail programs, you'll find this book to be too elementary and lacking in details. It's a matter of your perspective.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
This book is intended for the system manager, rather than the end user. More specifically, it is aimed at the mail administrator for an ISP (Internet Service Provider) or corporate network. Slightly unfortunate is the fact that it becomes more particular still, being of greatest use to those running UNIX, sendmail, ProcMail, and either Majordomo or SmartList. Regardless of system expression, anti-spam configuration is, as Mulligan points out, important for two reasons. The lesser of the two concerns is the most obvious: that of restricting the amount of spam reaching your own users. The more vital is that by failing to restrict the possible abuse of your system by spammers, and particularly by permitting unrestricted relays, you face the increasing possibility of becoming blacklisted, and therefore hampering the legitimate use of the net by your clients. Chapter one is an excellent overview of electronic mail. It is concise, complete, and accurate. Newcomers to the field will find not only a conceptual foundation for all the aspects of Internet email, but also pointers to other references. Professionals will find fast access to a number of details that need to be addressed on a fairly frequent basis. The main theme, of course, is how spam uses the functions of email systems, and how it can be impeded, with as little impact as possible on normal communications. A good framework is presented in this chapter, with a number of references to spam- fighting resources. If I were to make one suggestion, it would be to increase the number of examples of forged email headers, and how to dissect them. Chapter two describes sendmail, and goes into sufficient detail for interested people to obtain it and start using it. At that point, the text concentrates on barriers to spam, such as restriction of relaying and the access database. Administrators using sendmail will find this a quick guide to basic functions. ProcMail has a variety of functions, and most of chapter three looks at the number of uses it can have. The spam filtering section is relatively brief, but provides some recipes, and directions to other ProcMail based filters. Again, sysadmins can use this as a quick start for basic mail processing. Chapter four doesn't have a lot to say about spam, but it does review the proper setup of mailing lists, which can have a significant impact in reducing unwanted mail. This book should be required reading for all mail administrators. The usefulness is not restricted to spam, since admins will be able to find brief discussions of a variety of common mail problems. As Mulligan notes, the fewer improperly configured mail servers there are out there, the more constricted spam sites will become, until at last they can be eliminated altogether. While the details of managing other mail server programs may not match those given in the book, the functions should be available, and should be turned on. If the functions aren't available, perhaps it's time you got some new software. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1999
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Book description:

Written for network and system administrators, this concise, practical guide offers step-by-step instructions for installing and configuring an effective email system for your organization. The specific book focus is on the growing problem of spam--unwanted electronic junk mail. This book shows how to utilize mail-filtering tools and techniques to keep your system and users as spam-free as possible. Centered around real-world problems and issues, Removing the Spam will save you hours of frustration as you get your email system up and running. You will find in-depth coverage of major email systems and subsystems--sendmail, Procmail, Majordomo, and SmartList--and essential information about the following: How to stop spam at the mail server and user levels The most simple and effective way of generating the sendmail configuration file Maintaining your sendmail configuration Building and managing simple sendmail aliases and filters Virtual domains Filtering and sorting mail with Procmail Procmail recipe files Creating and administrating automated and manual mailing lists with Majordomo and SmartList How to spot and combat mailing list abuse by spammers and list terrorists The book's numerous practical examples (compatible with Solaris and FreeBSD) include controlling the procmailrc file, sorting mail, working with auto-responders, and many others. With this book you will be well equipped to install and run an efficient email system that won't be overrun by spam.