Anti-spam Not Working On Yahoo & Gmail Addresses

mardisp

We are currently using a registered, trial version of BD Internet Security 2010. The trial period has not expired.

In general, the anti-spam component is working to detect spam based on individual e-mail addresses that we have added to the Spammers list, but not for two test accounts that we have that at gmail and Yahoo. Even though we have added these addresses to the Spammers list, the messages are still getting through, and they are not getting labeled with the [spam] prefix in the subject line.

The environment is Win XP Pro SP3. It is a stand-alone PC that is not part of a workgroup or a domain.

Other relevant variables are somewhat unique:

Due to the nature of our business, we are using the portable version of Mozilla Thunderbird. The entire application resides on a flash drive, which is used in multiple computers. It is version 2.0.0.23.

The e-mail account we are using within Thunderbird is a POP3 account on our own domain, hosted by GoDaddy.

BitDefender is properly installed on the PC. It was installed in the default folder on the C drive, in Program Files.

We are not using any other AV, anti-spam, or security application. We are not using spam/junk e-mail controls within Thunderbird. There are no spam controls enabled on the server side of our e-mail account.

Because Thunderbird is not installed as a resident application on the PC, I was not at all surprised that the Anti-Spam Toolbar does not appear within Thunderbird. I do not expect to be able to use the toolbar. Installation of the toolbar probably involves registry entries and all kinds of other stuff that cannot reside on the flash drive with the portable version of Thunderbird. Likewise, BD did not create a "Spam" folder within the trash folder in Thunderbird. But that's okay. I can live without the toolbar and the automated functions that it supports.

The user guide for BD IS 2010 indicates that those who are using an e-mail client other than Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird need to establish a rule within the e-mail client to filter out messages that are labeled by BD with the [spam] prefix in the subject line. This is what I did, within the portable version of Thunderbird. I created a rule to move any message with [spam] in the subject line to a specific folder that I created for this purpose. Then, I added several addresses to the list of spammers within the BD control panel.

For various test messages, it appears to be working as expected. The anti-spam component of BD is adding [spam] to the subject line, and the rule within Thunderbird is automatically moving the messages to the designated folder.

But it isn't working for a Yahoo address or for a gmail address that we are using for testing purposes. These messages are not getting labeled as spam by BitDefender, so the rule within Thunderbird isn't catching them.

Currently, we have only performed tests using specific addresses; we have not added domain names to the list of spammers in BD. For obvious reasons, we do not want to label all messages from yahoo.com or gmail.com as spam.

Any idea why The anti-spam engine in BD IS 2010 isn't catching these messages?

Thanks,

BMK

Unknown

Hello,

What ports do you use in Thunderbird for the POP3 account of your domain ?

GMail is using certain ports to set the email account:

POP3 - port 995

SMTP - port 465

BitDefender is only filtering:

POP3 - port 110

SMTP - port 25

Kind regards,

mardisp

Hello,

What ports do you use in Thunderbird for the POP3 account of your domain ?

GMail is using certain ports to set the email account:

POP3 - port 995

SMTP - port 465

BitDefender is only filtering:

POP3 - port 110

SMTP - port 25

Kind regards,

You raise some interesting questions, and I appreciate your input. But I'm not sure I understand where you're going with this.

To answer your question, our e-mail account, which is hosted on our own domain at GoDaddy, is in fact a standard POP3 account, and it uses ports 110 and 25. If there is a lot of network congestion, we occasionally switch over to 3535 for the incoming port.

But even if we were always using different ports, I don't understand how this would impact INCOMING mail.

The reality is that the BD anti-spam engine is not functioning as expected. It is identifying some incoming messages as spam, but it is failing to identify others. It is not recognizing as spam those messages that are coming from a Yahoo or Gmail account that we have specifically entered into the "spammers" list.

In fact, when we read the detailed headers for these messages, it appears that BD is in fact flagging them as spam, but they are not getting filtered. It's almost as if the program recognizes that they are spam, but is unable to add the "spam" tag to the subject line. But this problem only occurs for some messages. Right now, our testing shows that the messages that are getting through are those coming from Yahoo and Gmail accounts.

Thunderbird is configured to use Port 110 for incoming mail. Are you saying that Gmail may be coming into Thunderbird on a different port? Maybe that's the case. That's a little over my head.

But if that actually explains it... well, then I'm still a little confused. If BD can't filter spam coming from specific Gmail addresses that are manually entered into the Spammers list, then it seems like a pretty weak anti-spam program.

Thanks for any further insight.

BMK