SpamAssasin, Postfix and RedHat Enterprise Linux 3

Configured Postfix and SpamAssassin under RHEL 3.0 as a DMZ SMTP Proxy. Simple bidirectional relay to keep the Exchange server off the Internet.

Got postfix functioning as the relay. I wanted SpamAssassin to be configured without the requirement for a downloaded ruleset, and without the overheads of AMAVIS or RAZOR.
Found my kind of howto, short and sweet: Postfix and SpamAssassin Howto [Link Updated 21st Dec 2004]

Because we are not using per user spam prefs, we need to tell spamassassin that we do not want per user configs. Modify the /etc/sysconfig/spamassassin file, and change the "-c" flag to "-x". (man spamd for more details)

Once that is done, I created 2 mailboxes on the local system, SPAM and NOTSPAM. Users can resend (not forward, more on this later) spam or ham messages to these mail accounts to train the system. A simple cron job was set up to "learn" about the contents of the appropriate mailboxes:

as-learn --mbox -c /path/to/shared/config --spam /var/spool/mail/spam
as-learn --mbox -c /path/to/shared/config --ham /var/spool/mail/notspam

I then set up the spam whitelist to include the domain in use, and the major business partners in /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf.

Important to mention, there is a big difference between forwarding email to the spam filter, and resending it. SpamaAssasin.org has a great wiki on resending mail with headers.

Enjoy!

Handy random password generator

Found two handy random password generators. Winguides online one, and a Perl one written by Blurred Vision:

Winguides Random Password Generator
Sample Output:
We have successfully created the password(s) you requested, please remember to store a copy in a safe location as they can not be recreated.

Password: 2hiU_0@y
Phonetics: Two - hotel - india - UNIFORM - Underscore - Zero - At - yankee

Thank-you for using the WinGuides.com password generator, please contact us if you have any comments or suggestions.


Blurred Vision's Random Password Generator written in Perl
Sample Output:
===============================================
Random Password Generator
By Aidan Clarke
Comments to blurred.vision<@>bigpond.com
===============================================

Generating 1 password(s) of 10 character(s) length:

A\}\{=`*uN\{\" (ALPHA - Backslash - Close Curly Brace - Backslash - Open Curly Brace - Equals - Backtick - Asterisk - uniform - NOVEMBER - Backslash - Open Curly Brace - Backslash - Double Quote - )

Dell Inspiron 3800, Suse 9.1 and Standby and Suspend

Found a decent post at the Suse Laptop mailinglist which describes how to get the Suspend and Standby features working.

On my Dell Inspiron 3800, it was as simple as changing the following two lines in /etc.powersave.conf from:

POWERSAVED_DISABLE_USER_SUSPEND=YES
POWERSAVED_DISABLE_USER_STANDBY=YES

to read:

POWERSAVED_DISABLE_USER_SUSPEND=no
POWERSAVED_DISABLE_USER_STANDBY=no

Then you can test it by running:

/usr/bin/powersave --suspend
and:
/usr/bin/powersave --standby

Remember: Standby is to memory, suspend is to disk.

Now you can configure the auto suspend on low battery.

Firefox 0.9, Outlook 2000 and the "Locate Link Browser" dialogue

Had an issue where links clicked on in emails were launching in Firefox (as expected) but were also throwing up a "Locate Link Browser" dialogue box, which was asking me to select the program to launch the URL with. I selected Firefox (logical I hear you say....)

Now I had 2 windows opening each time I clicked on a URL in an email.

Solution?

Easy:
From a file browser window click Tools > Options, File Types Tab.
Select the "(NONE) URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol" entry
Select the "open" option and click "Edit"
Clear out the "DDE Application Not Running" field.
Click OK
Click "Set Default"

Problem resolved.