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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: HarryP on March 16, 2010, 02:23:46 PM

Title: ISP's spam filter
Post by: HarryP on March 16, 2010, 02:23:46 PM
My ISP provides a "wonderfull" spam filter called "Greymail" it seems that any email that it catches, when I forward it from greymail (because I know it's OK) the new avast deletes it. The old avast would "warn" me about but I could still receive it. How do I stop that from happening?   ???
Title: Re: ISP's spam filter
Post by: DavidR on March 16, 2010, 04:39:39 PM
I doubt it is actually deleted but sent to the chest (though for most email programs it can't be inserted into the email database file, effectively deleting it) Check the chest and see if that what was done in the auto actions.

You can change the automated actions from first action move to chest, to Ask that way you should be able to allow it through.

From the avast UI, Real-time Shields, Mail Shield, Expert Settings, Actions and change the automated actions, see image.

Why does it delete it (as you say), what reason is given ?
Title: Re: ISP's spam filter
Post by: HarryP on March 19, 2010, 04:05:39 AM
Multiple Content-Type header - HIGH DANGER!


Sender:  "NRA Publications" <NRA_Publications.UM.A.2.17858@www.nranews.org>
Recipient:  "NRA Publications" <NRA_Publications@www.nranews.org>
Subject:  Wheelguns Still Work

It comes in as a "Heuristic - WARNING" and it's gone, not in the chest either, although I have everything in mail shield set to "move to chest.... do nothing. And this is not the only email, it's anything that gets "caught" in that spam filter when I forward it on.
Title: Re: ISP's spam filter
Post by: DavidR on March 19, 2010, 02:32:49 PM
Then change the settings as I suggested (see previous image) to Ask as the first action, that would allow you to take No Action allowing those emails that you feel are OK to be sent or received.

Have you modified the Mail Heuristic settings or increased Sensitivity from Normal to High, etc. ?
Title: Re: ISP's spam filter
Post by: MikeBCda on March 19, 2010, 07:20:05 PM
One other suggestion -- possibly merely proving I'm not familiar with Greymail (which of course I'm not).

Does your ISP permit you to personalize your individual whitelist/blacklist settings?  I'm just curious what happens if one of those messages is sent right to your inbox rather than being quarantined by Greymail, does avast still warn about it?
Title: Re: ISP's spam filter
Post by: HarryP on March 19, 2010, 11:25:04 PM
I have done all the settings as you said. When your in greymail you have several options, Most of what I use are delete, forward, and forward and allow, which puts that address in the "whitelist". Then the next one will not get "caught". However some of the messages, like the one I posted, the group sending them puts the number of the message in the sending address which makes it a "different" address each time and always gets caught in greymail. I absolutely HATE greymail, they had "Postini" before which was great. Anyway I'll have to push some through and see what happens, if all else fails I"ll have to turn off the mail scanner.
Title: Re: ISP's spam filter
Post by: DavidR on March 20, 2010, 12:15:18 AM
Are you not able to set the sending address using a wildcard in Greymail so as the mail domain address is accepted 123456@domain_name.com *@domain_name.com or set permissions by domain name as my MailWasher Pro anti-spam has.
Title: Re: ISP's spam filter
Post by: HarryP on March 20, 2010, 03:46:30 PM
I had one stuck in greymail this morning, tried to forward it and Avast stopped it with the same warning, I turned off "scan incoming" and it came through. I haven't had any others that I wanted to allow yet. I've put *@ilaalerts.org in my whitelist. I'll see what happens next time they send something. Thanks for your help. If things change I'll post.
Title: Re: ISP's spam filter
Post by: MikeBCda on March 20, 2010, 05:38:07 PM
My ISP's gone through a number of different a-v and anti-spam services over the years, and I'll agree that Postini was one of the best.  In particular, it was the only one that could properly handle things like Yahoo Groups mail, where white-listing has to be filtered on the basis of the "To" addy (i.e., the group's server) rather than the "From" addy (the individual sending the posting, of whom there could be thousands in the group).

I forget who they're currently using (not Postini, maybe P. wanted too high a fee increase?), but that's been active for about 3 years now and the ISP's tech people still can't figure out how to set up white-listing for mailing lists, or even whether it's possible.
Title: Re: ISP's spam filter
Post by: DavidR on March 20, 2010, 05:46:41 PM
I had one stuck in greymail this morning, tried to forward it and Avast stopped it with the same warning, I turned off "scan incoming" and it came through. I haven't had any others that I wanted to allow yet. I've put *@ilaalerts.org in my whitelist. I'll see what happens next time they send something. Thanks for your help. If things change I'll post.

You're welcome.

Hopefully the wildcard adition to the whitelist will work, if not try just adding the domain name ilaalerts.org in the allowed domains/whitelist. Good luck.
Title: Re: ISP's spam filter
Post by: HarryP on March 21, 2010, 02:41:48 PM
Well, I just checked my email and one came through without a hitch, yay :D. I have to watch and do the others I have trouble with, I just wish greymail would catch all the ones I don't want that it lets through!

Thanks again for your help!
Title: Re: ISP's spam filter
Post by: DavidR on March 21, 2010, 02:56:17 PM
No problem, fingers crossed you have a resolution ;D