I’ve recently been working on a project for client that includes incorporating virus scanning and spam blocking. Read on to learn how I’m ridding myself of spam and virii.

The first step is to get the necessary software. Here is a short list of the programs that I have used (how I tied them together is something I won’t say since the client IS selling this as an ASP).

• Spam Bouncer: A complex set of procmail scripts created to do high level spam checking and even some virii checking.
• Amavis: A virus checker that replaces the qmail-queue program to check all incoming and outgoing mail. It relies on a some sort of external virus checker (I’m using a commercial one) to actually check the mail, but works great. It quaranteens the mail and then sends notices to recipient and sender.
• Qmail: Wouldn’t be much of an email system without a MTA. DJB, despite being a raging asshole, has created what I believe to be the best MTA out there.

This is a good start to ridding yourself of spam and virii. Spam Bouncer works fairly well, however it requires some detailed setup and is VERY restrictive in its default setup. Amavis is just beautiful and I highly recommend it. If you have any questions feel free to email me questions.