Moving documentation from source code to README

[squirrelmail.git] / plugins / filters / README

Filters Plugin

This plugin filters your inbox into different folders based upon given criteria.
It is most useful for people who are subscibed to mailing lists to help organize
their messages. The argument stands that filtering is not the place of the
client, which is why this has been made a plugin for SquirrelMail. You may be
better off using products such as Sieve or Procmail to do your filtering so it
happens even when SquirrelMail isn't running.

IMPORTANT: At least one version of PHP has bugs in the checkdnsrr() function
that the SPAM filtering code RELIES ON. The PHP server that comes with Mandrake
8.1 has this problem -- checkdnsrr() NEVER finds the inaddr records, even the
ones that really exist.

NOTE!!! As of the time of this writing, there is a bug in sqimap_read_data() in
functions/imap_general.php. I rewrote it (see sqimap_read_data.php) so if the
SPAM filters aren't filtering, make a backup copy of functions/imap_general.php,
remove the sqimap_read_data() function in there and replace it with the contents
of sqimap_read_data.php. Hopefully, either my replacement will be blessed by
squirrelmail-devel or some other version will come out soon. Now back to your
regularly scheduled README... (grin)

This is a poor alternative to procmail or Elm's filter programs. This is a
pathetic replacement for good RBL mail scanning when you get the mail. This is
more for systems that can't/won't offer that kind of functionality and you still
require it.

This is slow. Yep. Slow.

To configure, first you need to rename config.sample.php to config.php. You
should then just take a peek at config.php and set $SpamFilters_YourHop to some
string if you want to avoid tons of false hits on the RSS and DUL and ORBS
databases. It should also speed up the scan somewhat.

If you do not want to enable spam filters for all users, edit config.php and set
the $AllowSpamFilters to false. Spam filters can take TONS of time, so if you
don't want your users to complain and ask you tons of questions, this is a quick
and easy method.

If you use UW and if you encounter strange errors while using this plugin on
your system, edit config.php and set $UseSeparateImapConnection to true. This
may not solve the problem. One problem it might fix is if you run UW 2001 and if
you don't see the number of unread messages in your left-hand folder pane, or if
you see timeouts or IMAP server error messages. Turning on this feature may slow
down the filters a bit more since it has to open a new connection.

Lastly, if there are some IPs that you want to refuse email from or some IPs you
want to accept email from REGARDLESS of what the DNS databases say, you can put
in overrides in the SpamFilters_DNScache[] array. See the comments in config.php
for more info on this.