Best Way to Maximize Spam Protection

[BizMarquee]

I have 5 Linux Plesk 12 servers, and I use Spamassassin, usually at a sensitivity of 2 or 3, I also use the following DNS Blackhole lists:
zen.spamhaus.org;b.barracudacentral.org;abuse.rfc-ignorant.org;cbl.abuseat.org;bl.spamcop.net;nomail.rhsbl.sorbs.net

But all of this seems to have minimal effect. I examine spam that comes through which looks very obviously like spam, but Spamassassin gives it a very low score, usually in the negative numbers.

Am I not doing it right? Is SA just not as effective as I thought? Seems like if Gmail, etc can filter spam so effectively, then why can't SA? Please let me know if there's something I'm not doing right, or what you all do to combat spam with Plesk 12.

 

[IgorG]

First of all check this KB article - http://kb.odin.com/en/121201

 

[BizMarquee]

Thanks, but I've done all that. It just seems like a ton of spam is still getting through, where it gets caught in Gmail, etc.

 

[UFHH01]

Hi BizMarquee,

Google, Yahoo and other companies don't share their spam - filter - configuration, but they use more than only spamassassin as spam - filters. You have to investigate several additional spam - filters, compatible to run side on side with spamassassin. Be aware that additional spam - filtering software requires as well additional configurations, which might conflict here and there, so it's a pretty long way to find the "right" individual configuration to sucessfull increase individual spam - filtering. Feel free to share your investigations, configurations and tests with additional spam - filters here in the forum... I'm sure, that a lot of Plesk users would love it.

 

[BizMarquee]

Is there a place to adjust the Spamassassin rules to give certain keywords more value to make it more recognizable as spam? I've searched docs, but every file I open says "Do not edit, will be overwritten"

 

[IgorG]

This thread may be useful - http://talk.plesk.com/threads/spamassassin-local-cf-gets-overwritten.287453/