I recently upgraded to ASG v7 from v6 and noticing no email is being processed with the Spam filter. I have an IMAP server on my private network, which is fully functional and receiving external email without a problem. The only email that shows up in the SMTP log is the messages generated from ASG, with the System messages from the server.

SMTP proxy status is enabled in Simple mode, my domain is selected and the internal mail server definition is chosen in the Routing section to route by static host. Also, I'm set to "Confirmed SPAM" on Reject at SMTP time.

In terms of Network configuration, I have a packet filter that allows any SMTP traffic to the mail server. Also, a DNAT rule for SMTP traffic.

As stated before, mail flow is working fine, however ASG isn't checking any email.

Any help would be appreciated.

The Astaro proxies "capture" traffic before considering explicit rules for packet filters, NAT, routing, etc. Once you have fixed your SMTP problem, you can disable or delete your related DNAT and packet filter rules.

Is the domain name misspelled?

Cheers - Bob

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Thanks Bob. I double checked the domain spelling and it is correct.

I tried disabling the packet filter and DNAT, however that stopped mailflow completely.

Over the course of the night, there were 2 reported spam messages, so it appears something is happening. On the main "Mail Security" page that shows the current days statistics, it shows a current value of 13 MB, with an average of 24 MB.

This indicated mail is going through the proxy, right? Also, in the daily notification report, it only shows 2 messages total were processed. Is the total number the amount filtered, or should it match the total number of emails I've received?

The discouraging part is I have received about 50 spam in that time, where only 2 were marked as such.

Drop the SMTP NAT and PF rule. You are bypassing your SMTP proxy with them. The SMTP Proxy handles it all.

If you aren't getting any e-mail after disabling them, your proxy is not setup correctly.

The two messages that did go through your proxy. What time was that? What was your setup at that time?

If the SMTP Proxy is working with your domain, you should see a record of email traffic on the 'SMTP Log' tab of the 'Mail Manager'. I'm guessing that it will show that the two emails that were processed were ones from the Astaro itself.

Again, if the SMTP Proxy were working, the DNAT and PF rules wouldn't have any effect on your email. Are you sure you have "YourDomain.com" instead of "YourDomain" or "SubDomain.YourDomain.com" in 'Domains'?

Cheers - Bob
PS Eric, I'm pretty sure that proxy rules are evaluated before PF or NAT rules.

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ACE V7 - Astaro Preferred Partner since V3
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Eric, the setup was identical to what I had in the first post, with the PF and NAT rules in place, SMTP proxy enabled in Simple mode, with my mail server definition in the routing tab. I see your point about the rules being disabled for the proxy to work, however nothing gets through if I do that (I'm testing from another email source). Not sure why.

The two emails that were detected were actual spam messages from an external source. One was blocked due to an RBL restriction, and the other was blocked due to a lack of reverse DNS lookup. There are 11 other emails in the SMTP log that originated from Astaro, however the 2 blocked were the only exceptions to that.

Also, since my last post, 5 more messages were blocked due to RBL and RDNS restrictions, however about 20 spam got through, and the number of spam on the Dashboard and "Mail Security" main page still is at 2. Strange.

It looks like the RBL and RDNS restrictions, take place before the SMTP proxy engine is actually doing any checking, and if it gets through the RBL check, mail is just offloaded to the mail server without any checks. I could be wrong, but with the 80 spam I received since last night, I would guess that it would have at least detected one of them.

I appreciate both of your advice on this, as I really want to get this working.

If you want to see what the SMTP Proxy is doing, go to 'Logging' and open the SMTP Live Log. You can see what is happening to sent and received emails if they are passing through the proxy. Please show a picture of any exceptions you have configured.

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Progress....

I decided to wipe the slate clean and do a fresh install, since I was thinking the restore from v6 might have gone weird. In addition, I noticed that there were some fsck errors on bootup. As soon as I setup everything, many messages were being blocked for RBL violations (much more than before).

I had to create exceptions for the safe domains for them to get through at all. While watching the live SMTP log, I could see the message I was testing hit Astaro, but they wouldn't deliver to my mail server until the exception was entered. They were nowhere to be found in the Mail Manager either.

Is the spam filter really that restrictive out of the gate, with no configuration? If so, if rejected email from legitimate sources do not show up in the mail manager or in the notification reports, how am I supposed to monitor that? Watching the SMTP log obviously would be a bit tedious

Do you have any best practices for configuring the spam filter?

Thanks again for the help. We are definitely moving forward.

Bob's right. Check your SMTP logs. You should be able to see every sender that hits your outside edge.

Alternatively, select Mail Security | SMTP | SPAM. Is your "Reject at SMTP time" on? If you turn it off it will let e-mail come further down the pipe.

What settings do you have in the blacklist section?

At the bottom of the page, which of the advanced settings are you using?

Yes, the latest SPAM filters are pretty tight right off the top, but I think most really like them. I do.

Yarskin, it soulnds like you are making changes. The problems you are describing indicate that you have yet to get the basic configuration right. At present, without more information from you, like pictures of settings and actual lines from logs, it's just too hard to guess how to help you.

Cheers - Bob

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ACE V7 - Astaro Preferred Partner since V3
Addicted to my iPhone!