[BrianB]

If you're considering a Dreamhost account, beware that their email system is abominable. They have a spam killer called SpamAssassin, which, when operated according to their difficult instructions, still lets through dozens of spam messages per day.

Also, their webmail client is primitive and contains no methods for blacklisting spam messages from your inbox. You have to do it manually.

On other threads, Dreamhost has had a shill respond that it is not their duty to provide email for the domains they host, that that is just gravy for the customer. Well, they provide it, and it is god-awful.

Dreamhost will want you to use Gmail. They practically push you to do it. And again, beware - they will tell you that it is a one-click install. Well, it's one-click for Dreamhost to get rid of your email account, but you better have a deep understanding of how to manage all sorts of profound web stuff if you ever want to see your email actually show up at Gmail. Gmail warns you that the setup takes about half an hour - and that's if you really understand technical stuff. I've been using computers since the git-go, and have not been able to make the transfer, so you better be pretty damn good at advanced web management.

And Dreamhost will do nothing to assist you in this. Their online documentation is the worst in the industry, written exclusively for geeks whose lives are based around tweaking their computers. If you're just a user who wants a streamlined experience, avoid Dreamhost.

Dreamhost is okay for domain hosting - pretty good, anyway, they had all sorts of security issues resulting in the compromising of accounts and the loss of WebFTP for weeks - but if you need your service to include email, do not sign up with Dreamhost, because it couldn't possibly be worse. You will get spammed to the maximum, and they don't give a damn.

By the way, Dreamhost's main feature is providing customer service that is very good at appearing to be cool, hip and caring, but there is no correlation between what customer service says and what their managers actually implement.

[Gene Steinberg]

I'm sorry, but most Web hosts offer SpamAssassin. It is imperfect, as are all spam protection methods, but you can configure the strength of the filtering. Manually blacklisting spam is no little different from the way you'd do it on, say, GoDaddy or 1and1.

Setting up Gmail is actually a good thing, since Google has some of the best spam filtering in the industry. You don't have to deal with the fineries of Gmail setup at the beginning. The basic process isn't terribly difficult at all. You may have used computers since the "git-go," but maybe you need to pay a little closer attention to the directions.

As to "all sorts of security issues resulting in the comprising of accounts," that's just not true. The recent security issue, in which DreamHost reset FTP and SSH passwords as a precaution, did not, they report, result in any actual compromised accounts. It was done to protect customers against the possibility something would happen because of a data breach. In other words, they were proactive in closing the door before the hackers could gain control of someone's account.

[BrianB]

The shill returns.

Mr. Steinberg, you say to follow the directions. Well, I have. The SpamAssassin filter is set to 4, enabled and updated... The user is expected to fine-tune to one of something >999 (since some number of lower digits can include decimal values) values if they want to get rid of their spam. Now that's straightforward!

And pray tell, what does it say in the directions about spam that keeps getting through even once the user has specifically filtered it? Hmmm? Filtered it for From: Subject and Body, and still gets through?

[Gene Steinberg]

If 4 isn't powerful enough, try 3. You may have some false positives, but you can whitelist those. If you go through this process for a short time, you'll find a workable compromise. It won't be perfect, but it'll be decent enough. If you use a desktop email client, such as Mail on the Mac, you will benefit from some level of built-in spam protection that'll clean up the missed messages.

The higher figure is the Quarantine threshold. But if you configure the spam filter to move flagged messages to an IMAP folder (say one labeled Junk), the flagged messages will go there. Did you do that? Otherwise, you can set a Quarantine threshold of, say, 8, so you won't see higher scoring spam, but you'll be able to check the borderline stuff that might be a false positive.

And, bud, I am a shill for nobody. My affiliation is in my signature. I don't work for this company or any hosting company. A personal attack doesn't help you case.

[BrianB]

My whole point is that trying to get Dreamhost's spam configured is an involved - and then ultimately fruitless - exercise. You make my point for me. I have done exactly what you ask about, but clearly you spend more time responding to whatever you want than to what is actually written. What I said was that even after configuring, even after filtering - the SPAM STILL GETS THROUGH. Understand?

Yes, I have both values configured, and yes, I have been screwing around with them. The whole point is that there would be easy fixes, but somehow you are vested in the idea that whatever is, is good enough.

Answer this: do you see any reason why Dreamhost should continue to use a mail client that does not allow users to blacklist mail from their inbox? Is there any reason why this should be so complicated? Is there any reason why when one checks the boxes that one of the options not be to blacklist?

[Gene Steinberg]

There is no such thing as a perfect spam filter. Let's get past that. Some will always get through.

With my account, most of our critical email goes through Gmail, and we have the professional Google Apps package on two of our domains. One of my colleagues likes his SquirrelMail, and thus works with DreamHost's existing email structure on his domain.

And, yes, you can blacklist and whitelist email. Go to your Anti-spam settings in the control panel to add the addresses to the list.

[BrianB]

Are you being deliberately obtuse? Answer the question I asked, not the one you want to answer. If you do, I promise to try listening to your radio show again.

[Gene Steinberg]

I did answer your questions. These systems require a little trial and error and judicious use of the whitelists and blacklists to fine tune. You do that for a few weeks, you'll have something that is less imperfect. If you still can't take the spam, try moving your stuff to Gmail. I do not regard that process as complicated, but you have to manually move the messages from one service to the other. Is that where you're having a problem?

[bobocat]

(02-12-2012 09:56 AM)BrianB Wrote:  The shill returns.

Oh, good. I thought I was the shill!

Call me old fashioned, or ignorant, or whatever, but I wouldn't use a hosting company for email. I'm not sure how many do, but I'd prefer to use a larger, more stable infrastructure. The only time I use email on DH is when I'm sending out account confirmations and the like.

Anyway, it sounds like your beef is with SpamAssassin. As I don't use email on DH, I may be wrong, but is DH forcing you to use it? You can't connect to your email account using imap/pop and filter the messages with your own selection of programs/filters?

[Gene Steinberg]

My opinion is that DH offers spam protection that's better than most hosts provide. Many hosts take the easy way out and just use cPanel or Plesk control panels, and their built-in spam protection is awful without extensive fine-tuning, or adding a third-party utility (such as MailScanner for cPanel). With DH, you can usually get pretty decent protection with judicious use of whitelists and blacklists for a while, and, as you state, let an email client's spam protection fill in the gaps.

But the complainant also talked about difficulty migrating to Gmail, which is not a severe process and made fairly easy with the setup DH provides. I asked for specifics, but it appears that BrianB has retreated for now.