Scalix is too complex to get setup correctly

[WizmanG]

Admitidly Iam NOT a expert

Scalix 10
CentOS4.3

After spending several weeks trying to get my server setup I have come to the conclusion that there isn't any clear concise instructions to get a simple single server setup and be secure with spam detection etc.....

I ahve been reading the docs, scouring/posting to the forums and and all in all I have been going around in circles on a few items.

1. I have SpamAssassin setup and working and I can see in the logs that it is scanning the incoming messages but I continue to get a lot of spam coming through. I have posted to the forum but failed to get any real answers to the questions I have been asking.

2. I have been trying to get secure SMTP setup but hit a roadblock when the client tries to authenticate - again I have not been able to get any real answers here.

3. I tried the solution with the second IP but from what I see in the logs I think I have an open relay to the internet - again I have been unable to get any real answers either here or in the docs.


So far I think that Scalix has a lot of potential but to have this much trouble getting a single server setup with reliable secure antispam and antivirus should not be this difficult.

I would appreciate any feedback/help I can get here as I feel like I am just going in circles banging my head against the wall on these items.

[dkelly]

1. I have SpamAssassin setup and working and I can see in the logs that it is scanning the incoming messages but I continue to get a lot of spam coming through. I have posted to the forum but failed to get any real answers to the questions I have been asking.

I did some searching through your posts and can only see 1 relating to SpamAssassin that was posted yesterday to which someone has already replied. SpamAssassin is not designed to reject mail. From the SpamAssassin FAQ at http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/DeletingAllMailsMarkedSpam

SpamAssassin itself will not delete any emails. It's only a filter which reads email in, and passes that same email out, modified in some way. If you want to delete emails, or redirect emails, you need to do it in whatever program calls SpamAssassin.

In this case, the program calling SpamAssassin is spamass-milter which is a sendmail milter. This is documented in the technote in the Scalix knowledgebase at http://www.scalix.com/support/knowledgebase.html. Search for the word SpamAssassin and it's the first document returned in the list titled "SpamAssassin in a Scalix Environment". For rejecting mail, check the man page for spamass-milter as that details how it can be done. I would advise reading the SpamAssassin FAQ URL that I posted above as it contains some useful information.

2. I have been trying to get secure SMTP setup but hit a roadblock when the client tries to authenticate - again I have not been able to get any real answers here.
3. I tried the solution with the second IP but from what I see in the logs I think I have an open relay to the internet - again I have been unable to get any real answers either here or in the docs.

Again, I checked your postings. There is 1 posting relating to SMTPs posted on August 22nd. You have had no replies so far. I would caution that although it may seem like Scalix staff are permanently answering questions in the forums, it is on a (semi-)voluntary basis. If we don't answer in a timely fashion, it's because we have to give priority to the customers that have paid us a support fee and are using their support channel. We try to clean up unanswered questions where time permits but, as you should be able to see, with 2600+ registered users and 16955 articles posted, there's the chance we're going to miss some.

So far I think that Scalix has a lot of potential but to have this much trouble getting a single server setup with reliable secure antispam and antivirus should not be this difficult.

I have to take issue with you on this one. The knowlegebase contains 2 articles if you search for "ClamAv" and "SpamAssassin" that give step-by-step instructions on how to configure those components in a Scalix environment. If you missed them, please tell us how we can make them more prominent.

If you have any suggestions on how to make the documentation clearer, please tell us, all feedback is useful.

Cheers

Dave

[WizmanG]

First off - thanks for the candid reply

I backtracked and followed the suggested reading and SpamAssassin is working as expected and you were correct that I didn't have spamass-milter configured correctly for our needs.

ClamAV was a no brainer and just works so I appologies for any misrepresentation I gave here that it wasn't working.

It looks like the only issue I have left is the one regarding secure SMTP in which I posted some more relavent iformation to the original post I made so hopeflly I will get some more feedback there.

As far as the docs go one suggestion would be maybe a flowchart of how the scalix server operates. I wasn't familiar (still not there) with sendmail and it's integration with Scalix, SpamAssassin, spamass-milter etc...

Thanks again......