February 19, 2006

Spam Assassin versus Filters

A couple of weeks ago I installed Spam Assassin on my server. If you are a client of mine and are hosted by AMS Computer Services, this is likely available to you from your control panel. However I tried other options first, because I was worried about losing legitimate email.

Last year I was getting about 300 spam message every 24 hours and I decided I had to start setting some filters. Over the course of several months I created 3,000+ filters. This seemed to work pretty good, but I was still getting a lot of spam. Then one day a client called me and said, "Why aren't you answering my email?"

The reason for this had to have something to do with all of the filters I had set-up. I examined them all, one-by-one, and didn't see anything that should prevent this client from emailing me. But several tests later and it was confirmed — for some inexplicable reason I was unable to receive email from her. I assumed if I couldn't find the filter that was blocking her email, maybe my hosting support team could explain it; perhaps fix the problem. So I emailed them about it.

I don't think they quite understood what I was hoping they would do. I got an email back from them that looked like this:

Hello Steve,

The problem is the filters you have set up. We've removed them. Let us know if you have any more problems.

Each of those filters they deleted had to be individually set up. I spent hours over the course of several months, setting these things up.

Yes... not I could get this particular clients email but the spam gate was wide open. While my filters had offered good protection, other spammers had added me to their list, so this put me up to 500 spam messages every 24 hours.

I decided to try Spam Assassin after trying to sort through tons of email for a few months. I understood I might lose legitimate email, but in my haste to sort through this many messages per day, I was accidentally deleting email that I wanted. I was using a program that allowed me to preview my messages off of the server and delete the ones I didn't want. Sometimes... real emails got deleted.

SpamAssassin incorporates several means of detecting spam. Bayesian-style probabilistic classification is one of them, but not the only one. But it also offers you an interface to "whitelist" your contacts. By setting the software to score at an appropriate level and taking the time to copy and paste the email addresses of everyone who I have been in regular contact with the last six months, I find I am really impressed with the results.

I set up a special spam folder so I could monitor what was being removed from my inbox. In the last two weeks, it hasn't blocked any legitimate email.

I heartily recommend this method of dealing with spam.

Regards,
Steve MacLellan

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:16 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 03, 2005

Article Dashboard Review

I installed the Article Dashboard script that allows people to submit articles to your website. It has the earmarks for being a good quality program, but isn't ready for prime time yet. I mentioned a couple of bugs in the scripts which have been posted about to their support forum but a new update to the script yesterday did not address this issue. Where does this leave people who have installed the script?

I guess about the only thing one could do is a) hope that a future release fixes this problem. The scripts have been encoded with ioncube which stops you from trying to fix the problem yourself.

b) uninstall the script and look for something else

An email from the author, Patrick Stockwell, said:

Thank you for letting us know about your concerns and we will absolutely act upon them. This might take a few more days but we will release an upgrade as soon as it is available. This should be complete early to mid week.

I guess for now I will choose a) and wait and see. But I've already turned down a job installing it for someone. (he-he) I don't want to take the blame for installing a broken script.

The script will work if it is installed in the main "www" or "public_html" directory but it won't work when installed in a lower directory. So unless you want this script to be the first thing someone sees when coming to your website, you are better off choosing another article directory script, for now.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

August 31, 2005

Article Directory

I've installed an article directory script on this site. This will allow you to register for an account and submit articles.

I need a few volunteer testers to help me decide if it is a feature I should keep on this site. You can see it here.

I've already detected one minor bug...

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 03:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 29, 2005

SpamLookup plugin for MovableType

I haven't had trackbacks enabled for a few months. Too many trackback spammers = too much bother. However, now that I've got my email spam under control again... (he he) go figure — all I had to do was add about another 1,500 filters bringing my total to just over 3,000... I'm ready to give trackbacks another chance.

Mind you, I already have a few hundred IP's blocked from accessing this site, but the majority of the trackback spam I was getting here was being posted through multiple proxy servers. I've installed a new MovableType plugin called SpamLookUp which I hope will help.

One of the features in the config file looks promising. Here is a screen shot.

Previously I had installed a different plugin a while ago, that was supposed to help with trackback spam, but it didn't seem to help much. Who knows, maybe this one will bring me better luck! Time will tell.

If yo uwould like to give it a try yourself you can get it here.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 02:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 23, 2005

Feedshake

Andy Wibbel's of http://easybakeweblogs.com, mentions a new service called FeedShake, that "helps you to generate new feeds by merging, sorting and filtering existing online RSS feeds. This service doesn't require any subscription nor e-mail address."

Isn't that a cool idea?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 12:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 21, 2005

Mailinglist plugin for WordPress

I installed a plugin for WordPress today that allows you to have a mailing list as well as letting people choose if they would like to receive notifications of new posts.

It comes configured to ask for their firstname, last name, address, telephone number and email address.

Here is a screenshot:

This program saves all of the entries in a new table in your MySQL database.

(Yes, I know my WordPress blog looks almost exactly the same as this MovableType blog.)

You can use it to send out a regular newsletter or send notifications of new posts to those who subscribe.

The webpage for this plugin is written in French so I used Babelfish to translate it. A quick look shows there isn't a whole lot of documentation, but anyone comfortable installing WordPress plugins shouldn't have any trouble.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 15, 2005

Movable Type updates coming

Movable Type, the makers of the fine software that powers this blog, are making a major update with a new version currently in Beta.

Matt Hicks, of eWeek says:

"The company also is trying to thwart a rising menace—the rise of spammers filling blog comment sections and stuffing trackbacks with unwanted and irrelevant comments and links."

Apparently, this will allow you to score posts similar to how Spam Assassin works which I assume will automatically detect and prevent some of the comment and trackback spam most of us have had to deal with.

I have Spam Assassin on my server, but haven't activated due to the fact that in some case you could lose legitimate email. To help reduce the amount of spam messages I receive I use a server side filtering system. Currently I have 2,397 filters set, and it has made a small dent in the amount of spam I receive. Personally, I feel this is a better method, although it takes quite a bit of time setting individual filters for all of the spam I get.

I don't think I would feel the same way about using this for the blog though. I think it would be great.

As many of you will have noticed, the trackback feature on this site has been disabled. Between the blog, email and message board spam, it was just taking more time that I wanted to give to fighting spam. Maybe after this new release I will be able to turn it on again.

Anil Dash, vice president of Six Apart's professional network says:

"...the upcoming Movable Type update puts the software steps ahead of current and potential competitors when it comes to providing features for IT and blog administrators."

You can read the full article at eWeek if you want to.

It sounds like a great promise... I guess we will know soon enough whether the software lives up to it.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 21, 2005

Updating your blog

If you would like to prepare your posts in advance using MT and have them appear on a specific date, you can find the instructions to do this here.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 27, 2005

One page prtoected or Multiple...

I get asked a lot of times on how to protect pages and directories. This morning I found a couple of tutorials that will show you how to do it. There are lots of different methods, and websites hosted on servers that offer Cpanel have access to a tool to do this.

The first one I'd like to share with you is how to protect a single page.

This would be handy if you have offered your subscribers a download, but don't want to allow access to the general public. In this case, you would send out the user name and password in your newsletter or in the email they receive when they subscribe.

You can see the quick tutorial and download the code.

The second one is slightly more involved. This tutorial show you how to use Php sessions to protect a group of pages. The author says:

This tutorial will show you one of the ways to protect areas of your web site using the PHP sessions. You only have to write the login script that changes the status of the user to authenticated based on a username and password provided through the form and add a small piece of code to all of your pages you want to be protected.

Usage : Session support in PHP consists of a way to preserve certain data across subsequent accesses. This enables you to build more customized applications and increase the appeal of your web site.

This would be good if you had more then one page to protect. Still, probably not quite as secure as using .htaccess and .htpasswd but handy none-the-less.

You can read the tutorial here.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 25, 2005

PhpList Mailing List script

Have you guys heard about PhpList? Maybe it isn't new, but I just learned about it:

One of the features I like about it is:

"Batch Processing. To facilitate shared hosting environments, you can specify the maximum number of emails to send in a time period you identify. This can also be overridden by ISPs who can set these values server wide to apply to any PHPlist installation on that machine."

For those of you who might not know...

Normal hosting accounts are placed on what they call "shared servers" -- which means your site shares the same server resources as a few hundred other sites. To prevent one user for using up all of the system resources they usually only allow each site to place 1,000 messages in the queue at one time.

Batch sending lets you get around this limitation. You can program this mailing list program to send 1,000 messages every 12 minutes or so... I've found that setting works in most cases, but it would depend on the load of the server.

I don't have any personal experience working with this program. I just wanted to give you a "heads up" about in case you're looking for something like this.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:04 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

April 14, 2005

Need help moving a website?

Moving websites from one server to the next can be a real pain. I ran across a script that will help a bit. Here is what the author says:

"These scripts will make an exact copy of an entire directory with all subfolders and files on a remote server. It's the perfect tool if you move sites or if you have a site template somewhere which you want to copy over. Having to download a whole site to your desktop just to upload it again on the next server is, especially if you consider the difference between the bandwidth of your server and your desktop, not the best option.

This file will copy from one server directly to the other, without FTP. Of course you have to have access to both servers,..."

Hopefully this might ,make your next move a little easier. You can find the scripts here.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 14, 2005

MT-Enclosures: A Movable Type Plugin

There is a plugin available for podcasting mp3 files for your RSS 2.0 feeds.

I haven't used it, so unless I get a request to do some work on a blog using it, I don't know anything more about it.

I DID cruise a few blogs that have podcasts, but they didn't get bookmarked.

I know it seems audio is getting quite popular on the Internet. In the last couple of weeks I put two 90 minute audio seminars online for two different clients.

I got to admit though, by the time I listen to the first 10 minutes of an audio file and then realize I don't want to listen to it anymore... that I could have quickly scanned the same information on a web page in under 2 minutes. Trying to listen to all these audio files and blogs just takes up too much time.

I think just because you can do it, doesn't necessarily mean you should do it.

That's my story! Whats' your?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 07, 2005

Open Source Web-based Learning Content Management System

If you're interested in offering lessons or classes of some type you might be want to check out ATutor.

ATutor is:

"...is an Open Source Web-based Learning Content Management System (LCMS) designed with accessibility and adaptability in mind. Administrators can install or update ATutor in minutes, and develop custom templates to give ATutor a new look. Educators can quickly assemble, package, and redistribute Web-based instructional content, easily retrieve and import prepackaged content, and conduct their courses online. Students learn in an adaptive learning environment."

If you're not sure it will run on your server you will see on the introduction screen an installer checks that your system has all the requirements needed to run ATutor.

This software is available for free under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Harold Jarche, a freelance consultant, has a more detailed post about it.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 31, 2005

Web Survey Software

Jim Rapoza, Labs Director for eWeek, recently published a review of phpESP. phpESP means Php Easy Survey Package which is an open source Php/MySQL program you can add to your site to survey your website visitors. His review is based on actual experience using it as he says:

And because we occasionally needed to conduct our own Web-based surveys, we adopted phpESP for many Labs and eWEEK surveys.

You can demo the software here and learn more about this project from http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpesp.

Considering the cost of some of these survey programs, open source is the way to go for any small business owner.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 09, 2004

Plans Web Calendar

If you are looking for a nice web based calenedar you can access while on the road, or share with others so they can kepp updated on your schedule... look no farther then Plans.

Plans has several downloadable themes available based on CSS-based layouts which makes it easy to match the colors and fonts with your website. Plans can store data in flat files or an SQL database.

I looked at close to 100 calendar scripts and liked this one the best. It loads fast, and doesn't take hours to figure out how to use. I installed a calendar program one time, and got tired trying to learn all of the features that I had no use for... which is one of the main complaints I had about some of the scripts I looked at. Plans is really easy to use.

One of the things I liked about it was the right click option to add an event. No complications here. Just right click on the date you want to add an event to and you're there. You can aslo assign different background colors and icons, for fun or to show prioities.

When you click on a date a popup comes up to show you the event. If you want to print it you can choose Ctrl+P and it prints off perfectly without the background color or layout. The stylesheet is for media=screen so the when it is printed the color and layout is ignored.

Plans is licensed under the GPL. You can freely modify the code for your needs.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 31, 2004

RSS Calendar

Sharing your calendar with family, friends, and co-workers has never been easier.

When you create a calendar event, an RSS Calendar Channel (or Feed) is automatically generated. Simply invite others to subscribe to this channel using an RSS Reader and they'll be able to see your calendar. Any changes you make to your calendar will be available to your subscribers in real-time.
http://www.rsscalendar.com/rss

This free resource is a handy tool for any of you who have people you need to keep updated about on your schedule or appointments.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 29, 2004

Crafty Syntax Live Help

A free multi-user, multi-operator, multi-department Live Help support chat system...

...that allows the operators of the websites to monitor their visitors as they are browsing the site and proactively open a chat session with that visitor. The modular structure and open source code allows for the highest level of freedom in customization to fit your needs.

Download here

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)