Suddenly the filter started working

[jg]

I've been running the toaster for a few months and was getting frustrated because after putting over 5,000 spams in the spam folder, I was still getting spam every day, and a lot of it was coming from the same sources.

Then today I took my server down because I had to move it from one colocation site to another, and then when I brought it back up, suddenly there was no more spam!  It is as if the toaster decided to look at the spam folder for the first time, or maybe something caused sa-learn to run after not running.  

Can anyone explain this to me?  Maybe something happened that I can learn to do on purpose next time I need to.

Thanks  

John

[Arie Gerszt]

did your colo move involve an ip change?

[jg]

No, there was no ip change, but there were dns problems at first.  I thought
the spam might come back once we got those fixed, but it didn't.  I'm still puzzled!

[LogicX]

jg

Then today I took my server down... .... Thanks   John

what was its uptime? perhaps you were for instance using something like spamd/spamc and spamd wasn't running, and the reboot caused it to start, if this was the first reboot in a long time.

[jg]

I suspect it must have been something like that.  Is there a way to go back and find out what wasn't running then that is running now?  

Then I'd have a better idea what happened.

[LogicX]

jg

I suspect it must have been something like that.  Is there a way to go back and find out what wasn't running then that is running now?   Then I'd have a better idea what happened.

In general that'd be difficult to accomplish -- only way to get even close would be to look through log files like /var/log/messages and look for 'startup' messages for daemons, then go back and grep for those startup banners in old logs..

problem is LOTS of programs either
1. don't put a startup banner or
2. store it in a different log file location
3. only display the banner when in debug mode

I really think you should check out the spamd thing --
just do a ps auxwwww and see if its running, stop if, test mail to make sure mail still works; then see if spam starts pouring in --
this is all just for your knowledge ---

in other suggestions, could've been any number of oddities, like you have some odd script which changes permissions on things, and it failed, or worked, or interfered with some other script the first time -- *whew*
--

why don't you just peruse your log files, look for any errors, assure yourself that its working fine against spam; reboot to affirm that it is continuing to work.

If it is -- congrats!

otherwise -- I'm sure a few posts and you'll be on your way spam-free

Enjoy your toaster!

[jg]

Thanx LogicX  - I did the ps -axwwww and saw that spamd is indeed running.  

I'll try stopping and starting it after I think about this for a while.  

Right now, I'm getting NO spam, which is the amount I like.

John

[jg]

When I moved my servers, something made sendmail stop working on one of them.  All the spam had been going to that one, which I've been running for a long time.  The qmail server where I have the toaster was getting the spam from the sendmail server because most of the mail sent there was being forwarded to the toaster server.  So, when sendmail stopped, the spam stopped too!  

I don't know what killed sendmail on the old server, but I don't care because I don't want to fix it and I don't plan to use sendmail anymore.  I moved the mail IP for the domain I'd been using there to the toaster server.