PHP dot Net - SPAM handlin'

[ATS16805]

have you ever sent an e-mail to [e-mail] ?

have you received the [confirm: 3982348978d4b43f8b66d1b6f72ac75426 [e-mail]] in reply? yes?

my question is this: how does that whole setup work? it appears to be a nice way to handle the problem of filtering for customer service, and i'd like to try to setup something similar for some of my web sites, or some clients.

i know there was a web-based anti-spam thing which was popular a few years back which worked in a similar manner, but supposedly didn't gain popularity for the reason that one could not confirm that the very company offering the service wasn't trying to get rich off of our private info themselves. however, having a service like this installed on my own server, or my client's domain might be acceptable.

what do you think about it?

[Doug_G]

I've done similar automated responses with qmail, it's pretty easy, qmail will let you do whatever you want with an incoming message before delivering to a mailbox (or never delivering to a mailbox)

[ATS16805]

that sounds cool. forgive me for bein' green (and maybe others reading aren't aware either):

what is qmail, and where can i find the best info on it? is it something i would purchase, a script i'd install... ? does it work on most / all email servers?
(i administer a Linux server w/ cPanel-x if that tells you anything about my own setup)

[tekky]

qmail == replacement of sendmail -- not as easy to setup but very useful and from last time I used it, more secure.

many hosting companys offer a spam filter to email services that do similiar things as you mentioned.

[ATS16805]

thanks, Tekky! that definitely helped me understand a bit more, but now, also i'm a bit more confused as well cause i was thinking it was something to do w/ an add-on application-- but, if i'm understanding correctly-- it has nothing to do w/ that.

forgive me... again... but, does someone have a suggested "Step One to Working with qmail begins with___"?

obviously, i've done no research outside of here... yet-- likely because it's not a big-deal or urgent, but i'm nontheless interested.

thanks!

[Doug_G]

qmail may not be your only alternative. I think you're looking for any mail server that supports triggering some code on receipt of a particular incoming email. Sendmail may very well do the same, but I don't know sendmail myself.

Qmail is not particularly simple to install and configure, I spent hours (days) getting a qmail server tweaked properly. www.lifewithqmail.com is one starting place.

[ATS16805]

thanks, Doug! actually, from your reply, DG, it sounds like this is definitely not something i want to get involved in. that's not to say that any of the ideas or bad-- just that it's not something that is of that great a concern for me to fuss w/ at this point "in my career"-- meaning-- right now, i'm really on the bottom rung of getting starting, acquiring clients (development) here and there, considering being a re-seller, and stuff like that. i'm ashamed to say it, but i'm not sure what i have available on my server now. it's all just time... lack of time to investigate every little thing. i realize it's important, but fortunately, i haven't encountered any problems w/ clients and email yet. so-- for now, it's got to remain a "i'll get around to it" priority whilst i desperately try to learn some of the other stuff.

does the hill always look this steep, or just from down here at the bottom!?
😉