Keyword checking not working after updating to latest build
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Keyword checking not working after updating to latest b... - 30.Jul.2008 9:48:02 AM
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MJager
Posts: 4
Joined: 30.Jul.2008
Status: offline
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Hello,
I know a lot of people (including me) are having major issues with spam after updating to the latest build, in my company we have seen an increase of about 150% of spam in mailboxes that have had no spam in the previous installment.
However faulty this build may be, and however troublesome it might be for GFI to present a decent solution, I have a couple of other problems that I wanted to adress:
1: KEYWORD FILTERING
Keyword filtering has always worked fine for me and the company, I checked the spam on a regular bases and entered keywords in the list when some of the spam was not blocked for any reason. In the previous build that worked fine and those mails were being blocked from the moment I set it up.
After installing the latest build the keyword checking function is now practically obsolete. A LOT of spam is happily coming into my network, even those for wich I have set up keyword entries. For example: XXX, Viagra, DVD, watches and Casino are some of the keywords that have been set in the checker. Now we recieve even more spam and all these words are in the headers and in the body of the mails. When I check the logs I see that some have been blocked but a lot have not. The strange thing is: they are EXACTLY the same message, sender, mailserver, body and header. The addresses that the spam is getting sent from is NOT on the whitelist, and neither is the address that is recieving the message.
2: BAYESIAN FILTER
The bayesian filter is working overtime indeed, however it seems it has been made more "ignorent" about a lot of things that it DID block before we upgraded to the new build. I have been comparing the logs from before and after the upgrade and it surely shows it does not block more, but a lot less then usual. I have updated its filtering and it does so on an interval of every 4 hours, however no improvement has been noticed since we have done the upgrade about a month ago.
3: GENERAL GFI SUPPORT
Yes I know this is something I shouldn't be saying here probably, however I wanted to point something out I am very angry about.
When I was confronted with the problems after the update, I was also confronted with my employers giving me a hard time about recieving so much more spam then they used to. As I investigated the problem I quickly came to the conclusion the settings were exactly the same and that the build itself must have a leak or not been written properly. So I called GFI Tech-Support.
Now here's my usual view on tech-support:
A person calls expecting support to be given to a certain product that has been produced by that company and that company has an obligation to keep supporting it if there are new upgrades or updates available.
And here's what I ran into:
I called and was asked to run through some basic information as to settings and such, when the support-technician said it was not something with settings he asked me for my support-contract number. I said I do not have one, because the product that GFI has to support is a product I myself have made no changes in whatsoever. GFI catagoricly denies support because I have NOT paid extra for it to recieve. That means that GFI can stuff-up a product by producing a faulty build and then refuse to help people just because they refuse to pay even MORE to get help with a problem they themselves have not created. The technician also told me that I had to get it from the sales department and he would let them call me back. That was over 2 weeks ago and still I have not been called even once.
GFI, I sincerely hope you take the clients seriously because this kind of "service" is soon to be a downfall.
However, that was the little rant, and still in the time I have been typing this, I have recieved 4 casino invitations, won 3 cars, can start my own pharmacy selling Viagra, know the time in every city with all the fake watches I am getting, and I have a date with Angelina Jolie....
Please fix this, we pay good money for it, some results would be very nice indeed.
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 30.Jul.2008 11:01:51 AM
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John Letourneau
Posts: 1265
Joined: 28.Apr.2008
From: Clayton, NC
Status: offline
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MJager,
We do require software maintenance agreements to be in place in order to receive technical support from our technicians. This agreement also entitles you to updates for your spam software as well as version upgrades for free when they are released. I can assure you that we are not releasing faulty builds in an effort to get extra money from our customers.
If nothing has been changed in GFI and this is a default installation I would recommend performing a clean install. To do this uninstall GFI MailEssentials 12 via Add/Remove Programs and then rename the ..\Program Files\GFI\MailEssentials folder to ..\Program Files\GFI\MailEssentials.old. After this is done run the GFI MailEssentials 12 installer and install the software. This will put GFI MailEssentials 12 back into a default install. Once this is done check to see if the spam that has always been blocked is being blocked again.
_____________________________
Regards,
John Letourneau - Senior Technical Support Representative
GFI Software - www.gfi.com
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 31.Jul.2008 3:25:35 AM
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MJager
Posts: 4
Joined: 30.Jul.2008
Status: offline
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John,
We have done exactly that, we followed the steps that are recommended with the installation of the new build.
After the clean install we imported the exported definitions and after 1 month (we did it a month ago) we are still recieving a lot more spam then usual.
On this forum there are a lot of people complaining about an increase in spam, and the fact that keyword checking is not working at all (or partially) is something that is a default feature of the spam-filter. Therefore I do not in any way see the need for paying extra for support on 1 of the default features.
As far as I can see, I have done everything exactly as is noted with the patch for the installation, however a lot of things are just broken. If GFI puts out software that is not doing what you are claiming it to be doing, why do I have to pay extra to get the problem fixed? You can say it's not on purpose that these features are not working as they should, well they ARE not working, and when I adress that the only thing GFI says is that I have to pay extra for support on default features.
GFI is getting a lot of people very angry very fast with these kinds of policies, and I would suggest to review it strongly.
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 31.Jul.2008 4:54:39 AM
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RSP
Posts: 521
Joined: 31.Oct.2006
From: UK
Status: online
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MJager,
From the pricing page:
quote:
GFI MailEssentials pricing includes a Software Maintenance Agreement (SMA) and anti-spam and phishing database updates for one year from the date of purchase.
However, I do agree that bug-fixes should not incur a charge, but "support" on how to use the product should - GFI do provide a manual which should suffice for initial installation and configuration.
I'm not a fan of the SMA policy; I believe it to be unfair. But businesses are out there to make money.
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 31.Jul.2008 5:00:32 AM
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MJager
Posts: 4
Joined: 30.Jul.2008
Status: offline
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RSP
I understand bussinesses are there to make money, but I already pay a lot of money for the product as it is.
Now that it is a default option in the package that is not working properly, the keyword checking, and the manual itself does not give me any resolve to the issue that it just does not work properly, does not mean GFI can charge extra to help me with problems they themselves have not fixed in the software.
To give an example:
When I buy a new car that the manufacturer says can go 120 Miles per hour and runs 50 miles to the gallon, but it doesn't, they cannot ask you to pay even more to fix that issue. It is the default that the product has (or the manufacturer claims it has) and therefore it should not be the case that when it doesn't the client has to pay EXTRA to get the defaults to work as they should in the 1st place.
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 5.Aug.2008 5:18:08 AM
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MJager
Posts: 4
Joined: 30.Jul.2008
Status: offline
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Ok great,
as I had suspected, GFI does not in any way respond to my support request, even though a lot of people are reporting the same kinds of problems after updateing to the latest build.
Is the problem known or new?
Is it something that will be fixed?
Or is there a patch available now?
All kinds of questions GFI just does not answer... Now where is all the support for basic functions? Or does GFI want me to switch to one of the other companies?
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 5.Aug.2008 6:57:21 PM
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RSP
Posts: 521
Joined: 31.Oct.2006
From: UK
Status: online
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Keyword checking here is catching just as many on the latest version as it was before the upgrade.
However, this is a false representation. I've also applied multiple blocks on the IMF around the same time, which has dropped our message counts dramatically.
Therefore, the keyword checker is now running at a 4% catch rate, as opposed to 2% previously. The overall total spam from ME's point of view is now 33% instead of 85% previously, and my totals have dropped to 30% their previous level.
I haven't done any keyword tweaking for a long time; I could probably increase its effectiveness with some analysis.
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 15.Aug.2008 11:07:39 AM
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hacahousing
Posts: 4
Joined: 15.Aug.2008
Status: offline
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I am also having the same problem, on the latest build of ME12 and the keywords in the list are being ignored. ME setup on Front-end Exchange server and MailSecurity setup on Back-end Exchange server, mail flows in that order. front-end to back-end. MailSecurity is catching the keywords. Why? ME is first in line and should be stopping the Viagra, cialis, sex, sexual, etc... emails??? what gives?
ME is catching about 60% of spam, the rest make it to the user desktops.. why?
< Message edited by hacahousing -- 15.Aug.2008 2:58:38 PM >
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 15.Aug.2008 2:53:36 PM
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hacahousing
Posts: 4
Joined: 15.Aug.2008
Status: offline
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After a little more tweaking (3 hours worth!) i moved the "keyword" checking up the list and tweaked the SPF settings (didn't like live.com emails coming in, and was flagging it as possibly forged). After re-ordering the anti-spam features a little, I said "OK", BUT, even though the message says you don't have to restart any of the services... you do! Because once you say okay, the flood gates open and its spam city and the anti-spam features don't stop spam from coming in. I then go into services and restart all of the GFI services, then things start settling down and ME starts dealing with emails correctly IN the order i put them. So, now ME is picking up the keywords and dealing with them. here is my order:
- IP whitelist
- directory harvesting
- keyword checking
- sender policy framework
- email/domain whitelist
- phishing url blacklist
- keyword whitelist
- dns blacklist
- header checking
- bayesian analysis
- custom blacklist
- spam uri realtime blocklists
I've noticed this sudden inability to deal with spam in the past after a change, reboot, and no changes. There are times i've had to restart the server at least twice in succession to get GFI ME to start doing its' job. It is very touchy, and you never know what you're gonna get.
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 15.Aug.2008 3:51:17 PM
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rotorblade
Posts: 18
Joined: 7.May2008
Status: offline
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Mjager,
I'm with you brother! Had the same issues and beat me head against the wall for the last few days on this. I do have a support contract and did open a case. There could be explainable reasons why the e-mails are getting through keywords, such as the sender being spoofed and your domain being white listed. Support was very quick to draw to this conclusion with my case but that was not the actual issue with me. My Keywords filter is above my white list in order so that threw supports theory right out the window. (if I had one to start with) After digging on my own, I discovered that anything new added to Keywords was not working. Same goes for a few other Anti-spam modules. A reboot did not fix it. Only after I uninstalled and installed the most current version did things start working again. So is it a bug with the program or the version I was running (20080326), possibly and time will tell.
Good luck
Dave
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 15.Aug.2008 5:39:01 PM
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hacahousing
Posts: 4
Joined: 15.Aug.2008
Status: offline
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Another update:
Keyword check in ME isn't "always" catching the keywords. I have MailSecurity on the back-end server and its' catching what ME doesn't, ME's ability to catch banned words is very intermittent.
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 16.Aug.2008 12:21:57 PM
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John Letourneau
Posts: 1265
Joined: 28.Apr.2008
From: Clayton, NC
Status: offline
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To everyone that is having problems with keyword checking,
If you put a specific word in this list and then send a message into your environment from an address that is not whitelisted does the message get blocked?
_____________________________
Regards,
John Letourneau - Senior Technical Support Representative
GFI Software - www.gfi.com
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 18.Aug.2008 8:50:36 AM
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rotorblade
Posts: 18
Joined: 7.May2008
Status: offline
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quote:
If you put a specific word in this list and then send a message into your environment from an address that is not whitelisted does the message get blocked?
John,
No and that is how I determined Keywords was not working and in my case, Keywords is above my white listing in order. Anytime I added anything new to Keywords, it would not block it but any content that was already present in the list, it would block. When I discovered what was going on, I exported the keywords list just to see if the new content I added was in the list and it was. I then did a reboot and tried my testing again; no go. Only after uninstalling and reinstalling to the most current build did things start working. Previous build I believe was 20080326. So far, everything is working as designed. Could this be something in the binary file that stores the list information? Hope this helps.
Dave
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RE: Keyword checking not working after updating to late... - 18.Aug.2008 8:51:22 AM
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hacahousing
Posts: 4
Joined: 15.Aug.2008
Status: offline
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For me, that is correct. Any manually added keywords are ignored and the emails pass thru.
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