Jump to content

Speed


antandcol

Recommended Posts

How can things be changed so that we can spend less time watching the progress bar?

I've been trying to get into the daily routine of reporting all spam that gets through SpamCop's filter. I use SpamSource with MS Outlook then confirm/complete using the links returned.

This is taking more time than I can really afford. I've been using SpamCop for a couple of years and I can't say I've ever noticed any improvements in performance. I'd like to do my bit, but unless things can be speeded up, I'm going to have to start deleting all that spam and let other people do the work.

I don't know where your bottlenecks are nor how your system is configured behind the scenes. But I do know there are ways to make big improvements to performance - There always are.

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How can things be changed so that we can spend less time watching the progress bar?

[snip]

I don't know where your bottlenecks are nor how your system is configured behind the scenes. But I do know there are ways to make big improvements to performance - There always are.

24026[/snapback]

The parsing of spam does, inevitably, take time. Perhaps faster machines, or more of them could speed things up but my sense is that the parsing time is a function of the messages headers, the amount of parsing being undertaken and a whole bunch of other factors I can't possibly identify.

If you "know there are ways to make big improvements to performance" then I'm sure that Julian would be delighted to hear from you.

In the meantime, I am extremely grateful to you for continuing to report and thus help to keep the blocklist data up to date, accurate and relevant. Thanks for making time to do this.

Much appreciated.

Andrew

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I go back to when it was basically all ran out of the house (perhaps a bit of exaggeration) ... but ... the problem has always been the popularity of the tool .... adding more hardware worked for a while, but new users ate up that excess .. and that's the way it's been all along. Interestingly enough, about the middle of last month, in a response about a query/issue I was trying to answer dealing with the Akamai servers .... here's a snippet from the man himself;

I'm not at all surprised by this.  We should be bringing more firepower

online +soon.  Supposedly this week - also supposedly last week.  RSN at

any rate ;)  Seems to me like we are barely keeping our heads above water..

-=Julian=-

Although a few weeks after that e-mail, I'm making the assumption that the recent "moving hardware" somehow factors into this ..???? And again noting that with Julian in Washington State, the hardware down IronPort's way in California .. there might even be some scaling issues going on ..????

Anyway, newsgroup traffic about the speed issue is high, and note that the Deputies use the same reporting system also, so it's not like no one else hasn't noticed .... on the other hand, I can tell you that my spam submittals via the paste-it-in-the-box method fly right through ...??? The e-mail submittal was started (and I keep repeating) with the "process in the background" mode as its primary feature" .... that some folks have received and grown to expect the instantaneous response are not necessarily looking at the whole 'big' picture.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello again.

Is there any benefit in submitting spam but then not confirming it and sending the reports?

Spamcop is an excellent system. I display my email address on many web pages. Spamcop has allowed me to continue to use the same email address for years and filters out up to 90% of spam. Over the last few weeks (using the mailhost system) I haven't lost a single legitimate email. I'd really like to submit any spam received back to SpamCop but unless this can be done more efficiently, I just can't spare the time (which can add up to a couple of hours a week).

I can forward any spam that gets through to spamcop using SpamSource. That's practically instantaneous and no slower than just deleting the email.

Do I really need to do anything else?

I've been confirming each email but I don't have time to read the details carefully and almost never change the defaults for reporting. Is it really necessary for me to manually confirm these emails? I've tried switching my reporting mode to 'mole' (so my submissions now result in almost no reports being sent) but it seems that I still have to go through the confirmation process. I assume that the only benefit in submitting spam as a mole is to allow SpamCop to identify problems statistically – By not requiring confirmation, many more people could submit spam, so even with the odd mistake (genuine emails submitted) the statistics would be more accurate.

Regards,

Steve

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello again.

Is there any benefit in submitting spam but then not confirming it and sending the reports?

24341[/snapback]

No.
Spamcop is an excellent system. I display my email address on many web pages.  Spamcop has allowed me to continue to use the same email address for years and filters out up to 90% of spam. Over the last few weeks (using the mailhost system) I haven't lost a single legitimate email. I'd really like to submit any spam received back to SpamCop but unless this can be done more efficiently, I just can't spare the time (which can add up to a couple of hours a week).

I can forward any spam that gets through to spamcop using SpamSource. That's practically instantaneous and no slower than just deleting the email.

Do I really need to do anything else?

24341[/snapback]

Yes, confirm the emails.
I've been confirming each email but I don't have time to read the details carefully and almost never change the defaults for reporting. Is it really necessary for me to manually confirm these emails?

24341[/snapback]

Yes.
I've tried switching my reporting mode to 'mole' (so my submissions now result in almost no reports being sent) but it seems that I still have to go through the confirmation process. I assume that the only benefit in submitting spam as a mole is to allow SpamCop to identify problems statistically – By not requiring confirmation, many more people could submit spam, so even with the odd mistake (genuine emails submitted) the statistics would be more accurate.

Regards,

Steve

24341[/snapback]

Have you considered Quick Reporting?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is there any benefit in submitting spam but then not confirming it and sending the reports?

Not confirming and not sending means that all that had been accomplished is the use of SpamCop resources in doing the parsing and looking-up of data .... if it's not actually being 'sent' anywhere, then absolutely nothing has been accomplished.

Over the last few weeks (using the mailhost system) I haven't lost a single legitimate email.

The MailHost Configuration is only used in the Parsing and Reporting of spam submittals. There is no connection to the use of a SpamCop E-Mail account.

I'd really like to submit any spam received back to SpamCop but unless this can be done more efficiently, I just can't spare the time (which can add up to a couple of hours a week).

Many other discussions within this Forum include the suggestion to simply report the spam you are comfortable with, perhaps focusing on things like the most recent, the porn, whatever .. delete the rest ... noting that if it's really spam, you aren't the only lucky recipient, and perhaps others will report that which you deleted.

I've been confirming each email but I don't have time to read the details carefully and almost never change the defaults for reporting. Is it really necessary for me to manually confirm these emails?

The SpamCop parsing and reporting system is only a tool. Stuff happens in the universe. You are the responsible party for determining which reports go out and where they end up. Failure to supervise the tol's output could lead to future questions like "why did my ISP close my accout?" or "why has my SpamCop account been closed?" .....

I've tried switching my reporting mode to 'mole' (so my submissions now result in almost no reports being sent)

Question the "almost no reports sent" .... Mole reporting is "no reports sent" beyond the bit count settings in a database at SpamCop.

but it seems that I still have to go through the confirmation process. I assume that the only benefit in submitting spam as a mole is to allow SpamCop to identify problems statistically

Check the FAQ, look in the Announcements Forum section here for a Mole Reporting entry ... this should help with those assumptions.

– By not requiring confirmation, many more people could submit spam, so even with the odd mistake (genuine emails submitted) the statistics would be more accurate.

By not requiring confirmation, more mistakes are made, more bad statistics generated, more decisions made based on bad data.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not confirming and not sending means that all that had been accomplished is the use of SpamCop resources in doing the parsing and looking-up of data .... if it's not actually being 'sent' anywhere, then absolutely nothing has been accomplished.

.

24344[/snapback]

Begining to wonder myself if SpamCop needs winding up came right a few days ago speed wise then slowed down again (but not as bad as it was say a week ago?

In the past this is simply due to a growing over supply of users

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
No.Yes, confirm the emails.Yes.Have you considered Quick Reporting?

I just registered yesterday and I am perusing these forums with many of the same questions in mind.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears to me that it is not possible to use "Quick Reporting" unless one is using the spam Cop e-mail system. Overall I'm quite happy with my e-mail system as it stands and don't care to monkey with it further. I manually verify all spam prior to deletion in the first place, so generating another e-mail for each report and verifying it a second time seems a needless duplication. I'm all for getting fighting spam but this system seems to be far more labour intensive than it should be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears to me that it is not possible to use "Quick Reporting" unless one is using the spam Cop e-mail system.

Anyone, who is approved, can use quick reporting. The first suggestion is to configure your mailhosts for any account you will be reporting spam from and test that it seems to be working correctly.

After that, and unless things have changed since I went through the process, email your submissions to quick.<16charactercode>[at]spam.spamcop.net. You will get an email back stating quick reporting is not enable on your account along with directions on how to get it enabled. This basically is a review of your reporting history by the deputies.

I manually verify all spam prior to deletion in the first place, so generating another e-mail for each report and verifying it a second time seems a needless duplication.

As mentioned in several places, the confirmation is NOT to be sure the message is spam. It IS to be sure YOUR reports are going to the proper places or more importantly NOT going to incorrect places (like your ISP). The spamcop parsing tool does make mistakes sometimes and the usualy error is stopping the parse too soon and reporting your ISP as the source. For some reason, ISP's get mad at their customers who report them mistakenly and get them blocklosted, and may shutdown your account for doing so. This is the major reason to have mailhosts configured as it will reduce the chances of reporting a host you expect to be in the headers of your messages.

I'm all for getting fighting spam but this system seems to be far more labour intensive than it should be.

YOU need to be sure YOUR reports are going to the correct places or YOU are responsible for the results of incorrect reports.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...