Installing ASSP with hMailServer

I am updating this How-To because the older versions are out of date in a couple of areas. Also, some information on things is misleading, conflicting and so forth. So this guide will explain how I set this up using the advice from previous guides and incorporating my own trial and error. Credit to previous hMail Forum posters, ASSP website for their works.

This guide assumes that you are installing hMailServer and ASSP on the same server. If this isn’t the case, then substitute the IP/hostname/ports for what is proper to your network layout. Also, this guide jsut represents how I did it. As always in IT (and for anyone who's taken a MS exam) there's more than one right answer. That said, if anyone has any comments or advice for a more efficient, better, smarter way to do this, please post. I will also be submitting this to the ASSP wiki in the hMailServer section (since that's currently blank)

This was set up and tested on Win2k3 Enterprise running in VMware.

Install hMailServer. The fineries of this are covered in great detail elsewhere. Disable all anti-spam features of the software.
Change the SMTP port settings in Settings-TCP/IP Ports to a port different than 25. In this example I use port 125.
Close hMailServer

Download the latest version of ActivePerl for Windows. At this time it is 5.8.8.822. Get the MSI version of the installer, and take note there are x86 and x64 versions. This example used the x86 version.
Install ActivePerl. Use the default options.
Restart the server

Now to configure ActivePerl and this is where the confusion comes. First off all how-to’s explain how to use the Perl Command Line to install packages, but the latest versions only use a GUI interface to install packages. Even still, by default all the packages that are needed are not available, and if you’re not versed in using Perl then it can be confusing while finding the right packages.
Open the Perl Package Manager from the Programs menu.
Click Edit | Preferences and select the Repositories tab.
This allows adding a package repository to the installation. This basically means that it add locations from the internet where you can find and download packages. This has to be done because the default repository does not have all of the required packages.
In the Name box, Type University of Winnipeg (or whatever you want to call it)
In the location box http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/package.lst
Then click Add.
Repeat steps for http://roth.net/perl/packages
Back to the View All Packages list. Find the following packages and right-click and mark them for installation. (Not all packages are required, but recommended. See ASSP website for more information)
Compress::Zlib
Digest::MD5
Email: Valid
File::ReadBackwards
Mail::SPF::Query
Mail::SRS
Net::DNS
Net::Syslog
Tie::RDBM
Time::HiRes
Win32::Daemon
Once you have marked all packages for install, click the green arrow along the top Run Marked Actions
This will start the download and installation of the packages. Keep in mind that several of the packages have prerequisite packages and the Perl Package Manager will install those as well.
Restart the server.

Download ASSP from sourceforge.net and decompress the contents. Most guides say to extract the files and folders into c:\ASSP, but this isn’t entirely accurate…
Create the following folders
C:\ASSP
C:\ASSP\spam
C:\ASSP\notspam
C:\ASSP\errors
C:\ASSP\errors\spam
C:\ASSP\errors\notspam
Take a look at the extracted ASSP contents. Drill down to the ASSP folder. The contents of this folder are what you need to use. Copy all folders and files in the ASSP_1.3.3.1-Install/ASSP folder. This will include several folders and .pl files. Copy these items to your newly created C:\ASSP folder.
Open a CMD prompt.
CHDIR to C:\ASSP
Use the Perl command to add ASSP to the Windows Services (if you want ASSP to run as a service…which you most likely do.)
perl addservice.pl -i c:\assp\assp.pl c:\assp
Restart the server.

Use Perl command to run assp.pl. Allow this to run in the command window. Connect to the ASSP Website. http://localhost:55555. In server setup, check the box to set ASSP to run as a windows service. This will create the assp.cfg file that is required.

Open C:\ASSP\assp.cfg with Notepad
On line 15, verify AsAService:=0 has changed to AsAService:=1
Click Start | Run and type Services.msc
Find the Anti Spam SMTP Proxy service.
Change the startup type to Automatic
Change the Recovery options as you see fit
Start the service
Open a web browser
Navigate to http://Server:55555
Log in with no username and ‘nospam4me’ as the password.
Open the Server Setup menu
Change the Admin password
Open the Network Setup Menu
Change the SMTP Destination to 127.0.0.1:125
This tells ASSP to relay your mail to hMailServer
If you accept SMTP from an alternate port (to compensate for ISP’s who blocks outgoing port 25, put this port in Second SMTP Port
Open the Relaying Menu
Add 127.0.0.1 to Accept all mail
Also add any other IP that can relay from this server (web server with Round Cube etc)
In Local Domains, adds all of your domains that you are accepting mail for.
Open the Collecting Menu
Add an Address, User or Domain here who always receives spam. This will help build the database.

These are the most obvious setting to change. From here just let spam build up in the folders. You can check the spam and notspam folders to help classify some spam that is classified as notspam and visa versa.

If you are supporting users, consider downloading and installing the ASSP Toolbar. It integrates with Outlook and will allow users to easily report items as being spam.
http://freeyournet.com/ASSPToolbar.html

If anyone has questions or problems, please post, or if needed PM me. I'd be glad to assist people with setup.

----
Edit - I added a bit more clarity around the assp.cfg file. All the guides say to just create it, but it's not exactly that simple.
I've also become quite adept at this, so if anyone needs help (email, IM, remote etc) i'm able to do it.

I dont see any assp.cfg file.

And when I start the service it STARTS and STOPS! some one help me please

try starting assp.pl as a normal program and access to web interface and change the windows service settings

i think i love you hahaha That is *if* this works for me i have been fkn around so much trying to get some anti spam going, and hte old guide i could just not get through! i hope this works.

Thanks heaps for your time!!! will be trying this soon maybe tonight!

Nope, unable to send emails after setting it up i hate this stuff!!! why cant it just work!!!

I installed 7 of the Perl packages using the Perl Package Manager without any problems. However, I cant find the following:

Mail::SPF::Query
Mail::SRS
Net::DNS
Tie::RDBM

Do I have to get download these manually or can they be downloaded using C:\Perl\bin\ppm-shell.bat?

I've goggled for ages and found loads of tutorials about how to install ASSP and SpamAssassin but none of them explain how to install the above packages.

http://search.cpan.org/search?query=Mail::SPF::Query
http://search.cpan.org/search?query=Mail::SRS
http://search.cpan.org/search?query=Net::DNS
http://search.cpan.org/search?query=Tie::RDBM

Click on subj. in result from cpan.org, download link at right top side.

I downloaded them, extracted them into a directory on my computer and added the location as a repository in Perl Package Manager yet it cant find any packages.

Am I the only person having problems with these packages or is everyone else not bothering with the optional packages?

Please help

The README file says you should do this:
(And you will probably need to read this too: http://johnbokma.com/perl/make-for-windows.html)

INSTALLATION

To install this module type the following:

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install

Thanks a lot for your help SorenR

Slight issue, didn't see anything in the ASSP forums/wiki about it, Ill post over there after this but thought I may get a faster response here.

I have everything up and working, for the most part. The only problem I am having right now is reporting spam from my webmail. It says it works properly, but when i go into the errors/spam folder, that email i just forwarded that slipped through is not in there.

The webmail/hmailserver/assp are all on the same server.

I set it up so a gmail account of mine can forward spam to the address and those are showing up just fine in the errors/spam folder. Is there a setting I missed as to something with the localhost not reporting properly?

Whitelist additions and all that work just fine via email reporting...

So i set up cc mail and the send all address to spam@mydomain.com. It DOES forward the rejected spam and shows up in the data folder of the email address I have it send to but it will not show up in my webmail or outlook. It just refuses to download. I can go into the data folder and manually open the messages on the server. Any idea why this is doing so?

Figured it out, I'm not sure if this is a standard feature, but it sent it to a folder that wasn't created. Inbox.spam

some of the packages I'm trying to install show the following error message during the nmake comand



I understand this is because I don't have a Visual C++ complier installed. Is there a way around this?

I've tried adding the two repository's in the first post by Tyras but Perl Package manager cant find any packages in either of the links. I'm using ActivePerl 5.10.0 Build 1002.

Please can anyone help?

Add to your repositories http://trouchelle.com/ppm/
Which packages exactly make problem?

I've solved the problem. I was using ActivePerl 5.10 but those packages are for 5.8.

With the lastest version of ActivePerl 5.8 installed it found 11332 packages on http://trouchelle.com/ppm/

By the way, is Tie-RDBM the same as Tie-RDBM-Cached?

Yes I was just installing ASSP for a client and ran across this. I can confirm that my How To doesn't work well with the 5.10 version of ActivePerl.

At0mic-I've never been able to find a repository that had the Tie-RDBM package. since i've never needed it, i never bothered looking too hard. but no those won't be the same.

i have just installed assp and it works perfectly, from the first second on there was no more spam.

but now after about 2 weeks i encountered a problem when i wanted to send a mail through my server. yahoo says that i have an open relay. so i made a test at abuse.net and it said that my relay is possibly open. i tried to send a mail through my server without authentification and it didn't work. so i don't understand why it says that my server is an open relay?! when i disable assp and run hmailserver only, the test says that my relay is safe because it needs authentication. so i think that assp doesn't answer with "authentication required", this does only the hmailserver and so yahoo and abuse.net thinks that it is an open relay...

is there any setting in assp that i can tell him to check the username from the sender and blocks anonymous users at first?

Check Validate Recipient section -> LocalAddresses_Flat
It's a good idea to join ASSP mailing lists for such questions. There's great support there.

thank you very much, that worked as expected!

Thanks for this wonderful howto.
Now, how can I check if the mails are really processed by ASSP and not direct to hmailserver?

Do I have to configure hmailserver some way as well?

Thanks

Thanks for the HOWTO. I am trying to install ASSP but ran into some problems. Once I installed ASSP, I don't see any email coming through. hMailServer log file shows four messages, Mail from, OK, QUIT, and goodbye, but the message never goes to my mailbox.

Also, I am having trouble install Mail:SRS module, one of its prequisite DB_File is no longer available in any PPM repository. I download DB_File module tries to install manually, but it requires c compiler (cl.exe), llibdb (Berekely DB), even I installed all of these, but I still ran into error message such as:
C:\Perl\lib\CORE\excpt.h(31) : fatal error C1189: #error : ERROR: Use of C runt
ime library internal header file.

Any body has experience install ASSP on Perl 5.8.8.822? Thanks in advance.

Is this still valid for the latest releases ??
Would you recommend this over spamassassin ?

Thanks