This page updated: Sun Apr 30, 2006
The short answer is many! Before I go further, if you are having trouble, read these simulated questions. The text in this red style are simulated user questions. You, reader of this page, are a 'user' of MonkeyBrains.NET. A bit lower, you will find out the actual email flow pattern.

• My friend says that they get email bounced when they try to send it to my monkeybrains address, why?
  Perhaps their domain ended up in a black list. You or your friend should mail the bounced email message to spamban@monkeybrains.net so I can dissect the error message. Oh, you should read it as well and see make sure MonkeyBrains.net did the bounce and not some other mail server. Sometimes people misspell usernames, domain names, etc.
• The email just fell into a hole! There was no bounce!
  Email does not (on the MonkeyBrains.net end) ever fall into holes or get eaten. Perhaps the message got filtered into your SPAM folder: Check your spam folder and see if the message ended up there.
  
• MonkeyBrains accounts have spam folders????
  Duh... check it out: if you use WebMail, click on the Folders button and subscribe to your 'spam' folder. Or, if you are using IMAP, you can subscribe to your spam folder and read you email in an email reader like Thunderbird (as of 2005, that is THE email client software to use - Eudora costs money, and Outlook has been a virus vector).
  
• OK, I logged in and found all these other folders, what are they?
  You are a newbie, eh? Well, the VIRUS folder has viruses in it. Don't open it. Even if addressed from a friend, the message may have been SPOOFED. Beware of Phishing as well, newb.
  
• Duh, I'm not that dumb. What is the pre-filter folder?
  Good question, you are not such a newbie after all. Sorry for the assumption. The pre-filter folder houses the last 10 messages sent to your account in the pre-Procmail filter phase. Procmail will only put stuff in one of 3 places,
  1. You main folder (aka the INBOX)
  2. Your spam folder
  3. or your virus folder

• PHASE 1: Sendmail aka "May send a bounce phase"
  • Check for standard MTA protocol compliance - all users
  • Pattern match - all users
    This is a stop gap to stop real bad things at a high level. It is good against a flood of spam that looks identical and takes too much processing power to run later rules against over and over. Here are some examples of what is blocked:
    - email with attachments ending in .pif .scr .bat .cmd
    - emails with the word Rolex, cialis, REPRESENTATIVE (in all caps... Nigerian scam) ...
    - emails from IPs without reverse DNS
    You may view the Complete pattern ruleset if you like.
  • Greylisting - you may opt out
    Some people panic when email takes a few extra minutes to arrive, but this filter really kills a CRAP-LOAD of spam. If you really want to not have your email use this filter, log into the email system, hit the Yelp button and send a message to Rudy. (The Yelp button gets my attention.)
  • Clam AntiVirus Checker - all users
    Virus 'fingerprints' are updated daily. If a virus comes in, the email is bounced.
  • access lists - you may opt out
    - Rudy's list
    - Joe Wein's list
    - Stearn's list
    - SORBS (on secondary mail server only) - Lookup hostnames (Use the Spam Database Lookup box)
    
  • SPF records - all mail through secondary mail servers
    are checked for SPF records and this may bounce emails. (On the primary mail server, you can tweak the value of SPF records in your SpamAssassin settings.)
• PHASE 2: Procmail No bounces: sorts into SPAM, or INBOX
  • SpamAssassin - users can adjust settings (set your threshold to 100 to opt out)
    Spamassassin is what is responsible for putting stuff in your spam folder. It is way cool and complex. To adjust the settings (or turn it off), log into the Webmail and go to the Options page. Click on the link to your SpamAssassin settings.
  • Check your pre-filter folder! If you think a mail is being weeded out put can't find it, check the pre-filter folder. Your last 10 emails (regardless of destinatoin) are stored here by procmail. (When an eleventh email comes in, the oldest is removed leaving 10 once again.)

I am at home on *SOME-LARGE-CORPORATION* line and can't connect to send email.
If you can't connect on port 25, you may have port 25 blocked by the link your are on. For example if you are on a PacBell DSL line, that company blocks all out going connections to port 25 (the outgoing email port for servers) that are not PacBell servers. To get around this, try connecting to port 1000 (you can enable SSL as well).

I get relaying denied errors, WHY, why, WHY???
enable SMTP-AUTH. Don't know what SMTP-AUTH is? It means you have to send your password to send email. If you are a wireless, I recommend you send email encrypted (select SSL for outgoing mail settings).

Thunderbird Outlook Mac Outlook Windows Eudora Mozilla Pine Mutt

Thanks for all this stuff - I hardly get any spam on my MonkeyBrains.net account! How can I thank you?
Pay your bill so I don't have to waste time hassling people to pay up. If you have paid up, you can repay me by taking the next hour off from your computer, walk around outside, marvel at the world, and smile at people you don't know.
- Rudy