Something I’ve wanted for a long time was an easy way to filter my mail at the server level. I converted to IMAP some time ago and had wanted to be able to fully take advantage of the server so regardless of where I checked mail (web, wireless or desktop) I always had the same rules applying without having to recreate things in each instance.
I’ve long known about Procmail, but have not had enough inner geek (or patience) to really dig in enough to figure out how to create my own scripts. My web host, Pair only offers (as do most) procmail as an option for server based filtering and as you might expect it’s completely DIY, though with some newsgroup support. I’ve searched and the only thing close to a simple UI to Procmail is Procbuilder, though yet again it was nothing something I was truly comfortable dealing with.
So what to do?? Enter Fastmail.fm.
Fastmail offers a terrific array of email account levels, which should suit most anyone. The most basic (and free) account, lets you get full IMAP (not POP) and advanced webmail access, but you will have to pay the one time fee of $14.95 in order to get access to the SMTP server which is extremely handy if you use a mobile device. I found that what I wanted was the Enhanced Account, which meant I needed to transfer the MX record for atmasphere.net (my main domain) in order to retain my identity while taking advantage of the service.
What do you get?
The main thing I wanted was server based filtering, though Fastmail also offers a significantly more robust spam filtering system (no need to adjust Spam Assassin manually, unless you want) as well as ClamAV virus checking. (About 12 hours after I made the move Pair announced they were upgrading both the Spam Assassin code to 3.0 and also adding ClamAV… though no easy server side filtering.)
If you use any account beyond the free one, you get access to the filtering. The more advanced tiers offer domain management, aliases and more storage. The filtering is very easy to use. Utilizing a simple web form you can pick bits from the headers of email and what action you’d like to have take place – from delete or bounce to filtering to folders of your choosing.
Fastmail made the switchover painless. They have a migration utility (point and click) on the site that allows you to create your new account based totally on the previous one. I imported my email and full folder structure within a few minutes and when I activated my domain transfer was good to go with almost everything in place. From within my mail client (Apple’s Mail) I simply dragged the messages that had come through after the import, but before the transfer and they conveniently copied to my new mailboxes.
Problems Resolved!
I’ve been using client side filtering for a long time and been very frustrated with the amount of mail I don’t want to read (including spam) that arrives on my Treo. Fastmail’s system has allowed my to quickly fix this issue. The Spam filtering is awesome as well. I can’t recall a time when I’ve seen so few spam messages coming through to my account. I am used to seeing anywhere from 800 to 2000 spam messages waiting for me each morning. Today, there was 1 message which got through the Fastmail filter and there were 11 messages pre-sorted to my Junk Mail folder for my review. There was one message incorrectly waiting there, but I easily adjusted that through the Web UI and don’t expect it to be there tomorrow am. Everything else was nicely killed. I love it!
I mainly use email on my PowerBook and via Treo while on the go. ChatterEmail is by far the most robust IMAP Treo mail client, allowing me to create accounts and then mailboxes within each IMAP account to sync or keep connected. Because of the way it works, I get notifications as mail gets filtered to each mailbox of my choosing as it happens which is quite nice.
Before server side filtering, I was receiving all mail in my inbox and having to sort through quite a bit, plus having to kill a ridiculous volume of spam. No more. My mailboxes are clean and I am only tracking what I want while on the go. When I return to me desk, mail is pre-sorted to the appropriate place, leaving my inbox pretty clear with messages more likely to need my attention.
One final note…
There’s a bug / feature in Mail.app that does not allow you to continuously check your server folders as you might like – even with the advanced preference set on your account to automatically synchronize changed mailboxes. I was only seeing Mail officially check and show changes when I either manually clicked on a folder (which causes it to make a live network connection) or choosing to manually synchronize my account. The fix for this is pretty simple thanks to the magic of AppleScript and the ever helpful MacOSXHints. Using the later script in the just linked post I now have an applescript force the sync on login every 5 minutes which is the same interval I have mail set to check for new messages.