I tried to set up an email filter for messages with blank author lines but need
help with this. I am getting several spam messages per day from the same general
IP address range, most without an author line. However, I tried filtering out
the first three sections of the IP address and found that takes out some wanted
email.

I've set up filters for those with certain reply-to headers and they are working
well. Then, the spammer decided to start sending ones with no apparent author. I
can't match anything in the headers to the filter, so it's not as easy as
matching a from or reply-to header.

Can anyone help, please?

Thanks!

Donald

----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
https://groups.io/g/ICOM https://groups.io/g/Ham-Antennas
https://groups.io/g/HamRadioHelp https://groups.io/g/Baofeng
https://groups.io/g/CHIRP https://rf-amplifiers.groups.io/g/main

In Message-ID:<rndffid4kuhrm64j1lulrm5i9luaiv69qv@4ax.com>,
Donald <t2000kw@nospam.net.invalid> wrote:

>I tried to set up an email filter for messages with blank author lines but need
>help with this.

All untested:

No @: author: ^{@}

No @, letter, or number: author: ^{[a-z0-9@]}

As always, test with a global find before setting up a filter to
delete things.

--
Arthur T. - ar23hur "at" pobox "dot" com

On Tue, 05 Sep 2023 20:20:34 -0400, Arthur T. wrote:
> In Message-ID:<rndffid4kuhrm64j1lulrm5i9luaiv69qv@4ax.com>,
> Donald <t2000kw@nospam.net.invalid> wrote:
>
>> I tried to set up an email filter for messages with blank author lines but need
>> help with this.
>
> All untested:
>
> No @: author: ^{@}

!author: {@}

> No @, letter, or number: author: ^{[a-z0-9@]}

!author: {[a-z0-9@]}

> As always, test with a global find before setting up a filter to
> delete things.

--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘈𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘦
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘵𝘦 ...
　 ― 𝗚. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝘂𝗰𝗲𝗿

In Message-ID:<mppffi1bhumlrm7h5f00d6per6o90s0po0@4ax.com>,
Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid> wrote:

>On Tue, 05 Sep 2023 20:20:34 -0400, Arthur T. wrote:
>> In Message-ID:<rndffid4kuhrm64j1lulrm5i9luaiv69qv@4ax.com>,
>> Donald <t2000kw@nospam.net.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> I tried to set up an email filter for messages with blank author lines but need
>>> help with this.
>>
>> All untested:
>>
>> No @: author: ^{@}
>
> !author: {@}
>
>
>> No @, letter, or number: author: ^{[a-z0-9@]}
>
> !author: {[a-z0-9@]}
>

Thanks for the fixes. I, too, might need this some day.

--
Arthur T. - ar23hur "at" pobox "dot" com

On Wed, 06 Sep 2023 14:56:45 +1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
wrote:

>On Tue, 05 Sep 2023 20:20:34 -0400, Arthur T. wrote:
>> In Message-ID:<rndffid4kuhrm64j1lulrm5i9luaiv69qv@4ax.com>,
>> Donald <t2000kw@nospam.net.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> I tried to set up an email filter for messages with blank author lines but need
>>> help with this.
>>
>> All untested:
>>
>> No @: author: ^{@}
>
> !author: {@}
>
>
>> No @, letter, or number: author: ^{[a-z0-9@]}
>
> !author: {[a-z0-9@]}
>
>> As always, test with a global find before setting up a filter to
>> delete things.

If there is no author, that makes the author an empty string.
Back-to-back quotes creates an empty string. I just use

author: ""

and it works fine. Also takes less horsepower to use a string filter
than a regex according to the manual.

=IML=

Moogs! Would you buy it for a quarter?

I pasted this literally into the filter expression box:

author: ""

and got "syntax error"

so I'm missing something. I don't believe there's an "author" line in the
headers if that makes a difference.

Donald

On Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:12:25 -0400, Ira Letterman <iml.removethis@cfl.rr.com>
wrote:

>If there is no author, that makes the author an empty string.
>Back-to-back quotes creates an empty string. I just use
>
>author: ""
>
>and it works fine. Also takes less horsepower to use a string filter
>than a regex according to the manual.

----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
https://groups.io/g/ICOM https://groups.io/g/Ham-Antennas
https://groups.io/g/HamRadioHelp https://groups.io/g/Baofeng
https://groups.io/g/CHIRP https://rf-amplifiers.groups.io/g/main

Sorry about the last post. The quoted section intro should have read:

On Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15: 12:25 -0400, Ira Lieberman . . .

I had spell check on and when it came to the name, I clicked change instead of
ignore since my fingers were going numb at that time and it got changed to the
other name.

Donald

On Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:12:25 -0400, Ira Lieberman <iml.removethis@cfl.rr.com>
wrote:

>On Wed, 06 Sep 2023 14:56:45 +1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid>
>wrote:
>
>>On Tue, 05 Sep 2023 20:20:34 -0400, Arthur T. wrote:
>>> In Message-ID:<rndffid4kuhrm64j1lulrm5i9luaiv69qv@4ax.com>,
>>> Donald <t2000kw@nospam.net.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I tried to set up an email filter for messages with blank author lines but need
>>>> help with this.
>>>
>>> All untested:
>>>
>>> No @: author: ^{@}
>>
>> !author: {@}
>>
>>
>>> No @, letter, or number: author: ^{[a-z0-9@]}
>>
>> !author: {[a-z0-9@]}
>>
>>> As always, test with a global find before setting up a filter to
>>> delete things.
>
>If there is no author, that makes the author an empty string.
>Back-to-back quotes creates an empty string. I just use
>
>author: ""
>
>and it works fine. Also takes less horsepower to use a string filter
>than a regex according to the manual.
>
>=IML=
>
>Moogs! Would you buy it for a quarter?

----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
https://groups.io/g/ICOM https://groups.io/g/Ham-Antennas
https://groups.io/g/HamRadioHelp https://groups.io/g/Baofeng
https://groups.io/g/CHIRP https://rf-amplifiers.groups.io/g/main

I tried using this verbatim in the filter expression window:

!author: {@}

That's two attempts that didn't work. I must be missing something???

Donald

On Wed, 06 Sep 2023 14:56:45 +1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid> wrote:

>On Tue, 05 Sep 2023 20:20:34 -0400, Arthur T. wrote:
>> In Message-ID:<rndffid4kuhrm64j1lulrm5i9luaiv69qv@4ax.com>,
>> Donald <t2000kw@nospam.net.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> I tried to set up an email filter for messages with blank author lines but need
>>> help with this.
>>
>> All untested:
>>
>> No @: author: ^{@}
>
> !author: {@}
>
>
>> No @, letter, or number: author: ^{[a-z0-9@]}
>
> !author: {[a-z0-9@]}
>
>> As always, test with a global find before setting up a filter to
>> delete things.

----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
https://groups.io/g/ICOM https://groups.io/g/Ham-Antennas
https://groups.io/g/HamRadioHelp https://groups.io/g/Baofeng
https://groups.io/g/CHIRP https://rf-amplifiers.groups.io/g/main

On Sat, 09 Sep 2023 18:30:14 -0400, Donald
<t2000kw@nospam.net.invalid> wrote:

>I pasted this literally into the filter expression box:
>
>author: ""
>
>and got "syntax error"
>
>so I'm missing something. I don't believe there's an "author" line in the
>headers if that makes a difference.
>
>
>Donald

Sorry, my bad. Should have checked first. You can filter anything,
including special characters, by putting it in quotes. That creates
what Agent calls a word filter (it's actually a string filter). I use
them all the time and they work fine. But I never tried an empty
string.

=IML=

Moogs! Would you buy it for a quarter?

On Sat, 09 Sep 2023 18:35:07 -0400, Donald wrote:

> I tried using this verbatim in the filter expression window:
>
> !author: {@}
>
> That's two attempts that didn't work.

What happened when you tried? FWIW it does not give a syntax error here.

> I must be missing something???

Note those are curly brackets, _not_ parentheses.

--
Kind regards
Ralph

　︷
dxɘᵷəɹ
　︸

Ralph,

It worked today. I might have left a leading space in there but I had
copied/pasted what you gave me and ran it. As I remember it, the filter was ran
immediately and none of the blank messages were moved to the junk folder. But it
worked today, so I can celebrate.

And thank you. I see that the beta groups were deleted for Agent. That tells me
that they probably don't intend to continue work on it, which is a shame,
because I understand it's a great reader for Usenet. I don't use Usenet much,
but I still check in on a beer brewing group and sometimes a sourdough group.
I'm not interested in the binaries, even though some get full length movies in
that kind of group. I read somewhere that you can even be tracked through
Usenet, so I'm not going to even take a chance on that.

Thanks again!!!

Donald

On Sun, 10 Sep 2023 15:20:37 +1200, Ralph Fox <-rf-nz-@-.invalid> wrote:

>On Sat, 09 Sep 2023 18:35:07 -0400, Donald wrote:
>
>> I tried using this verbatim in the filter expression window:
>>
>> !author: {@}
>>
>> That's two attempts that didn't work.
>
>What happened when you tried? FWIW it does not give a syntax error here.
>
>
>> I must be missing something???
>
>Note those are curly brackets, _not_ parentheses.

----------------------------------------------------
Some ham radio groups you may be interested in:
https://groups.io/g/ICOM https://groups.io/g/Ham-Antennas
https://groups.io/g/HamRadioHelp https://groups.io/g/Baofeng
https://groups.io/g/CHIRP https://rf-amplifiers.groups.io/g/main