DISQUS

JaredB · 2 years ago

Is GMail's filter really going down? I guess I haven't noticed since I still send everything through SpamAssasin before it gets to my GMail account, and that handles everything pretty well still.

Dan · 2 years ago

Yep, every other day for that last week. But hopefully it will stop and not come up after a few more months.

JaredB · 2 years ago

I was just wondering if this is confirmed as a system wide problem or just based on your personal observations.

I'm still a little behind on my feeds, but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else, and it would seem like the kind of thing that would be big news.

A quick Google Blog Search doesn't reveal any stories about it in the last week (other than yours), so I'm wondering if maybe they're singling you out or something.

Dan · 2 years ago

I doubt Google is singling me out, maybe it's the spammers getting through somehow for a short period of time. I'd be surprised if it didn't happen to anyone else because the spam getting through is so obvious and they are mostly duplicate spams that were caught earlier in the day or the previous day.

I get a lot of spam sent to me so when it goes down I can tell how long, which on average is 5-10 minutes. Other people might just not get that much sent to them in that period of time so they just overlook it or maybe I'm getting flooded so badly at that moment that the gmail spam filter can't handle it and breaks.

It happens for Google Apps and Gmail.

JaredB · 2 years ago

Yeah, I'd tend to suspect that maybe you're just getting more spam than you have in the past, so a higher percentage is making it through.

I'm not saying it's impossible for Google's filters to have been down, but I just find it very difficult to believe that it was. Unless I'm missing something, not even one of the many people who get more mail than either of us (and who would have undoubtedly also experienced this outage) seem to have blogged about it.

I think maybe you're not paranoid enough; I think they're out to get you specifically.

Dan · 2 years ago

Who is out to get me? I don't get it.

Like I said there's something wrong on their side because I normally get 2 spams that pass through a week but in 5-10 minutes I get 200+.

nstryker · 2 years ago

yeah, i definitely don't get that much spam, only like 200 a day or so. but i haven't seen a single one sneak through in probably a month.

Dan · 2 years ago

http://www.flickr.com/photos/camerons/1123104556/

JaredB · 2 years ago

Do you have a picture that shows the 200+ in 5-10 minutes? (Not saying I don't believe you, just that that picture didn't show that). If that's the case then I'd definitely suspect that the flood volume is more likely the cause than Google's filter being "down".

When I said "they're out to get you" I was just referring to the "them" that paranoid people always refer to; in this case it would either be the spammers or Google.

My main point was that I don't believe that this is a case of Google's spam filters being "down" system wide, but rather (according to what you say is happening) a whole bunch of spam is getting through to your particular box every once in a while.

There could be many explainations for this, but I think that if it was truly a case of "GMail's filter going down" (which to me means at the system level), then I would think it would be easy to find multiple reports on it, since many high-profile bloggers use GMail.

Since I wasn't able to find any such reports at all, (and maybe I'm just overlooking something, but I didn't see a single one when I looked earlier, at least in the time period you were talking about) it leads me to believe that the problem you're experiencing is somehow unique to you. Whether that means that Google's filter is somehow failing for you only (which would be a weird bug), or that you're just getting a heck of a lot more spam than you usually do and therefore more (numerically, not percentage-wise) is slipping through during those peak/flood periods (which I think is the more likely explanation).

I can't really compare my spam volume, since the vast majority of my spam gets filtered out by SpamAssasin before ever being forwarded to GMail. Even after that (which I don't bother to check the numbers on), I still get a couple hundred a day on average slip through SA and make it to the GMail spam folder, and a couple per day that slip through both and I have to mark manually.

Dan · 2 years ago

You don't believe me, why else would you want me to grab 5-6 images. Whatever, I'll prove it next time with as many pictures as possible.

It doesn't matter if it happens to others, it's happening to me. And it's not a percentage that gets through at that time, <del datetime="2007-08-15T18:04:08+00:00">it's all spam gets sent to my inbox because at that same time not one spam is filtered to the spam folder</del>.

I would be very surprised if it's not happening to others because I have two accounts now and both do the same. Although, I could be singled out because of the particular spam that I get at the level I get at that time.

Dan · 2 years ago

Since you annoyed me so much with that last comment here are 130+ in less then a few minutes.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/camerons/sets/7215...

And it wasn't a spike compared to the steady stream before and after. And the filter didn't completely go down it just stopped working like it should.

JaredB · 2 years ago

Whoa, I wasn't saying I didn't believe you, just that it was hard to believe, and that I didn't see it in the earlier picture you linked to.

Sorry if I annoyed you; I was just trying to figure out where the actual problem was. Your initial post made it seem like Google's spam filters went down altogether, and I was trying to look for an alternative explanation, since if that had actually happened I'm sure there would be more stories out there (including many on the big news sites) about it.

You don't have to explore it further, or answer my questions (which are only out of curiosity, not doubting what you're saying).

I only asked because it's interesting to me that the spam filters could be "overloaded" like that and be forced to completely stop working (even for one particular account). It's interesting because that would point to a huge flaw in the entire system which the spammers could then exploit by just flooding it and breaking the spam filters.

Have you asked Google about it?

nstryker · 2 years ago

fuck google, you should ask jeeves about it.

fun fact: when you type "why is" into ask.com, the first suggestion is "why is the sky blue?"

Dan · 2 years ago

I know you're not intentionally being a prick but when you say, "Do you have a picture that shows the 200+ in 5-10 minutes?" you're saying I don't believe it's happening. No matter what you say to alleviate the remark (i.e. Not saying I don’t believe you).

I have a support ticket with Google.

JaredB · 2 years ago

The only reason I asked that was because immediately before that comment you had posted a picture that didn't show it (there was a max of 7 in a given minute in that first picture), so I was just wondering why and if you had one that did (because I am curious), not saying I didn't believe you.

I'm still curious to hear what Google has to say about it (once you hear back from them) and whether there are any other reported cases out there on the web about it, because it seems like something that should be a huge deal.