On Sep 03, 2010, at 06:53, Fabrice Vendé wrote:

>          if FHdrPriority < smtpPriorityNormal then begin
>                FHdrLines.Add('Priority: urgent');
>                FHdrLines.Add('X-MSMail-Priority: High');
>            end
>            else if FHdrPriority = smtpPriorityNormal then begin
>                FHdrLines.Add('Priority: Normal');
>                FHdrLines.Add('X-MSMail-Priority: Normal');
>            end
>            else begin
>                FHdrLines.Add('Priority: non-urgent');
>                FHdrLines.Add('X-MSMail-Priority: Low');
>            end;

In scanning messages sent from MS Outlook through an MS Exchange Server, I 
noticed that it set the following headers:

        ...
        Importance: high
        X-Priority: 1
        ...

        This suggests that those two headers are deprecated.  SpamAssassin (as 
well as other anti-spam engines) tend to look for these obsolete headers as 
markers of e-mail sent by a spamming tool.

        The rationalization is that users tend to upgrade eventually to the 
latest versions of applications, while spamming tools, being created ad hoc and 
seldom maintained consistently, do not react as quickly to changes.  Thus it is 
reasonable to assume that if a spam tool is designed to mimic Outlook at some 
time, whenever those headers are changed by Microsoft, only the tool will 
continue using them.

        I suggest a better solution would be as follows, which more closes 
adheres to conventions.  These values have been empirically discovered testing 
with Apple Mail, MS Outlook, and Mozilla Thunderbird.  They are also described 
in various suggested standards.  Notice that "Normal Priority" is typically 
marked by the absence of any priority marker.

procedure TCustomSmtpClient.Data;
...
         if FHdrPriority < smtpPriorityNormal then begin
               FHdrLines.Add('Importance: high');
               FHdrLines.Add('X-Priority: 1');
           end
{
           else if FHdrPriority = smtpPriorityNormal then begin
               FHdrLines.Add('Importance: normal');
               FHdrLines.Add('X-Priority: 3');
           end
}
           else begin
               FHdrLines.Add('Importance: low');
               FHdrLines.Add('X-Priority: 5');
           end;
...

        dZ.


-- 
        DZ-Jay [TeamICS]
        http://www.overbyte.be/eng/overbyte/teamics.html

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