Spam Filter Overview

If the SPAM content filter is enabled for your account, all messages sent to your e-mail account will be scored based on a set of tests. The higher the score, the more likely the message is SPAM. You can decide at what threshold messages should be:

• Delivered as normal
• Delivered, but marked as suspected SPAM for easy filtering in your email program
• Discarded (optional)

You can also create:

• Whitelists - so that e-mail from designated senders and sending domains is never accidentally filtered.
• Blacklists - so that e-mail from designated senders and sending domains is always blocked.

Step 1: Login

• To begin, Login with your username and password.

Step 2: Ensure that Spam Filtering is Turned On

• In the drop down box for 'Spam Filtering:' make sure that ON is chosen. If it is not, choose ON and click "Save Settings".

Step 3: Configure Options

•   Modify Subject:  Choose "ON" or "OFF" from the drop down box. The message header of all suspected SPAM is modified to contain X-Spam-Flag: YES.  When the "Modify Subject" setting is "ON" the subject line will also be modified to contain ***SPAM***. Note: If you are using Outlook Express, you will want to turn this setting "ON" because Outlook Express does not have the ability to filter messages directly by message header.   When this is "ON", messages will look similar to this in your e-mail client:

  

•   Tag Threshold:  This is the lowest score at which a message is suspected of being SPAM and marked for filtering in your e-mail program.

•   Discard Threshold:  This is the lowest score at which a message is considered SPAM and discarded.  NOTE: This option only appears if you turn the setting "ON". Be careful when turning on this option. No notice is sent to to the senders of suspected SPAM that exceeds the discard threshold; the mail is simply discarded.

•   Presets:  If you are not sure what thresholds to start with, you may try one of the four presets: Low, Average, Strict or Very Strict. The "Average" setting is the default setting when you turn on SPAM filtering and is the recommended starting point.

•   Save Settings:  Click to save your changes.

•   Whitelists/Blacklists:  To add e-mail addresses and sending domains to your whitelist and blacklist click "View/Edit". If you receive a message from an email address or domain on your whitelist, the message will always be delivered to your e-mail account. If you receive a message from an email address or domain on your blacklist, the message will always be rejected.  NOTE: The static filters configured on the GulfTel e-mail servers are not affected by your whitelist and blacklist.

•   Note  You can always restore the default settings.

You can always verify your current settings by looking at the "Last Saved Settings" graph below the configuration options:

Step 4: Set Up Your E-Mail Client

In order for the SPAM filter to visibly reduce the clutter in your e-mail client, you will need to set up a client-side rule to filter the suspected SPAM to a junk e-mail folder for later review or deletion.

If you are using Outlook, you can filter the suspected SPAM messages by the message header X-Spam-Flag: YES that is inserted.

• How to set up a rule for the X-Spam-Flag: YES header in Outlook 2000
• How to set up a rule for the X-Spam-Flag: YES header in Outlook 2002
• How to set up a rule for the X-Spam-Flag: YES header in Outlook 2003

• How to set up a rule for the ***SPAM*** subject line in Outlook Express