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Configuring the Spam Filter
In an attempt to reduce the amount of spam that everyone comes in contact with,
we are beginning to use a new spam filter in addition to the one that is already
in place. To understand how to get the most out of this new spam filter, it's
best to understand how it works and how it's different from the one that is
already in place.
The spam filter that is already in use is called Sublime. Sublime is designed to
catch messages that it knows are spam, but if it isn't sure if a message is spam
or not, it lets it through. This keeps Sublime from generating what are called
false positives (mistaking non-spam messages for spam), but it also means
that not all spam messages are caught.
The new spam filter will let you configure settings yourself. Let's run through
the settings so you can configure exactly how you want it to behave.
First of all, it's important to
understand that if this filter thinks that a message is
spam, it doesn't delete it. It keeps it on the server in a folder called "spam"
so that you can look at it to see if it's spam or not. The settings for the filter
are configured using webmail. Log in to your account on the New Hope mail
server, which is located at
http://mail.nehp.net
and type in the username and password that you normally use for your email.
This should bring you to a screen that looks something like this, except there
will probably be more messages in your inbox:
What we want to do now is to make sure that we can see the folder that contains
the spam that is getting filtered out. Check the list of folders on the top
left corner of the screen:
On your account, the "spam" folder at the bottom may not show up. What
we're about to do is to make it show up, so if it already is there you can
skip to the bottom
of the instructions where we configure the filter. Otherwise, we need to
subscribe to the folder.
Here's how we do it:
Subscribe to the spam folder:
- When you log into the mail server, you'll
probably go right to the inbox. At the top of the screen, there will be a link
that says "Folders." Click on it.
- This will bring you to a list of folders that you can subscribe to. What
we want to do is subscribe to the spam folder. The screen should look like this:
- Select the folder that says "INBOX.spam." It
will look like this:
- Click on the "subscribe" button. After you do, the screen should refresh
and then "INBOX.spam" should show up in the list of folders that you are subscribed
to, like so:
- At this point, the "spam" folder will still not show up on the left side
of the screen. Click on the "refresh folder list" pictured below, and then it
should show up.
- It should now look like this:
- Now, messages that the filter thinks may be spam will go to this spam folder
that you just set up. This spam folder will also show up on your mail client
(such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape Mail, or Macintosh Mail)
if it's configured
to use IMAP mail (and not POP mail).
Here's how it looks in Macintosh Mail:
It may look slightly different in your client, but the basic idea is the same -
there will be a spam folder somewhere, and it
will probably associated with your Inbox. Messages that the filter thinks are
spam will be placed in this folder. Because this spam filter doesn't guarentee
false positives, it may be a good idea to check this from time to time to make
sure there aren't any messages that you wanted in there.
Also, messages in the spam folder will not get ereased on their own. It's
a good idea to go erase messages in the spam folder every once in awhile to make
sure that you don't end up with several hundred (or thousand) messages sitting
on the mail server.
Setting up spam filter settings:
- Click on the "Options" link that's at the top of the page. It's just to the
right of the "Folders" link that we clicked on last time to add the spam
folder last time.
After you click on it, this will take you to the "Options" control panel,
which will look like this:
- Click on the link that says "Spam Filter Configuration" and you'll get to
this screen:
- This is the screen where we will customize the spam filter. The first thing
that we'll want to check are the general settings, which is at the bottom of
the page.
- There are several things we can change in the general settings. Probably the
best thing to try first if you're still getting too much spam
is to change the Acceptable Languages from "all" to
"English," unless of course you have people send you email in other languages
on a fairly regular basis.
It's probably only a good idea to change
the setting at the top ("Spam Score") if you're having trouble with it. The default
setting (5) will catch a considerable amount of spam, but be careful - if you make
the number lower, you are more likely to end up with messages that you wanted in
your spam folder. If you make the number higher, a smaller number of messages will
go to the spam folder - resulting in more messages that might be spam in your
inbox.
- Another valuable tool in the spam filter is the personal Allow and Deny
address list. The explaination of how these lists work is in the middle of the
page, and it looks like this:
These are easier to understand once we understand the concept of a whitelist
and a blacklist:
 | A whitelist is a list of email addresses that you give the spam
filter. The spam filter will take all messages from these email addresses and
decide that they are not spam, no matter if they look like they might
be spam or not.
| A blacklist is also a list of email addresses that you give the
spam filter. No matter if these messages look like spam or not, if they
are addresses that have been blacklisted, the filter will decide they are
spam.
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What this means is that if you are getting spam from someone, you can blacklist
their email address and all messages from them will go into the spam folder. If
you are getting messages that you want put in the spam folder, then you can
whitelist that address, and the messages will no longer be put there.
Let's say, for example, that Steve Jobs is trying to send you email, but the
filter thinks that he's a spammer. If you type his email address in the
"Address" field, select "Whitelist from" and click "Add New Address," then it
will look like this:
After this, the filter won't think that messages from that address are
spam.
However, if you're getting spam from people at AOL - not just one address, but
lots of different addresses, you can blacklist any list from aol.com, like
this:
Be careful, though - if you do this, then if any
messages from aol.com
will be treated as spam.
Let's say that this is the situation you're in - you've got lots of people
from aol.com sending you spam, but your brother has an email address
that ends in aol.com, and you don't want to send his stuff to the spam folder.
What we can do in this situation is to blacklist the *.aol.com address,
and then add your brother's email address to a "Don't Blacklist From"
list. If there are any other aol.com addresses that you want to get mail from,
you can add them to this list too. This is what it would look like:
Remember that the "don't blacklist from" or "don't whitelist from" lists
just are exceptions to the blacklist and whitelist lists that you have set
up. You don't need to worry about them unless you've got a blacklist or
a whitelist already set up.
Remember, if you have any questions about this, or if you're having trouble
with your spam filter, don't hesitate to call NEHP
tech support 723-8940.
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