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 working.
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, depending on how aggressive you want it to be. 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 DTC server, which is located at
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 like the illustration. 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:
1. 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.
2. 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:
3. Select the folder that says "INBOX.spam." It will look like this:
4. 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:
5. 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.
6. It should now look like this:
7. 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 guarantee 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 erased 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:
1. 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:
2. Click on the link that says "Spam Filter Configuration" and you'll get to this screen:
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Another valuable tool in the spam filter is the personal Allow and Deny address list. The explanation 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.
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