Skip to main content
Sign In |
  Help (new window)

Webville Networks Knowledge Base

Go Search
Webville Networks Knowledge Base
  
Webville Networks Knowledge Base > Knowledge Base > JunkMailChecklist  

JunkMailChecklist

View All Site Content

Recent Changes
Keywords
Junk; Spam 
Article Content
Junk Mail Checklist
 
Webville does extensive server-side filtering. Outlook 2007 does client-side filtering and interfaces with Exchange's server-side filtering. These are some of the most important things you can do to minimize the amount of junk mail you receive and reduce false positives (where legitimate email is rejected or routed to your junk folder). To keep the length of the list manageable, full explanations and technical justifications of each item are not included here. Contact us directly for clarification where necessary.
  1. Use Outlook 2007 not an older version. 2007 version interfaces with server side filtering.
  2. Turn on junk filtering and set appropriate options in Outlook 2007. (Tools, Options, Preferences, Junk Email). See screen shots below. These options control your safe list, server side and client side filtering.
  3. Get the latest updates for Outlook's client side junk filter automatically by subscribing to Microsoft Update.
  4. Consider creating temporary, disposable addresses for use with online services. Distribution Group addresses are no-charge. We can easily create ebay@yourdomain.com for example. See Multiple Identities.
  5. When filtering is turned on, mail from senders on your safe sender list is never treated as junk. Review and prune that list. Never add anything overly broad to the list. Do not add entire domains such as @aol.com
  6. Your safe sender list from Outlook 2007 and Outlook Web Access is replicated to the servers on a nightly basis. Senders on your white list will not be rejected once replication has occurred.
  7. Sender addresses on spam are
    • Phony
    • Different every time (don't bother blocking senders)
    • Designed to exploit your safe sender list
  8. In the Trust Center (Tools menu, Trust Center, Automatic Download) you can control whether Outlook automatically downloads and displays pictures when you open an HTML e-mail. Verify the default setting remains in effect, preventing the download and display of pictures from untrusted senders. Downloading pictures verifies to the sender that your e-mail address is valid, which encourages more junk mailings.
  9. Exchange 2007's server-side filters are updated automatically and frequently. When a new type of spam is successful in reaching you, remember the next filter update will probably eliminate it.
  10. Mail for your domain needs to come directly here from the senders and not be forwarded from another mail server, that is, DNS MX records must be configured exactly as indicated in DNS Info.
  11. The Sender ID SPF record for your domain must be configured exactly as indicated in DNS Info.
  12. In addition to all the filtering built into Exchange Server and Outlook, Webville uses the Spamhaus IP block list service. Close to 75% of senders connections to our systems (millions per week) are rejected because the sender is listed as a known spammer in the Spamhaus database.
  13. If for any reason an incoming message is rejected as spam, the intended recipient's server usually returns it to the sender with the error message which details why the message was rejected. If you have one of those reports, we can help you interpret it. Forward the detail from the headers to support@webville.net for analysis.
  14. Exchange server's content filtering system assigns a SCL (spam confidence level) rating to each message ranging from 1 to 9. If the rating is 7 or higher the message is rejected, if the rating is 4 to 6 the message is delivered to the user's junk mail folder. If the rating is 3 or lower the message is delivered to the user's inbox. These Webville-wide settings can be overridden on a per-mailbox basis at client request.
  15. Safe sender lists are a feature of mailboxes which cannot apply to groups (distribution lists).
  16. Programmatically generated emails are almost always rejected unless the sender is on your safe sender list.
 
Junkoptions1
 
Junkoptions2
Related Articles
DNS Info.aspx 
Last modified at 9/28/2009 9:34 AM  by Bill Coulter (admin)