 |
Miscellanous Support |
Webii.net Spam Email Filtering Tool
Select hosting accounts include a "Spam Filtering" option in the Email Setup area of the Control Panel. This page contains more detailed information about this feature.
What is "spam"?
The slang term "spam" is used to described unwanted or unsolicited email, usually email sent in bulk. Sometimes unwanted emails also contain viruses or other harmful attachments.
What does Webii do to prevent unwanted email from reaching my in box?
By default, Webii already enables a strong firewall that filters out some known open-relay servers and recognized virus attachments. This system has proven to block a large percentage of unwanted email, however additional prevention methods are available to help customers combat the ever increasing "spam" problem more effectively. Some accounts allow the customer to customize the filtering settings for each email address. It is also often recommended to consider a local solution, such as a virus and email filtering software you can install on your computer.
How do I get the Spam Filtering feature for my account?
Contact technical support at support@webii.net to request that spam filtering be enabled for your web hosting account. This service is offered at no additional charge.
RBL Options (What is an RBL?)
You can select from any of the listed RBLs in the interface to use to filter your incoming email. RBLs ("relay block lists") are lists of servers that are recognized as resources for spam. Each list is maintained by different parties, who each have their own procedures and policies for adding servers to the list. Some webmasters have preferences for which lists they want to use to filter their email.
If one of the emails sent to you is detected as coming from a resource/server listed on the RBLs you selected, it will be automatically deleted before the email reaches your mailbox. An RBL will typically determine whether an email is "spam" based on the IP address of the server that is used to send the email.
How do I know which RBLs are best?
There isn't a unanimous "best" RBL to recommend. Since each RBL is managed by a different party in a different way, each one could contain drastically different information. Some web professionals prefer certain methods for listing recognized "spam" servers, while other web professionals might frown on those methods. For these reasons, Webii provides options for each customer to choose from. For more information about individual RBL lists, visit the appropriate web site by clicking the "more information" link.
Keyword Filtering Options
Filter your emails based on specific keywords or phrases found in the subject line. Enter the specific words or phrases in the box, each on a separate line. If any of these keywords or phrases are detected in the subject line of an email, the email will be automatically deleted before it reaches your mail box.
By default, any keyword or phrase you type in case sensitive. If you would like it to be case insensitive (meaning it will detect the word, no matter if it's lowercase, capitalized, etc.), add a (i) before the keyword. For example:
If you type Kangaroo in the box, the keyword Kangaroo with a capital "K" is what the filter will search for. If you type (i)Kangaroo, the filter will match "kangaroo", "Kangaroo", "KANGAROO" or any other mixed case version of the word.
For advanced users:
You can use ^ and $ anchors to specify the beginning and ending strings, or just any expression without them, by default this is case sensitive. For case insensitivity you can use the following keyword format: (i)pattern or (i)^pattern$.
Email Header Filtering Options (For More Advanced Users)
Filter your emails based on specific email headers. Enter the email headers in the appropriate box of the Spam Filtering setup screen, each different one on a separate line. If any of these email headers are detected in the email, the email will be automatically deleted before it reaches your mail box.
The syntax for the headers is 'X-Header: BLOCK THIS'. You can use the ^ and $ anchors for regular expressions just like the subject blocking, this is case sensitive. Also you can use the following syntax for case insensitivity Xheader: (i)pattern or Xheader: (i)^pattern$.
Filtering Based on Attachments
Filter your emails based on specific attachments included in the unwanted emails. Enter the names of each email attachment, each different one on a separate line. If any of these attachments are detected in an email, the email will be automatically deleted before it reaches your mail box.
The attachments you specify can be an extension (such as .exe), or a full filename (such as filename.exe) or part of the filename (such as just filename). For advanced users, regular expressions can also be used.
Filtering Specific Email Address and Domains
A) Do not allow incoming emails from the following email addresses/domains.
Enter specific email addresses/domains, each on a separate line. If any of these domains/email addresses are detected in the "From" header of the email that is sent to you, that email will be automatically deleted before it reaches your mail box. Enter email addresses/domains in any of the following formats:
@domain.com or .domain.com or domain.com or user@domain.com
B) Always allow incoming email from the following email addresses/domains.
Enter the specific email addresses/domains, each on a separate line. If any of these domains/email addresses are detected in the "From" header of the email, the email will be automatically allowed to go to your mail box, regardless of any other filtering options you have chosen. Enter email addresses/domains in any of the following formats:
@domain.com or .domain.com or domain.com or user@domain.com
Forwarding Copies of Detected Spam
If you type an email address into the "Forward email determined to be spam to" box, any email that is determined to be spam by the spam filtering program (based on any of the filtering methods that you chose) will be automatically forwarded to the selected email address.
Forwarding Copies of Detected Viruses
If you type an email address into the "Forward email determined to contain viruses to" box, any email that is determined to contain a virus by the spam filtering program (based on any of the filtering methods that you chose) will be automatically forwarded to the selected email address.
Can I use pattern matching or regular expressions to filter emails?
Yes, many of the features in our email filtering interface allow you to use regular expressions, extending the capabilities of filtering by subject line, email headers, and attachments. If you are an advanced user seeking information about this option, the resource below provides a general guide to regular expressions.
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/helpsheets/regex.html
Using Razor
The "Use Razor" option will enable a powerful spam filtering program called Razor to determine if the incoming email is spam. Razor is a distributed, collaborative, spam detection and filtering network. Through user contribution, Razor establishes a distributed and constantly updating catalogue of spam in propagation that is consulted by email clients to filter out known spam. Detection is done with statistical and randomized signatures that efficiently spot mutating spam content. User input is validated through reputation assignments based on consensus on report and revoke assertions which in turn is used for computing confidence values associated with individual signatures. For more information on the razor program, please visit the Razor website: http://razor.sourceforge.net/
Please bare in mind that Webii cannot be responsible for the affect that these filtering options have on your email. Webii does not guarantee the accuracy of any of these RBLs, of Razor, or of any other type of "spam" list. Webii provides these customizable filtering options so that each customer and/or webmaster may set their preferred standards for email management. For questions about the Spam Filtering feature, please email support@webii.net
|
