Configuring the Spam Filter

To configure the spam filter:

1. On your Home page, click Spam Filter in the Tools group. Alternatively, you can click the spam filter icon or its status in the Info group.
2. On the General tab, configure the following settings as required:
   • Enable spam filtering. Select this option to enable spam filtering.
   • Use server wide settings. Select this option if your provider or server administrator has prepared black and/or white lists of e-mail addresses that you would like to use together with your own restrictions. Black list, shown under Black list tab, includes e-mail addresses of spammers, and white list, shown under White list tab, includes e-mail addresses of trustworthy correspondents or entities. If the Use server wide settings check box is grayed out, i.e. not selectable, this means that there are no preconfigured spam filter settings on the server.
   • Hits required for spam. This setting adjusts spam filter sensitivity. SpamAssassin performs a number of different tests on contents and subject line of each message. As a result, each message scores a number of points. The higher the number, the more likely a message is spam. For example, a message containing the text string "BUY VIAGRA AT LOW PRICE!!!" in Subject line and message body scores 8.3 points. By default, the filter sensitivity is set so that all messages that score 7 or more points are classified as spam. If you receive lots of spam messages with the current setting, to make filter more sensitive, try setting a lesser value in the Hits required for spam box; for example, 6. If you are missing your e-mails because your spam filter thinks they are junk, try reducing filter sensitivity by setting a higher value in the Hits required for spam box.

     Note: To further improve spam filter accuracy, you may want to train your spam filter on e-mail messages you receive (see the section Improving Accuracy of Spam Detection for instructions).

   • What to do with spam mail. If you are sure that your spam filter is accurate, you may want to set the filter to automatically delete all incoming messages recognized as spam. To do this, select the Delete option. If you wish to filter mail with the software on your local computer, select the Mark as spam and store in mailbox option, and then specify how spam filter should mark the messages recognized as spam. "X-Spam-Flag: YES" and "X-Spam-Status: Yes" headers are added to the message source by default, and if you want, the spam filter will also include a specific text string to the beginning of Subject line.
   • Modify spam mail subject. To help you filter out the messages identified as spam, tell spam filter to add a certain text to spam message subject. To do this, select the Modify spam mail subject check box. Enter your text into the by tag field if you wish to change the default tag. Note that even if this check box is not selected, a header "X-Spam: Yes" will be added to the headers of any mail message recognized as spam.
   • Spam detection alert text. For a specific spam warning text to appear in a body of a spam letter, enter it into the Spam detection alert text field.
3. To save your changes, click OK.
4. If you do not want to receive e-mail from specific senders, add their e-mail addresses to the spam filter's black list.
   • Black list, shown on the Black list tab, includes e-mail addresses of spammers
   • To add an entry to the black list, on the Black list tab, type an e-mail address into the E-mail pattern box. For example: address@spammers.net, *@spammers.net. An asterisk (*) means any combination of symbols. Click Add.
   • To remove an entry from the black list, select it and click Remove.
5. If you want to be sure that you will not miss e-mail from specific senders, add their e-mail addresses to the spam filter's white list.
   • shown on the White list group, includes e-mail addresses of trustworthy correspondents or entities.
   • To add an entry to the white list, on the White list tab, type an e-mail address into the E-mail pattern box. For example: address@mycompany.com, *@mycompany.com. An asterisk (*) means any combination of symbols. Click Add.
   • To remove an entry from the white list, select it and click Remove.