Setting up Email Filters

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How it works Mozilla Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Netscape Mail Microsoft Outlook 2003 Other Email Clients	Disclaimers, Warnings, & Other Scary Stuff Legitimate Email Being Detected As Spam Email Privacy Issues

The ECEn mail server is capable of scanning incoming Email for viruses and detecting whether or not it is spam (see "Dealing With Spam" for more info on spam and spam filtering). If you want this service enabled for your ECEn email account, you will need to contact the ECEn SysOps and request it. Before doing so, however, please be aware of the disclaimers at the bottom of this page.

How it works

If you have enabled this service for your account and a spam or virus problem is detected in a message, the mail server will modify the message, usually by inserting a special "header" that marks it as spam. Your email client, by default, doesn't know what to do with this and will treat it like any other mail. Unless your email program is set up to respond to these marks in mail messages, you will continue to receive spam in your mailbox. Usually, this means setting up message filters on your email client that will look for those marks and then move any messages that have them to a special "junk" folder (See "Dealing With Spam" for information on why you would want to do this instead of deleting them directly). Follow the steps below to set up filters for your preferred mail client:

Mozilla Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Netscape Mail

These popular mail clients are similar enough that they can be configured by following the same procedure. If you use any one of these, perform the following:

1	Start the program, whichever it is.

2	From the "Tools" menu, select "Message Filters...".

3	Click the "New..." button.

Give your new filter a name, such as "Spam-be-gone". From the leftmost drop-down combo box, select "Customize..."

Click for visual guide

5	Type the following in the text field labeled "New Message Header:" `X-ECEn-Spam-Scanned` and click the "Add" button. NOTE: Make sure it is typed exactly the same, including capital/lowercase letters.

6	Since we also want to pick up any messages labeled as virus-infested, type `X-ECEn-Virus-Scanned` and click the "Add" button again.

You should now see something like this:

Click for screenshot

Click "OK" to accept the changes.

8	Click on the leftmost drop-down combo box again. You should now see "X-ECEn-Spam-Scanned" and "X-ECEn-Virus-Scanned" in the list of options. Choose "X-ECEn-Spam-Scanned".

9	From the second drop-down combo box (the one in the middle), select "is".

10	Type `Spam` in the textbox on the right.

11	Hit the "More" button to give us another row so that we can handle virus Emails as well.

12	Repeat the operation, choosing "X-ECEn-Virus-Scanned" from the left, "is" from the middle, and typing `Infected` in the textbox on the right.

13	Make sure the "Match any of the following" radio button is selected.

After the last several steps, you should now have something like this in the top half of the window:

Click for screenshot

15	The bottom half of the window (under the "More" and "Fewer" buttons) contains a list of things we can do with any emails that are determined to be spam or infected. To have spam/virus emails automatically moved to a special "spam" folder, check the "move to folder" option.

16	From the drop-down combo box, select a folder that you would like to have spam moved to, or use the "new folder" button to create a folder for the purpose.

You should now see something like this in the bottom half of the window:

Click for screenshot

18	Hit the "OK" button. You should now see a shiny new filter in the list. Make sure that the "enabled" option is checked and close the window.

Microsoft Outlook 2003

Please note that at this time, Outlook Express does not support ECEn spam filtering.

1	Start Outlook 2003. From the "Tools" menu, select "Rules and Alerts..."

2	Click on the "New Rule" button.

Check the button labeled "Start from a blank rule", then click on the "Next" button.

Click for visual guide

Under "Step 1", check the box labeled "with specific words in the message header". Under "Step 2", click on the words "specific words".

Click for visual guide

5	In the upper text box, type the following: `X-ECEn-Spam-Scanned: Spam` Make sure that it is typed exactly as shown here. Capital letters, spaces, and punctuation all matter. Then click the "Add" button.

6	Repeat the process, this time typing: `X-ECEn-Virus-Scanned: Infected` Make sure the text is exactly the same, then click the "Add" button again.

You should now see something like this:

Click for screenshot

8	Click the "OK" button, then "Next".

Under "Step 1", check the box labeled "move it to the specified folder". Under "Step 2", click on the word "specified".

Click for visual guide

10	Create or choose a folder that you want to hold your spam. "Junk Email" or "Spam" would be good choices. Then hit "OK".

11	Click "Next", then "Next". Think of a nice name for your rule, like "Spam-be-toast", and enter it in the text box provided. Make sure that "Turn on this rule" is checked.

The final result should be something like this:

Click for screenshot

13	Click "Finish", make sure your new rule is checked, then "OK". You're done! All email flagged as spam should now be redirected to the folder you chose as soon as it is received.

Other Email Clients

If you are using an email program not described here, contact the ECEn SysOps for help setting up spam filtering.

Disclaimers, Warnings, & Other Scary Stuff

Legitimate Email Being Detected As Spam

There's no such thing as 100% accurate spam detection---even another human would be unlikely to pull it off. While most programs try to strike a balance between letting spam through and misclassifying legitimate email that errs on the side of the former, errors on both sides are a real possibility. By opting to have spam filtering done on your account you are accepting the risk of having legitimate emails marked as spam. We encourage you to screen the emails marked as spam for such 'false positives', especially in the first several days after filtering begins.

Email Privacy Issues

The filter we are using employs a number of different tests to scan your email, including querying certain non-BYU databases with certain information about each email in an attempt to detect spam. You can learn more about the tests SpamAssassin runs by visiting the SpamAssassin site at http://spamassassin.apache.org . If you are concerned about privacy issues related to having your email scanned for spam detection we can point you to further information on the tests. When it comes right down to it, email as usually used is just an incredibly lousy way to have a private conversation. Even if you don't have your email scanned, if you have concerns about privacy you should probably consider some other method of communication.