Monthly Archive for June, 2008

Our current mail system can do some checking for spam email. It does have to be enabled, and once enabled, it needs to be checked because “good” mail can fall through the cracks and end up in the spam folder.

It’s especially important to understand what is happening if you use a desktop client like Outlook to read your email. Because of the way Outlook (and other clients) work, turning on the spam filter may mean you miss email as it may never get delivered to your computer. Mail in the spam folder may not be sent via the POP protocol used by our mail host. Not seeing spam sounds good until you’ve missed an important email. If you use an external client, you should probably filter at that level and not on our mail host. Keep in mind though, I don’t know how you are reading your email, so you may be checking your spam already.

If you only use the webmail system, turning on the filter may have some benefits for you, but you’ll still need to be vigilant and check your spam folder often.

To enable the folder in our current webmail system, log in and look at the menu bar on the left side of the page. Above the calendar you will see your current folders…

In this case you will see that “Spam” is disabled. Click on “disabled” and you’ll be taken to a configuration screen…

Simply click “Yes” and “Submit” and filtering will be enabled.
Think carefully about this though, because if you turn on filtering you run the risk of having “good” mail end up being labeled spam. You will also need to train the email system to know what spam is for emails it doesn’t catch. If you have spam in your inbox, open the message and you will notice a menu bar in the message (assuming you are reading this in webmail)…

Clicking on “This is Spam” will “train” the system. Don’t click on good mail though.

In the spam folder, the opposite will be true, clicking “This is not Spam” will train the system that the message is good.

Aloha!