Getting
The Most Out Of SPAM
Filtering
Junk
email, also called SPAM,
is a fact of Internet life
that nobody enjoys having
to deal with. Brainstorm
incorporates a powerful
spam filtering system based
on Spam Assassin, a widely
used software, which attempts
to filter spam by using
rules developed under a
shared development effort.
The system that we have
put in place sorts through
an average of two
million pieces
of email every day, attempting
to filter out the worst
spam while still making
sure that your legitimate
messages are not affected.
After the filtering process,
an average of 60,000 valid
messages are delivered
to our customers' email
Inboxes. The filtering
process is not an exact
science, therefore a small
percentage of spam will
make it's way through the
filter into the Inbox.
We
recommend that customers
deal with any spam that
does make it through by
using filters built into
their email programs. For
example Microsoft Outlook
2003 and Mac Mail both
have good built-in junk
mail filters. If you use
Microsoft Outlook 2003
you can increase the filtering
by clicking on Tools, Options,
then click the Junk E-Mail
button and set it to "high".
We
also recommend Trend Micro
Anti-Spam Pilot which works
with both Outlook and Outlook
Express and is available through
this link.
How
to Check Your Spamfiltered
Folder for Missing Messages
- Go
to Brainstorm Webmail
at http://webmail.brainstorminternet.net.
On the left side click
the plus sign (+) next
to Mail, then click on
spamfiltered. Spamfiltered
is the folder where all
email that appears to
be spam is sent.
- Look
through the messages.
If you find a message
that you want, you might
want to whitelist it
and copy it to your Inbox.
To whitelist a message
means that in the future
all email from that person
will bypass the spam
filter. You can check
the box next to the message
and click Whitelist at
the top.
- You
can also copy a message
from spamfiltered to
your Inbox. That will
allow it to be downloaded
to your email program.
To do this check the
box next to the message,
then use the dropdown
menu above to select
Inbox and click Copy.
Adjusting
Spam Settings in Brainstorm
Webmail
- Go
to Brainstorm Webmail
at http://webmail.brainstorminternet.net.
On the left side click
on the plus sign (+)
next to Mail, then click
on Spam.
- Important:
Please do not enter any
values in anything but
Hit Level or Kill Level.
- Hit
Level is the most important
value. It is the score
by which spam is filtered,
the lower the value the
more messages will be
filtered. The default
value is 4.5. If you
set this to a lower value
more spam will be filtered.
If you set it to a higher
value less spam will
be filtered. All filtered
spam will go into the
spamfiltered folder.
It can be recovered if
necessary. Some good
choices are 3 (for more
aggressive filtering)
and 7 (for less filtering).
- Kill
Level is the value that
will silently discard
spam without putting
it in the spamfiltered
folder. This value should
be very high, since there
is no chance of recovering
these emails once they
are tagged as spam and
deleted. We recommend
you do not make any changes
to this. The default
value is 15.
Emptying
Your Spamfiltered Folder
It’s
not necessary to empty
your spamfiltered folder.
It’s
automatically purged so
only the current week’s
messages are retained.
For customers that prefer
to empty it anyway here’s
a tip: Create an Empty
Spam button on your toolbar.
Here’s
how:
- From
your Inbox, click on
the Options button up
on top. Then click on
Deleting and Moving Messages.
- Check
the box that says Display
the Empty Spam link in
the menubar.
As
always, thank you for choosing
Brainstorm Internet. It
is our pleasure to serve
you and we will continue
striving for new ways to
improve your Internet experience.
If there is a specific
tech support related topic
that you would like us
to address in our weekly
tech tip we welcome and
invite you to email
us your suggestion.
Your
Brainstorm Internet Team
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