Any Email bounced by this system cannot be retrieved.
Suggested initial scores of Quarantine 50 and Reject 70 are recommended
Please check your quarantine regularly, mail is only held for 10 days.
Analysis of the spam scores of your incoming mail recommended.
How does it work?
AntiSpamCentre.com
is built around the SpamAssassin product. SpamAssassin inspects email
as it reaches Net-Work mail servers and gives it a spam score based on:
its origin; header information and content. We have modified the
default rule set for SpamAssassin, and review our rule set on a regular
basis, to reject as much spam as possible before it is accepted by our
servers. We do not advertise what changes we have made to the default
configuration to stay at least one step in front of the spammers.
The
score that SpamAssassin returns is multiplied by 10; this is done as we
prefer to work with whole numbers. So a SpamAssassin score of 5.9
becomes 59.
More information about SpamAssassin is available from www.spamassassin.org.
How do I log on?
From
http://www.antispamcentre.com select the login menu option. The menu is
located on the horizontal black bar at the top of the screen.
You will be prompted to enter your email address and password.
If
you want to manage mail for an entire domain name enter the domain name
rather than email address together with the appropriate password.
Once
you have logged in you are presented with the “Settings” page, your
menu bar will change giving you access to Stats, Settings, AcceptMail
List, RejectMail List, Quarantine, RejectedEmails and Webmail.
What settings can I change?
The
settings are changed by the Antispamcentre control center under the
‘settings’ menu option. [This is the page that loads when you first log
in.]
If you log in as the domain controller you can edit, add
and delete users within your domain name. The standard control panel
can only edit settings relating you your specific email address. Both
control panels work in the same way
The settings you can change from the control panels are.
Password
– you can change your login password to something you can remember -
this also changes the password for collecting your mail if your mail
destination is a Popbox rather than a forward.
Destination – you can choose to have your email delivered to a popbox on the antispamcentre server or forwarded to another email address.
Forward –
if your entry in the destination field includes a ‘@’, mail will be
forwarded to the address.- No check is made to see if this is a genuine
email address so be sure you enter a valid address.
Popbox
– if your entry in the destination field is blank or does not contain a
‘@’ it is assumed you want the mail delivered to a popbox on the
antispamcentre server. Regardless of what you enter in this field pop
box names will be assigned based on your email address. If you
currently have a popbox name not based on your email address this will
be retained as long as you do not alter the destination field.
Quarantine spam score threshold
– Emails with a value between the Reject Score and the Quarantine score
are placed in quarantine. The default and maximum value for this field
is 70. The minimum value is 0. No mail will be quarantined if the
Quaranitine value is equal to or greater that the Reject value.
Reject spam score threshold
– Any email scoring above the Reject spam score threshold is rejected.
The default and maximum value for this field is 70. The minimum value
is 0.
Reject Foul Language [default setting] – Email containing foul language will be rejected when this option is selected.
Auto Add to accept list [default setting]
– When the sender of an email that has been quarantined confirms they
are a ‘real person’ they are automatically added to your accept list
when this option is selected.
Domain Control Panel Only
Forward for Catch All account
– you can enter a ‘@’ followed by a domain name in the destination
field. So entering @newdomain.com whilst managing domain.com will
forward mail retaining the part before the @. So mail addressed to
fred@domain.com would be forwarded to fred@newdomain.com. (This option
is only available with the SMTP Clean product)
Bounce for Catch All account
– you can enter the word Bounce (case sensitive) in the destination
field. Any mail received for your domain name that is not addressed to
a defined user will be bounced.
What settings should I change to reduce the Spam I receive?
If
you look in the headers of the email you receive you will see each mail
is given a spam score (in outlook open the mail then select >view
>options then browse down internet headers until you see
X-Spam-Score).
By looking at the genuine emails you receive
you will soon see the highest scores your genuine contacts are scoring.
For a normal user we would not expect this to be above 50, it may be as
low as 30. If you have one correspondent scoring particularly high, add
them to your AcceptMail list (see ‘How does the AcceptMail list
work?’).Set your Reject spam score threshold to just above this level.
If you do not have time to check what scores your incoming mail is
being given it is usually safe to set the Reject spam score threshold
to 50, if you want to be completely safe leave it set at 70.
Now
look at the spam scores the ‘spam’ you receive are getting. Some spam
will creep through with very low or even minus spam scores; however you
will see what the majority are scoring. Set the Quarantine spam score
threshold to just below this level. If you do not have time to check
what scores your incoming mail is being given set the Quarantine spam
score threshold to 20. As the worse thing setting Quarantine spam score
threshold does is send an email to a genuine contact asking them to
confirm they are a genuine contact it is safe to set this to 0.
Below is a table outlining some settings you might try.
Setting
Quarantine spam score threshold
Reject spam score threshold
Default
70
70
Suggested Starting Values
40
70
Average Screen *
30
50
Normal
20
50
High Screen **
10
45
Fully Screened **
0
40
*caution advised until full analysis of incoming email completed **not advised until full analysis of incoming email completed
When
you alter the Quarantine spam score threshold it is important to
monitor the emails that are quarantined as you may find automated
emails and emails from lists you subscribe to are being quarantined.
You can add these addresses to your Acceptmail list from the quarantine
screen (see ‘How does quarantine work?’). How does the quarantine work?
Every message that scores more than the spam quarantine threshold and scores less than the spam reject threshold is quarantined.
An
email is sent to the sender [of a quarantined email] asking them to
verify they are sending genuine correspondence. This email gives
instructions to the sender enabling them, via a simple web interface,
to release the quarantined email for immediate delivery. Once this has
been done, the sender is added to your AcceptMail list so regular
correspondents would only have to verify themselves once. NB if you
have chosen to de select the ‘Auto Add to accept list’ field this will
not happen.
Select Quarantine from the menu to access your
quarantined email from here you can accept or reject quarantined email
as well as add sender addresses to AcceptMail and RejectMail lists.
This feature is important to make sure you receive automated emails
(such as order confirmations and circulars) and emails from lists you
subscribe to. How does the AcceptMail list work?
You can manage your AcceptMail list by selecting ‘AcceptMail List’ from the menu. Full
email address such as fred@mydomain.com in the AcceptMail list mean
that any mail from that address will be delivered to you with no Foul
Language check and minimal spam score checks being performed. The spam
check at 100 is retained to catch obvious spam (spammers can pretend to
be from email addresses might be on your AcceptMail List). Our normal
virus and executable file checks are still performed.
Domain
names such as mydomain.com can be entered into the AcceptMail list in
this case any mail from any sender in that domain will be accepted with
minimal checks.
When a correspondent whose email has been
quarantined confirms they are a genuine correspondent their email
address is added to the AcceptMail List.
If somebody is added
to your AcceptMail list via the quarantine that you would rather not
receive mail from you can use the appropriate Reject List button to
transfer the address to your RejectMail list. See “How does the
RejectMail list work?”
If somebody is added to your AcceptMail
list via the quarantine and you want to receive mail from them and
their colleagues at the same Domain name select the appropriate Domain
button to remove the “user@” from the email address entered.
If
you are logged on as a Domain Administrator any entries in the
AcceptMail list affect every user within your domain. So if
fred@yourdomain.com is in the AcceptMail list and you manage
mydomain.com. Email addressed to any valid user at mydomain.com from
fred@yourdomain.com will be accepted with minimal checks.
How does the RejectMail list work?
Manage your RejectMail list by selecting ‘RejectMail List’ from the menu.
If a full email address such as fred@mydomain.com is in the RejectMail list any mail from that address will be rejected.
Domain
names such as mydomain.com can be entered into the RejectMail list in
this case any mail from any sender in that domain will be rejected.
As
with the AcceptMail list a Domain button is provided to remove the
user@ from an email address enabling you to quickly reject all mil
coming from a domain name.
If you are logged on as a Domain
Administrator any entries in the RejectMail list affect every user
within your domain. So if fred@yourdomain.com is in the RejectMail list
and you manage mydomain.com. Email addressed to any valid user at
mydomain.com from fred@yourdomain.com will be rejected. What is the Rejected Emails section?
View
a list of email that have been rejected by selecting RejectedEmails
from the main menu this will offer you 10 days history and filter on
reason for rejection.
Possible Reasons for rejection:
Blacklisted Sender – you added the senders email address or domain name to the RejectMail list.
Contains Blacklisted word – The email contained foul language.
Executable Attachment
– The email had an attachment that was executable. This could
potentially be a new virus that is so new that it is not recognised by
anti virus software.
Honeypot Trap – We have some old
domain names that are no longer used. These domain names only receive
spam email so any address sending to these domain names are added to
our master RejectMail list.
Invalid Sender in Header – What appears in the from field is not necessarily what is in the header. We check for obvious forged senders in headers.
MIME Defect
– Attachments are sent using a protocol called MIME. If there is a
defect in the MIME this can hide a virus that is activated as the
message is delivered. For this reason we reject all mail with a MIME
defect.
No Sender in Header – If there is no sender listed in the email header it is assumed the mail is spam and it is rejected.
Sender Verification – If we are not able to validate the senders address, ie: the mail is from a non existent sender, we will reject it.
Spam – The email scored above the Reject Spam Score Threshold.
User Rejected – The email had been originally quarantined any you have chosen to reject it using the web interface.
Virus – The email contained a virus and has been rejected.
What protection do I get if I do not change any settings?
Any message that scores 70 or more will be rejected.
Any message that contains foul language will be rejected.
Any message containing a known virus will be rejected (except those in a password protected zip file. Do not open password protected zip files unless it is a file you are expecting).
Any
message with an executable attachment will be rejected (this is to
catch new viruses that are so new they are not recognised by anti virus
software).
Any message with a mime defect will be rejected
(again this is to catch new viruses that are so new they are not
recognised by anti virus software).
These settings will
stop email bound viruses. We can not guarantee it will stop all
viruses, as we do not know what new virus might be invented tomorrow.
Viruses can reach your computer from other sources (eg: web sites, CDs)
as well as Email so it is important that you run Anti Virus software on
your computer system.
These settings will stop about 70% of spam with virtually no chance of genuine mail being bounced as Spam.
What will Stats tell me?
The stats option from the menu gives you the following detail:
Quarantine
How many were quarantined
How many were released by you
How many were rejected by you
How many were released by the sender
Rejected
How many were rejected and why.
Can I use Web Mail?
If
your mail delivery is to a mail box on our server (rather than
forwarded to a different address) a WebMail option will be available on
the menu. From here you can access your mail box content through our
web mail.