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Configuring Anti-SPAM

MagicSpam™ is your first defense against SPAM. MagicSpam™ uses block lists, reverse lookup verification, and proper email rule checking to overt most SPAM messages.  It does not, however, do any content analysis. SpamAssassin™ is your second line of defense. If additional anti-spam measures are needed, you can enable SpamAssassin™ to perform content analysis of all of the emails that are passed by MagicSpam™.

MagicSpam™

To configure MagicSpam™, log into your CPanel and click on the MagicSpam™ icon as shown below:

 

The MagicSpam™ will appear as shown below.  The bar chart displays counts for SPAM and HAM (not SPAM), as well as any rate limiting and the count of emails exempt from spam checking.

 

To troubleshoot issues with legitimate email being blocked, or spam not getting caught, you can check the logs to examine what is happening.  Click the Log button as shown below:

 

The log search tab will open as shown below.  The log search window contains an area for searching the log, and also an area that would show any issues with senders triggering rate limits.

 

To search for an email that has an issue, you may enter that email address in the Sender box and click Search. You may also just click Search to see the entire log.

 

Upon clicking Search, the log will display as shown below. Each entry shows the date and time, the originating IP address, and the sending email address.  The Type column shows either the reason why the email was blocked, or the reason why the email was passed.  Blocked entries are in red, passed entries are in green.

 

Suppose a legitimate email from modernsalon@emarketingservices.com was blocked, and you were able to find the log entry as shown below.  You can see that this email was found on block_list 41.  This email also originated from IP address 205.162.42.208, which would be on block_list 41.  To prevent emails from this sender being blocked in the future, you could add modernsalon@emarketingservices.com to the white list.  Alternatively, you can add all emails from emarketingservices.com by using a wild card, i.e. *@emarketingservices.com.  It is not recommended that you add the IP address to the white list.

 

To view your spam settings, click on the Spam Settings tab as shown below:

 

You can turn on any filtering under spam settings below, but it is recommended to use the Recommended settings.  Note: Turning off any filtering will NOT have any effect UNLESS it was turned off by the SDS staff.  If you believe that one of these settings is filtering out too much legitimate email, you can contact SDS about the possibilities of turning off that filter.

 

To view your IP reputation settings, click on the IP Reputation settings tab as shown below:

 

Similar to Spam Settings, you can turn on any filtering under spam settings below, but it is recommended to use the Recommended settings.  Note: Turning off any filtering will NOT have any effect UNLESS it was turned off by the SDS staff.  If you believe that one of these settings is filtering out too much legitimate email, you can contact SDS about the possibilities of turning off that filter.

 

To view your exemption list, click on the Exemptions tab as shown below:

 

There are four exemption lists and list of mailboxes with no spam protection at all.  You can add sender emails or IP addresses to either blacks lists (always reject) or white lists (always accept).

 

To add an email to the white list that has been marked as spam, but you need to be able to receive, click the down arrow for Sender From White List as shown below.

 

Enter the email address of the sender you want white listed and hit Add.  Note: You can also add all emails from a particular domain by using a wild card, i.e. *@acme.com.  Note: The use of wild cards is permitted in the white lists, but not the blacks lists.  Note: Do NOT white list major domains shared by the public such as gmail.com, yahoo.com or verizon.com.

 

SpamAssassin™

To configure SpamAssassin™, log into your CPanel and click on the SpamAssassin™ icon as shown below:

 

The SpamAssassin™ console will appear as shown below.  By default, SpamAssassin™ will be turned off in your account.

 

To enable SpamAssassin™, click the Enable Apache SpamAssassin™ button as shown below:

 

For each of the settings you save, you will be taken to a confirmation screen.  Click the Go Back button to return to the SpamAssassin™ console as shown below:

 

Auto delete will be disabled by default.

 

SpamAssassin™ uses a scoring method where "spammy" content increases the score.  On a scale of 0 to 10, 0 is not spammy at all, and 10 is extremely spammy.  You probably will not want to delete spam with a score of only 5, but rather have it sent to the spam folder in case you think that a legitimate email has been flagged.  Change the score from 5 to 10 so that only emails that are most certainly spam are deleted as shown below:

 

Next click the Auto-Delete Spam button to turn this feature on:

 

The spam box is also disabled by default.  You will generally want to turn on the spam box just in case you need to rescue a legitimate email that was incorrectly marked as spam (false positive).  To enable the spam box, click the Enable Spam Box button as shown below.  The spam box will appear as a folder in your webmail named spam.  (Note: The spambox folder is not the correct folder.  This folder is left over from the ASSP anti-spam program that has been disabled.)  You can also subscribe to the spam folder in your email client (i.e. Outlook, Thunderbird or Apple Mail) if you setup your account connection as an IMAP connection.  (Click here for more information on setting up IMAP connections.)

 

You can also change the spam settings for SpamAssassin™. Click the Configure Apache SpamAssassin™ button as shown below:

 

5 is the default required_score.  If you want to tighten the filter to reject more email as spam, lower the required_score.  If you want to loosen the filter to prevent false positives, raise the required_score.  The other settings in this screen require expert knowledge to adjust them.

 

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