E-Mail Defense Solution FAQ
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Note: this page applies to old account types we no longer offer. We have left it up since it may be helpful for someone, since they get a decent amount of search traffic. All current hosting plans with a control panel use Plesk.

If you are an ITS client please contact us for assistance for your account.

Q: Who is supplying this solution?
A: The E-mail Defense Solution is being provided by a third party vendor and administered by our hosting partner, RapidSite. The antivirus scanning is being provided by a McAfee-based antivirus system.

Q: How does the E-mail Defense Solution determine what messages are spam?
A: Using a complicated set of formulas, the E-mail Defense Solution will check message headers, subject lines, and e-mail message text to determine if the message has known spam characteristics. Based on the results of these checks, the e-mail message will either be denied or delivered to the recipient e-mail address.

Q: Do I need to modify the systems' back end to determine how my spam settings will work?
A: No. Our hosting partner controls all spam detection settings. All you need to do is set your e-mail delivery options, through your account's Control Panel, for all e-mail with a Medium Probability of being spam.

Q: What will be the difference between the filtering done at the E-mail Defense Solution platform and the filtering done at the Control Panel level?
A: All e-mail will first be scanned at the E-mail Defense Solution level. Based on the results of the scanned e-mail, a threshold level will be assigned to the e-mail message. The threshold levels will be High Probability and Medium Probability that an e-mail message is spam. All e-mail with a High Probability of being spam will be rejected. Any e-mail with a Medium Probability of being spam will be delivered to the intended recipient. Within the Control Panel's Configure E-mail Tool for the account, there will be options provided to you regarding what to do with all e-mail with a Medium Probability of being spam. More information on these settings is contained within the next question.

Q: What Spam settings are available in the Control Panel's Configure E-mail tool?
A: You will have the ability to modify the delivery options for all e-mail with a Medium Probability of being Spam at the domain level, not the individual e-mail user level. The options will be:

• Reject Spam : This option will enable you to specify the delivery options for all incoming e-mail with a Medium Probability of being spam. Once enabled, the e-mail delivery will be rejected before delivery.
• Mark as [SPAM] and Deliver: This option will enable you to specify the delivery options for all e-mail with a Medium Probability of being Spam. Once enabled, the E-mail Defense Solution will append the text [SPAM] to the subject line of the e-mail and then deliver the e-mail to the intended recipient.
• Disable Spam Filtering: Disabling Spam filtering will request that the E-mail Defense Solution deliver all e-mail with a Medium Probability of being Spam to the intended recipient, without appending the text [SPAM] to the subject line.

Q: How will Spam filtering be set up for new accounts? How about my existing account?
A: For all new accounts provisioned after the implementation of the E-mail Defense Solution, the default spam filtering settings will be enabled and set to append the word [SPAM] to the subject line for all e-mail with a Medium Probability of being spam. For the existing accounts provisioned prior to implementation, the account will be migrated into the E-mail Defense Solution with the same default settings.

Q: How are Spam messages marked?
A: Any e-mail that has been identified with a Medium Probability of being Spam will have the subject line appended with the word [SPAM].

Q: What happens to e-mail messages after the server determines them to be spam?
A: If our servers determine an e-mail message to be a High Probability of being spam, the delivery of that message will be denied immediately. All e-mail with a Medium Probability of being spam will be handled based on your Control Panel settings. These Control Panel settings are covered below.

Q: How do I handle spam messages that are delivered to me?
A: Any e-mail messages that may have been delivered to you that have the word [SPAM] appended to the subject line can be filtered off using your e-mail client (like Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.). Filtering at the e-mail client level can be accomplished using e-mail rules that can be defined within your preferred e-mail client.

Q: Can I set up spam filtering for individual e-mail accounts?
A: No. Spam filtering is set at the domain name level. All individual e-mail accounts are protected identically.

Q: How can I set my spam filtering options?
A: Follow these steps:

1. From the Control Panel (http://www.forexample-domain.com/stats/), go to your e-mail configuration page.
   
2. From the e-mail configuration page (http://www.forexample-domain.com/cgi-bin/secure/mailset), go to the "Spam Filtering" section.
   
3. From the Spam Filtering section, select the preference to "Enable Spam Filtering" and "Mark as [Spam] and deliver."
   
   Figure 1 - Set Spam Filtering Preference
4. Select [Change].
   
5. The system submits the changes and redisplays the Configure E-mail screen with a confirmation message as shown in Figure 2 below. Please keep in mind, the change will take about 10 minutes to update in the system.
   

   Figure 2 - Confirmation

   Messages evaluated as Spam are marked in the subject line as [Spam] and are delivered according to the customer's delivery options.

Q: Can I change my spam filtering options?
A: Yes. Just access the Configure E-mail tool again and make the changes you want.

Q: If I do not use the RapidSite e-mail servers, can I set up spam filtering using the Configure E-mail Tool?
A: No. The E-mail Defense Solution requires that your domain name use the default e-mail services provided by our hosting partner. The E-mail Defense Solution will check to see if your domain name's MX records (MX stands for Mail Exchange, which defines what e-mail server(s) process e-mail for your domain name) match the default MX records supported by the E-mail Defense Solution before it displays the Configure E-mail Tool Spam filtering options. If your MX records are not supported within the E-mail Defense Solution, such as your own in-house or non-ITS e-mail server, the Configure E-mail Tools displays a message informing you that you must reset your MX records to our default MX records if you want to utilize our E-mail Defense Solution.

Q: Will you scan outbound messages for spam as well?
A: Yes. We will also scan outbound e-mail using the same criteria that is used for inbound e-mail.

Q: Why are some valid e-mail messages being returned to the sender?
A: Of the millions of messages handled by our mail servers each day, there will be a small percentage (less than 1%) of legitimate e-mail that is not accepted by our system. These e-mails, known as false positives, are due to their e-mail subject line, e-mail body, or headers having characteristics of spam e-mail. Only e-mail with a High Probability of being spam will be rejected.

Q: What can I do to make sure I receive all valid e-mail messages?
A: While we believe the likelihood for valid e-mails to be returned to be relatively minimal, there is nothing that can be done on the client-side to circumvent "false positives." We are constantly working to improve our system to reduce the potential for false positives and allow all legitimate e-mail to pass through our system. Due to the large volume of spam being handled by our system it became necessary to put this system into place to allow all other e-mail messages to be delivered in a timely manner.

Q: Is white listing available?
A: White listing, which would allow users to specify who can send mail without being rejected, is available, as is black listing (outright rejecting any mail received from specific users). See the sections on the E-Mail Defense Solution page pertaining to "Whitelist Configuration" and "Blacklist Configuration."

Q: Can I opt out of this E-mail Defense Solution service?
A: Partially. All e-mail is scanned for Spam, however, you may choose to Disable Spam Filtering for any e-mail with a Medium Probability of being spam. In this case those messages will not be tagged and will be delivered to you.

Q: Can I turn virus scanning off?
A: Yes. The "Virus Scanning" section of the E-Mail Defense Solution page will enable you to disable server-side virus scanning.

Q: What happens if a virus is found in an incoming e-mail attachment?
A: In this case the mail server will attempt to clean the attachment. In the event that the attachment cannot be cleaned, the virus scanning solution will strip/delete the attachment from the message and append the email with a message notifying the intended recipient that an attachment was removed due to a virus being detected. Note that in many cases these "infected" attachments may in fact be e-mail based viruses replicating themselves, using a faked "from" address, and the notification can simply be ignored.

Please note: the information on this page applies to ITS web hosting plans. It may or may not apply to other environments. If you are looking for a feature described here, or better support from your hosting provider, please consider hosting your site with ITS!

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