Dedicated Servers Managed Services Anti-spam Solution IP Blacklist Monitoring Infrastructure Management About Us Why Pugmarks Partner Customer Support Downloads Careers Policies Sitemap Contact Us   Contact Sales: Phone: 630-364-4044 Email: sales@pugmarks.com SpamFilter FAQ Home   > SpamFilter What does SpamFilter do? What is a spam ? What are viruses and dangerous content? SpamFilter antispam criteria Where can I get my user name and password? What is a quarantine? Why did SpamFilter quarantine a message that I was supposed to receive? How do I release a message? I have released a message, but it is still displayed in the quarantine. Is this normal? What do I do to stop receiving quarantine reports? Why did SpamFilter let a spam reach my mailbox? How does SpamFilter handle viruses? How to access the SpamFilter Management Center? How to Force the message? Quarantine Summary Statistics Aggregate address/alias Spam delivery mode Spam tag Reports frequencies Warn list How to edit warnlist How to edit white list Definitions of the most commonly used words What does SpamFilter do? SpamFilter is a mail filter that check your incoming messages against spams, known viruses and other dangerous content, avoiding them to even reach your desktop. It is a server side solution, which means you don't have any software to install on your system to get your mails filtered. This is actually done by your mail account provider. With this web based interface, you are directly connected to the SpamFilter filter, where you will see blocked spams and will be able to tune some settings of the filter. What is a spam ? A spam is an unsolicited or undesired email message. Generally used for advertisements, these messages can quickly fill your mailbox. These messages are generally not dangerous, but really annoying. What are viruses and dangerous content? Viruses are small softwares that can exploit and let some malicious people take control of your computer. These can be sent to you by email as attachments, and infect your system once you open it (some can even be enabled without being opened). Dangerous content are the same, except that they can be enabled by more intelligent means, hiding themselves directly into the content of the message, or even being targeted from the outside by a bounce link into the mail. These are very difficult to be detected by a standard mail filter because the real virus is not really included with the message. SpamFilter does more check on that a prevent potentially risky mail to reach your mailbox. SpamFilter antispam criteria SpamFilter uses a number of test in order to detect spams with the best accuracy possible. It uses amongst others, some simple keyword or keyphrase matching, worldwide spam databases and statisticall token computing. The aggregation of all these criterias will give an overall score for each message, upon wich SpamFilter will take the final decision: spam or ham. As spam is a really fast moving target, these rules are also adapted as fast as possible. This is the job of SpamFilter to keep these settings as good as possible. Where can I get my user name and password? For any given address filtered by SpamFilter, your user name and password are the same as those used for your e-mail account in your standard e-mail software. What is a quarantine? A quarantine is an isolated zone outside of your mailbox which retains messages identified as spam. Why did SpamFilter quarantine a message that I was supposed to receive? Such a situation may occur if the message was relayed by a mail server that may temporarily have a compromised reputation, caused for example by spammers that use it as a spam relay. Alternatively, a specific, unusual format of the message may have triggered an anti-spam rule. It does not mean that SpamFilter has malfunctioned, but simply that the system acts cautiously when encountering unusual characteristics of an e-mail message that cannot be correctly interpreted by a simple scan of the message contents. How do I release a message? Click on the arrow icon located on the same line as the message to release it. This can be done either in the quarantine report or within the Management Center. I have released a message, but it is still displayed in the quarantine. Is this normal? A released message is kept in the quarantine in case you need to release it again in the future. It is displayed in italics to indicate that it has been released. What do I do to stop receiving quarantine reports? You may change the frequency at which quarantine reports are sent, or disable this option, in the Configuration section of the Management Center. Why did SpamFilter let a spam reach my mailbox? Some spam messages manage to slip through the filter because none of the mathematical analyses carried out at the time were able to differentiate it from legitimate e-mail. In borderline situations, SpamFilter chooses to deliver the message to your mailbox, since it is better to receive spam on an exceptional basis than to miss a potentially important message. How does SpamFilter handle viruses? Viruses are eliminated without any notification. How to access the SpamFilter Management Center? http://spamfilter.pugmarks.net After cllcking on the above URL i.e http://spamfilter.pugmarks.net, you will see a login screen as shown below After login you will see the following screen How to Force the message? () Click on this icon to release the corresponding message. It will then be forwarded directly in your mailbox. View informations() : If you want to see why a message has been detected as spam, click on this icon. You will see the SpamFilter criteria with corresponding scores. With a score equals or greater than 5, a message is considered as a spam. Send to analyse () : In case a false positive, click on this icon corresponding to the innocent message in order to send a feedback to your administrator. Quarantine Summary This symbol indicates already mail has been forced This is the sample mail for quarantine summary Statistics    ·Total no of mails received for the inbox Mailbox    ·No of spam mails blocked    ·No of Valid mails Aggregate address/alias If you have many addresses or aliases to aggregate to your mail cleaner interface, just use the plus (+) and minus (-) sign to add or remove addresses. Apply to all button: Use this to apply changes to all the addresses. Spam delivery mode: Choose what you want Mail cleaner to do with messages detected as Spam.    ·Quarantine: Messages are stored in the quarantine and deleted periodically.    ·Tag: Spam will not be blocked, but a mark will be appended to the subject.    ·Drop: Spam will simply be dropped. Use this with caution as it can lead to      message lost. Spam tag: Choose and customize the message that will appear in the subject of tagged Spam. This is useless if you have chosen the quarantine delivery mode. Reports frequencies: Choose the frequency of your quarantine summaries. On this regular basis, you will receive a mail with a log of Spam detected and stored in the quarantine. Warn list A list of e-mail addresses that are trustworthy and should not generate Spam. You will receive a warning if a message sent from a warn list address is blocked by Mail Cleaner. How to edit warnlist How to edit white list   ·A list of e-mail addresses that are fully trustworthy. Messages sent from      white list addresses will never be blocked by SpamFilter.    ·Here are some examples of valid white list entries:    ·*@somedomain.com    ·username@somedomain.com    ·username*@*.somedomain.com Definitions of the most commonly used words. Authentication A process that verifies that the true identity of a person matches the identity claimed by this person. Successful authentication in SpamFilter is necessary for a user to access his or her quarantine. Dangerous content Suspicious content found in a message that has been filtered out as a preventive measure by your ISP or e-mail administrator. False negative Spam that has not been identified as such by the SpamFilter filter. All false negatives should be reported to the Analysis Centerto take corrective action. False positive A legitimate message considered as spam by SpamFilter. All false positives should be reported via a filter adjustment request. Filter rule A mathematical and statistical analysis of specific characteristics of a message in order to determine whether it should be considered as spam. ISP Internet Service Provider, a company providing access to the Internet and offering e-mail services. Management Center A user interface where you can inspect incoming quarantined messages and configure different SpamFilter options. Quarantine An isolated area outside of your mailbox for storing messages identified as spam. Quarantine report An automatically generated periodic report which lists all blocked messages and which provides tools to inspect their content and to release quarantined messages if necessary. RBL Realtime Blackhole List. RBLs maintain lists of servers in real time known to send spam. Using RBLs is very simple in principle: If an incoming message is sent by an RBL-listed server it is considered a priori as spam. The difficulty in using RBLs is the need to continuously verify that they are reliable. Releasing a message User action that releases a quarantined message so that it can reach the recipient's mailbox. Retention period Period of time during which a quarantined message may be consulted. When the retention period expires, the message is automatically deleted. Score A quarantine indicator that offers a weighted, numerical estimation that a message is spam or not. SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. A protocol used to send electronic mail. Spam An electronic message that is unwanted by the recipient, but without any dangerous content. Also called "junk mail". Spoofing E-mail address spoofing is a spammer's strategy where the sender of a message is forged in an attempt to disguise spam as a legitimate message from another sender. Virus An intrusive software entity, sometimes included as an attachment to a message, which may alter the integrity of your computer. Warn list A list of e-mail addresses that are trustworthy and should not generate spam. You will receive a warning if a message sent from a warn list address is blocked by SpamFilter. White list A list of e-mail addresses that are fully trustworthy. Messages sent from white list addresses will never be blocked by SpamFilter.