How to filter spam
On this page:
The UITS spam quarantine service
UITS provides an email filtering service at Indiana
University. The spam quarantine service analyzes all mail
delivered to IU Cyrus/Webmail and Exchange
accounts. Any spam messages you receive are quarantined for five days
in a Spam (Cyrus/Webmail) or Junk E-mail
(Exchange) folder in your account. After five days, the quarantine
service deletes these messages automatically. For more, see At IU, what is the spam quarantine service?
Client-side filtering
In some cases, you can augment the IU spam quarantine service with client-side filters, rules, or junk mail features, but they are not necessary.
Note: Unfortunately, spammers change subject lines and addresses frequently, making it difficult for filters to provide desired results. Filters are not foolproof, and may filter some messages you don't consider spam. Set your filters to divert spam to a junk folder rather than delete it, so you can review it before deleting.
IU Webmail
The Cyrus/Webmail servers use a filtering language called Sieve; the web interface for building Sieves is called Ingo, and is accessible via IU Webmail. For more, see At IU, how can I filter my incoming Cyrus mail?
Outlook
Outlook 2003 offers built-in spam filtering via its Junk Email Filter. For more, see Using Outlook 2003 and 2007, how can I control junk email?
Mac OS X Mail
To set up filters in Mac OS X Mail, see Creating incoming mail filters
Unix
To set up filters in Unix mail programs, see What is Procmail?
Commercial solutions
If you want greater sophistication from your spam filtering software, you can use a commercial application. However, UITS cannot support any such application. If you choose to use one of these and need help, please contact the vendor or developer. Additionally, you can only use spam filtering software that works on your computer with your local email client (i.e., you can't install programs on your mail server).
