SPAM ADMINISTRATION MANUAL

All users of Stellar Systems email services have spam filtering service available to them. There are three different ways to manage your spam.

  1. Send all mail to a web-based Spam folder. This option is the default for all users*. Messages sent to this folder will have a markup to the subject line with a percentage probability of the message’s “spamness”. Most of these scores will be 99% or higher, but you will occasionally see lower scores. If you are not receiving email that you have been expecting, it most likely is in your spam folder. To access the spam folder, login to your web-based email account and go to the spam folder located under the Folders tab. All spam email is kept for 14 days before it is automatically deleted.
  2. Send mail to the inbox normally, but keep the subject line markup of the spam probability percentage intact. This method continues to send email to your inbox, but you have the flexibility to create filters to pull theses messages out of your email client’s inbox and put them into a separate folder in your email client software on your computer. Most newer clients like Outlook and Outlook Express have this capability.
  3. No filtering at all. Some clients don’t want to have the spam filtering turned on, so we can change this option on a user by user basis.

* For those clients that have email accounts that we forward to outside email addresses (like AOL or MSN), we don’t utilize spam folders, as there is no mail to store. We can send the message through to your account unaltered, or with the subject line changed with the spam probability percentage.

The spam filtering utilizes Bayesian filtering, which is one of the newest and most effective ways to filter spam. It is outlined in an article by Paul Graham. There are some key points to remember about spam filters. Filters are not perfect. You may still get spam (we still get quite a few). Filters are trained by everyone that uses the mail server. What may be spam for you may not be spam for someone else. If the majority of users on the server think a message is spam, it will most likely by treated as one. If the messages you want to receive are being considered as spam, you will have to start white-listing the email address or subject. On the converse side, if the majority of users think a message is legitimate, and you think it is spam, you will have to black-list by address or subject, or try and remove yourself from the email list that is sending the email you don't want.

How To Manage Your Spam

Spam Management is handled via the webmail Interface. To read more about how to use the webmail interface, click here. In the webmail inbox, you will see all of the messages that have been determined to be legitimate email.

Spam Admin Manual 1 - Email Main Screen Image

Quickly scan your messages. If you have determined some mails are Spam, you have three choices:

  1. Move the message to your spam folder to train the global spam database.
  2. Forward the email to train the global spam database.
  3. Black-list the email to set the email filter for you only.

To move a message, select the message(s) you wish to move by checking the box preceding the messages you want to move.

In the lower left hand side of the screen choose MOVE from the drop down combo box, and change the folder to SPAM, and click OK. This procedure moves the mail to a spam queue to train the server as it gets indexed each day.

Spam Admin Manual 2 - Move Spam Image


To forward an email to train the database, open the email message and click the FORWARD button on the message toolbar.

Spam Admin Manual 3 - Forward Spam Image

Enter spam@ssinet.com as the to address and click the SEND MESSAGE button when complete.

Spam Admin Manual 4 - Forward Spam Message Image

To black-list an email message, select the message, choose BLACK LIST SENDER from the drop-down menu, and click OK.

Spam Admin Manual 5 - Spam Blacklist Sender Image

From this point on, any mail from that email address will always be caught as spam and moved to the SPAM folder.

It is important to note that black-listing spam doesn't have a very high rate of success, because spammers constantly forge and change their email return address and subject lines. You will end up with a LOT of filters if you choose to do this. The best way to handle spam is to forward the email to spam@ssinet.com or move the message(s) to the SPAM folder.

There may be occasions where good mail has been caught as spam. It is important that you check your SPAM folder regularly for the first few weeks while you are training your filters so you are sure to not get too many false positives (ie - legitimate mail that is caught as spam). Once you are comfortable that no legitimate mail is getting caught, you can check it every week or every few days. The mail in the spam folder is kept for 10 days before it is deleted automatically. Remember to look in your web-based spam folder if you are not receiving email that you have been expecting.

You have two options to train the spam filters for good mail.

  1. Forward the email to train the global spam database.
  2. White-list the email to set the email filter for you only.

Change the folder to the SPAM folder.

All mail that has been caught as spam by the filters (and not moved into the spam folder by you) will have an altered subject line with the Spam Percentage Probability (SPP) in brackets at the beginning of the subject. Most will be 99% or greater, but you may see some with lower scores.

Open up the message you want to index as good email. As explained above, forward the email, but in this instance, forward the email to genuine@ssinet.com.

The best method for false positives is to white-list the email message based upon the sender's email address or the subject line. You can also white-list an email message in conjunction with forwarding the email to train the filters.

To white-list an email message, select the message, choose WHITE LIST SENDER from the drop-down menu, and click OK.

Spam Admin Manual 6 - White List Sender Image

From this point on, any mail from that email address will always be considered legitimate mail and never moved to the SPAM folder.

As we have stated before, white-listing is the preferred method of making sure that you get your email for a particular email sender or subject. Email filters are used by everyone on this mail server, so everyone has different classifications and levels of what they determine is spam. It's an all or nothing method that is not perfect, but is better than the alternative (receiving all of the spam).

Manually Adding Filters

Spam Admin Manual 7 - Manually Adding Filters Image
Filters can be added and maintained to fine-tune the Anti-Spam system. Click on SETTINGS from the top menu and click SERVER RULES. Filters to reject email are marked with a red-curved arrow, and filters to accept are marked with a green checkmark.

Spam Admin Manual 8 - Adding Manual Filter Options Image
Filters can be added or edited to look for certain conditions in the email headers. Options include the FROM: CONTAINS, TO CONTAINS:, SUBJECT CONTAINS:, etc. Choose which ITEM you want (ie - FROM: CONTAINS) and then the STRING (ie - joe@acmeinc.com). In the ACTION drop-down menu, choose from REJECT, ACCEPT, DELETE, MARK AS SPAM, FORWARD or NOTIFY. If you choose REJECT, the email will never be delivered to your mailbox - inbox or spam. If you choose MARK AS SPAM, it will be put in your Spam folder. If you choose ACCEPT, it will be delivered to your Inbox. The NOT checkbox will negate the effect, so be careful what you choose here.

Spam Admin Manual 9 - Manual Filter Action Options Image

If you have any problems or technical questions with any spam or email-related issues, please contact us directly via phone or email.

Stellar Systems, Inc.
(309) 677-7350
hostmaster@ssinet.com