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Mikrotec
SpamFilter FAQ
< What is the Mikrotec
Spam Filter?
< Can I block items marked {SPAMFILTER} altogether?
< Did you sell my email address to these spammers?
< How did they get my email address?
< Can't I just click "unsubscribe" on the emails I get?
< Can't someone create a do-not-spam list?
< Why are some legitimate emails marked with {SPAMFILTER}?
< Can I turn the spam filter feature off?
< How can I customize the spam filter to my liking?
< What are WHITELISTS and BLACKLISTS?
What is the Mikrotec Spam Filter? < [back to top]
Mikrotec's spam filter program scans all incoming email that passes
through our servers for spam (unsolicited junk email). When the spam filter
finds a message that comes from an address it thinks could be a spammer, the
word {SPAMFILTER} is added to the subject line to notify you that this email is
probably from a spammer. The email is not automatically deleted (by default)
because the program might accidentally delete emails that you actually wanted. You can set up the spam filter, in conjunction with Mikrotec Webmail, to block spam before it ever makes it to your inbox, including your Outlook or Outlook Express inbox.
Can I block items marked {SPAMFILTER} altogether? < [back to top]
Yes you can. You can stop emails marked {SPAMFILTER} even before they ever make it to Outlook or Outlook Express. See the section on < Customizing the Spam Filter as the webmail has spamfilter controls built-in.
Did you sell my email address to these
spammers? < [back to top]
No, Mikrotec does not sell, give, or otherwise transfer our user's email
addresses to other parties/companies. Period. Our staff obviously uses
the Internet a lot and many of them can get hundreds of spam emails daily. In
addition, spam costs our company money because of the increased load on our
servers (we have to add more processing power, memory and storage), and higher bandwidth
costs. In addition, spam costs us many man hours when our technical support staff
deals with questions and complaints about spam. Bottom line? We hate spam and
the few hundred dollars we could make from selling email addresses would cost us
untold thousands, or even hundreds of thousands from lost business. It simply would make no sense whatsoever
for us to sell email addresses.
How did they get my email address? < [back to top]
Their methods are advanced. Many are highly skilled programmers. One way is to
write programs that spider their way through web pages and Usenet news groups to
find and store email addresses. If your email adddress appears anywhere on the web, even if you did something completely innocent like signing your friend's guestbook, your email is now on the web for spammers to harvest. Theoretically, you could start getting spam because of this action within hours. Also, they
break down common usernames and domains into separate database tables. Then
they simply send out emails to
username1@aaa.com until they get to
username99999999@aaa.com. Then
they start sending to username1@bbb.com
until they get to username999999@bbb.com.
Get it? They can target thousands of the most commonly used usernames
and send email to all those usernames for each domain they have in their database. So you see, you don't
even have to give out your email to 1 person to start receiving spam.
Can't I just click "unsubscribe" on the emails I get?< [back to top]
This is a tough question. If the emails are truly coming from a reputable source, this method works fine. The problem is that professional spammers love it when you try to unsubscribe. It lets them know that they have "a live one" (a valid email address) and they joyfully add your valid email address to their list of known valid emails that they can sell to other spammers. This means that even if they were nice enough to remove you from their own databases (unlikely), you will almost certainly increase the amount of spam you get by trying to unsubscribe.
Can't someone create a do-not-spam list?< [back to top]
OK, lets say that the United States Congress enacts do-not-spam legislation. This would be fine for stopping spammers that live in the United States and the countries of our allies that chose to cooperate by stopping spammers in their own countries. The problem is that the slack will simply be taken up by spammers in other countries where prosecution is almost impossible. Unlike telemarketers that would have to pay huge phone bills to call other countries, it costs the same to send spam across the street as it does to send it around the planet... nearly nothing.
Why are some legitimate emails marked with
{SPAMFILTER}?
< [back to top]
Sometimes innocent emails can get tagged with {SPAMFILTER}. This can happen
because an innocent email may have a subject that contains keywords that
spammers commonly use. It could also happen because the spamfilter notices that
a particular individual is sending large volumes of identical, or almost
identical emails. It could also happen if the email address of the sender has
been added to numerous "black hole" lists across the internet that list known
(or suspected) spammers.
If you are seeing innocent, legitimate emails being marked as spam, you can
create a whitelist for your account that will notify the spam filter that you do
not want emails from a particular address marked as spam.
Can I turn the Spam Filter off?
< [back to top]
Yes you can. Log into
Mikrotec Webmail with your username and password. Click on the "SPAM"
in the menu bar at the top. You will get a new screen. Look for the text:
Filter Status On
<--Click icon to change
This is where you turn the spam filter off. None
of your incoming emails will be marked with {SPAMFILTER}.
How can I customize the spam filter to my
liking? < [back to top]
Log into
Mikrotec Webmail with your username and password, and click on "SPAM" in the
menu bar at the top. This option not only works on
this web interface, but it also can remove the e-mails from coming in to your Outlook
or Outlook Express (or other email client). When you enter this menu, the
first option you will see is to turn on or off your spamfilter. This
option (by default) is set for ON. You can turn your spam filter off all
together if you wish.
-
Spam Filtering Level is the
strength of the spam filter. If you set this to HIGH, most e-mail will
automatically be erased. This is not always the best option to choose
unless you use < whitelisting.
-
Spam Filter Tag is the text you see in the
subject line of a "SPAM" tagged e-mail. This option is set to {SPAMFILTER}
(by default) which can be changed to anything you would prefer.
-
Remove HTML
from spam - This option only displays the e-mail's insides. Meaning that
if you received a spam message of an advertisement that used a picture instead of
text, the image would not be displayed, only shown as text. (i.e.. <IMG
SRC = "ATTACHMENT/BUYHOUSE.GIF">) This option is very good to stop
pornographic and other offensive images from being displayed in spam
messages.
-
SPAM FOLDER - Last, but not least. If you are tired of
spam all together, use this option to have ALL of your spam messages moved to a
folder of your choice. (i.e.. Setting the spam folder to INBOX:TRASH will
automatically delete all spam messages) This will prevent emails marked {SPAMFILTER} from ever making it to your inbox and this includes your Outlook and Outlook Express Inbox as well! Before you set this option, read
down to find out how to activate a < whitelist. If you
think that you are not getting certain emails, you might look through your trash
folder to see what's been trashed lately, find the message marked spam (in your
spam folder i.e.. Trash) and click on its subject line. This will open the
e-mail message, and allow you to click "add to whitelist". This can be
located to the very right side of the message. After you add that address
to your whitelist, you will no longer have to worry about that message being
deleted. You should check your e-mail on
http://webmail.mis.net every so often so that you can see if there are
any important e-mail being erased. This is usually the best option for a
personal address rather than a business address.
WHITELIST
< [back to top]
A whitelist is
a list created to automatically accept e-mail (no matter the content) and have
it delivered to the inbox. This is used for people who receive jokes or
important e-mail from a certain person that they know.
Creating a whitelist
To create a whitelist,
simply find the message marked spam (in your spam folder i.e.. Trash) and click
on its subject line. This will open the e-mail message, and allow you to
click "add to whitelist". This can be located to the very right side of
the message. After you add that address to your whitelist, you will no
longer have to worry about that message being deleted. You should check
your e-mail on < http://webmail.mis.net every so often so that you can see if there are
any important e-mail being erased. This is usually the best option for a
personal address rather than a business address.
BLACKLIST < [back to top]
If you are getting an email that is particularly annoying or
offensive, you can add them to your black list. Addresses on your black list
will be marked as spam and can be automatically < moved to
your trash folder or spam folder in webmail. This will also prevent your
Outlook or Outlook Express from even downloading email from that address ever
again
To manage your lists, simply
click the SPAM icon, and right under that icon, you will see White and Black
List Management. Click on that link to begin working with your lists. When
the menu comes up, you will have a drop-down menu, to select either whitelist or
blacklist. This is where you can manually set address to either be white
or black. Below is a list of address that you have already added to either
list. You can manage these by putting a check in the box next to the
e-mail address that you want to remove from its respective list. Then
click Removed Selected, and the address will no longer be blocked (or
accepted).
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