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Viruses Spanmail rejects mail messages containing viruses immediately. Then it scans for spam.

Controlling your Spam

To control spam, log into your Admin screen: go to www.speedspan.com and enter your email address and password and click the "Admin" button.

Alternatively, access your Webmail, entering your full email address and password on the login form. Then click the Options link in your email.

Locate and click the Spam (Settings) link. You can adjust your Spam Settings or check for Held Messages.

  Spam Settings

Actions The spam settings are trigger levels for three actions:

  • Held Holds messages that may be spam in a special mailbox you can access. Messages deleted after 2 wks.
  • Vanished Messages are deleted.
Levels The trigger levels are numeric spam ratings for incoming messages, plus "Never", and "Always," displayed in the following order:
  • Never (Hold/Vanish)
  • 1. Probably not spam
  • 2-4. May be spam
  • 5-7. Likely to be spam
  • 8-9. Very likely to be spam
  • 10. Definitely spam
  • Always (Hold/Vanish)
Note: While the first rating in the list, "Never", holds nothing back, the next rating in the list, "1", holds almost everything. Even your friends send emails with pictures and attachments, etc. that will give a spam score of 1 or more. The startup setting for most domains, including spsp.net mailboxes, is "5". This setting will sometimes hold messages you probably want to receive, so read on.

Recommended Settings

  • Hold - 4-7 if you mostly use webmail.
  • Hold - 9-10 or Never if you mostly access mail from an email program on your computer. (See Status Reports below.)
  • Vanish - Never (Sender won't know you didn't get message.)

  Held Messages

Held Messages Unless you set your Hold level to "Never" or some very high numeric rating, you can expect to find emails you want to receive in "Held Messages." You should look over your Held Messages occasionally, especially in the beginning.

If you see a held message you want, you can select it and either "Release" it, or "Allow" it. When you Release a message, that message goes to your Inbox. When you Allow a message, that message and all messages from that email address will be passed through to your inbox in the future. (But Allow does not work if you have completely disabled "Friends". Read more about Friends below.)


Filtering Exception filtering allows you to set up rules to tell the mail server what to do with specific messages. This allows you to move messages into folders, reject messages, or forward messages to other email addresses, bypassing the spam blocking features, and Friends filtering. (Filtering occurs after a message is rated for spam, but before spam actions are taken.)

Friends

"Friends" is a feature that helps control spam, and more. As with "Controlling your Spam" above, you can access your Friends settings via your webmail screen (click "Options"), or the SpanMail Account Mgmt Screen.

Locate and click the Friends link.

Friends can be..

  • A. Disabled
  • B. Kid Safe only accept mail from known senders. (You must specify senders in 'Address list')
  • C. White List (default) Keep track of addresses but don't block anything or request confirmation.
  • D. Full Friends Request confirmation from unknown addresses.
  • E. Friends + non-spam Request confirmation if spam score is greater than some value.
White List The default setting is listed above as "White List" which allows messages from addresses you put in your Friends Address List to always come through. (Selecting a message in your Held Messages and clicking "Allow" adds the address of the sender to your Friends address list.) Other messages get normal spam filter rules applied. The Friends options allows you to review your Address List. You can add or delete email addresses from that list.

Options C and E are generally recommended. Read further about B and D. Disabling (option A) Friends means you have no good way to allow all email from trusted friends unless you turn off spam filtering or continually consult your Held Messages.

The Full Friends setting (Request confirmation from unknown addresses) puts you in control of who can send you messages, but requires some work unless you only want email from a very restricted list of senders. Messages from addresses not in your Friends Address List are initially held and a message sent back to the sender with a note that they will have to reply to get the original message to you. If they do, you get the message. (There is an annoyance factor for the sender to be considered with this approach.)

Since computer generated email (i.e., most spam) will not reply, you'll avoid a lot of spam - but you will also miss other automatically generated mail such as receipts from online stores, confirmations from your reservation at delta.com, etc. You may not want this. Of course, you can use the filtering option to allow all email from a domain or individual email address to get through.

If the sender is a person, you are likely to get the email sent on to you, but it doesn't come to your Inbox, just your "Pending" list. When you approve a sender in your Pending list, you get the email in your Inbox. Your Pending list is available wherever you are accessing your Friends settings (webmail interface, or the Spanmail Acct Mgmt screen).

The Kid Safe setting works similarly to the Full Friends setting except that mail from unknown addresses is simply returned. Persons wishing to send mail to this account will have to contact you some other way to get themselves added to the Friends list.

Status Reports

"Status Reports" are an option that can be very useful, depending on your setup. You can access your Status Report settings by using the "Admin" button on the SpeedSpan home page, but not via your webmail screen.

Go to www.speedspan.com and enter your email address and password and click the "Admin" button. Click the "Log" button. Select a period from the "days" pulldown menu (or "Never send"). Choose the items you want reported using the checkboxes, then click the "Save" button.

Status reports are particularly useful if you have spam filtering set to hold messages, but don't usually log into webmail on a regular basis to look at your Held Messages folder. If you receive a status report that includes a listing of held messages, you can scan the subjects quickly to see if any look like an email you want. If not, you can let the messages languish in the Held Messages folder until they are automatically deleted (after approximately 25 days). If there are messages of interest, you will need to log into webmail to get them. (Consider the utility of the "Allow" option - also available in the Admin area - to put the sender into your Friends list.)