spam support

Spam and Virus Email Protection

Canadian Hosters email accounts have spam and virus protection to limit how much junk mail you receive and to block harmful viruses and potentially dangerous emails. All known viruses and dangerous content is blocked automatically at the server, before it reaches your inbox. However, you can adjust the spam filters to suit your own special needs. The steps needed to do this are found below. If you find the spam filters or virus filters are not meeting your needs, please contact us for further information or to hear about other methods of dealing with spam and virus email.

Spam Assassin Configuration

1. Enter the spam configuration address (URL) into your browser. This is usually the same as your web site, except with "mail." instead of "www." at the beginning, and "/spam-config" at the end.
   e.g. http://mail.yourdomain.com/spam-config/
   e.g. http://mail.ncsl.ca/spam-config/
   
   
2. Click "Logon to Configure your Spam Settings". Enter your email UserID and Password. Click logon. You will see the configuration page.
   
   
3. Enter or adjust the options on the configuration screen, then use the "Save Settings" button at the bottom to save your changes. You can close the browser when you are finished.
   
   

Detailed explanation of the options

• Disable Scanning of emails
  The Default is unchecked.
  Checking this disables spam scanning. Unchecking this enables scanning.
  
  
• Require amount of hits before considered spam?
  Default is 5.
  A lower number will filter more aggressively, but may occasionally produce a false alarm. A higher number will allow some messages with spam characteristics to go through but may also produce fewer false alarms. You may adjust this number to suit your own needs. Most users will adjust this number after observing their inbox for a few weeks with the number set at 5, then adjusting it down if needed.
  
  
• Rewrite Subject Line for Spam?
  Default is disabled.
  Checking this will rewrite the subject line with words specified below. Unchecking this will allow spam emails to go through unmodified. We recommend that this option be enabled, and the next option filled in.
  
  
• What would you like to include in the subject to tell you this is SPAM?
  The entry here will be appended to the subject line of emails which are identified as spam. For example, if you entered the word "SPAM:" for this option, every message that is thought to be spam will include "SPAM:" in the subject line of that message, which helps you to identify spam. We usually recommend that you put "SPAM:" (without the quotes) in this box.
  
  
• What do you wish to do with Spam?
  Deliver - Just send it to me!
  Delete - Delete it at the server!
  Deliver is a safer choice to start with. With this setting you will receive spam, but it will be marked on the subject line (as you have indicated in the above option) and you will be able to observe how the spam filter works. It is best to try this for a week or two, and during this time adjust your white list and score number to suit your needs. After you have observed how the spam filter works, then you may wish to change this to "Delete", at which time the spam will not show up in your inbox at all.
  
  
• Convert HTML to Text? (For SPAM Only)
  Default is unchecked.
  Checking this will convert html composed messages into plain text. This is generally left unchecked. However you may wish to check this if you receive many html emails and are concerned about the security risks associated with html email.
  
  
• * White List *
  Here you can add entries of known good email addresses. Wildcards can be used.
  e.g. *@my-friends-domain.com
  Or myfriend@hotmail.com
  
  
• * Black List *
  Here you can add the entries of known spammers. Wildcards can be used here as well.
  e.g. *@spamdomain.com
  Or spamsender@hotmail.com
  
  
• Save Settings
  Be sure to click this after making any modifications to the above settings.