Spam Filtering FAQ for Hosted Email

This article addresses frequently asked questions regarding Spam filtering on the N2Net email platform.

Q1: What is Spam?

A1: A simple definition is “unsolicited junk mail”. You can find more information here.

Q2: Where is email X? / Why am I not receiving mail from X?

A2: Our mail system may have determined that the message is likely to be Spam. You will need to review your Spam quarantine to see if the message is there.

Q3: How do I see what is in my Spam quarantine?

A3: There are a variety of ways to review your Spam quarantine. If you are using an email client and you are using our recommended mail settings (IMAP), you will see the quarantined messages appear in the Spam folder.

You can also view your Spam quarantine by logging into WebMail and selecting the Spam folder.

Mail Hosting customers can also review the individual Spam quarantines for each of their users via the Mail Hosting Control Panel.

Q4: A message was placed in the Spam folder but it was not Spam. What do I do now?

A4: If you are using an email client, simply move the message from the Spam folder to your Inbox. The mail server will recognize that you wanted to receive this message and add the sender to your whitelist.

If you are using WebMail, you can drag the message to your Inbox or select the message and press the Not Spam button. To process multiple messages, use the select checkboxes to select the messages and then select Not Spam from the More Actions drop-down menu. Marking a message as Not Spam will add the sender to your whitelist.

Q5: A message was placed in the Spam folder but it was not Spam. How to I prevent this from happening in the future?

A5: Flag the message as Not Spam (see answer 4 above).

Q6: A message was in my Inbox that IS Spam. Why was it not in the Spam folder?

A6: The Spam filter checks a message against thousands of rules to try to determine if the message is Spam. It will not always be correct. To improve the Spam filtering, move Spam messages from your Inbox to the Spam folder or mark it as Spam in WebMail. This will help the system learn about new Spam emails and help block them in the future.

Q7: I think that too much legitimate email is going into the Spam quarantine. How do I prevent this?

A7: In addition to telling the system that the messages are Not Spam (see above) which will help train the filters, you can change the sensitivity of the Spam filters for your mailbox. Log in to WebMail and select Options -> Spam Control from the menu at the top right. Change the Spam Detection Level to your desired level.

Mail Hosting customers can change the Spam Detection Level for each of your users or your entire domain via the Mail Hosting Control Panel.

Q8: I do not want messages from someone@somedomain.tld to be filtered. How do I exclude them from the Spam filter?

A8: Log into WebMail and select Options -> Spam Control from the menu at the top right. Select the “Address Whitelist” button. Add any email addresses you wish to allow. You can also allow an entire domain by entering a domain wildcard as *@somedomain.tld.

It is NOT recommended to create a wildcard that allows for free mail domains such as hotmail.com, aol.com, yahoo.com, gmail.com, etc. Whitelist only individual addresses from services such as these.

Mail Hosting customers can manage the whitelist for their users via the Mail Hosting Control Panel.

Q9: I do not want any Spam filtering. Can I turn it off?

A9: While is it is not recommended, you can disable Spam filtering for your mailbox. Log in to WebMail and select Options -> Spam Control from the menu at the top right. Change the Action to DISABLED.

Mail Hosting customers can disable Spam filtering for individual users or your entire domain via the Mail Hosting Control Panel.

Q10: How long will messages remain in the Spam quarantine?

A10: Messages are kept in quarantine for 14 days.