How to Configure Message Filters for MOREnet's Webmail

Revised: August 01, 2011

Contents

• Introduction
• Example Spam Message Filters

Message Filters in WebMail allow users to define their own actions to move emails received into folders of their choice. Basic filters can be set up based on the 'From', 'To', 'CC', and 'Subject' fields of emails received. More complex filters can be set up based on the 'Header' lines of the received emails. To create or manage Message Filters, when logged into WebMail, click on Options, then Message Filters.

Email Fields Usable for Message Filters

• From:
• To:
• CC:
• Subject:
• Headers

It is recommended that WebMail users only scan unread messages. Setting message filters to 'scan all messages' is useful after creating new message filter rules, but thereafter does not provide any significant benefit. Users with very large amounts of stored email may find that scanning all messages results in lengthy delays and possibly browser timeouts. Users should scan all messages after creating a new set of rules, then set 'What to Scan' back to 'Only unread messages' for regular use under their new filter rules.

To scan all messages after creating one or more new filter rules, click on the INBOX link in the left side-pane. There may be a notable delay if the user has a significant number of emails. Afterward the user can return to the Message Filters settings to change the 'What to Scan:' selection back to 'Only unread messages'.

Prior to setting up message filters based on an email's Header lines, it is recommended to review the header lines included in a basic email. In WebMail while viewing any email, click on the 'View Full Header' link. WebMail will display the header lines for that email. WebMail users may find the following spam oriented header lines of particular use.

X-Spam-Flag: YES
X-Spam-Score: 5.9
X-Spam-Level: *****
X-Spam-Status: Yes, score=5.9 required=5.5


• X-Spam-Flag is set to 'YES' if the spam score is above 5.5, otherwise it is set to 'NO'.
• X-Spam-Score is set to the numeric spam score as calculated by the Managed Email Service's built-in EVSF system. This number represents the likelihood that the email is spam. Emails with a score of 5.5 or higher are tagged as likely spam.
• X-Spam-Level is set to an asterisk ('*') for each integer score. As such, an email with an X-Spam-Score of 5.7 would cause X-Spam-Status to be set to '*****' (five asterisks).
• X-Spam-Status is a summary line.

How-To: Example Spam Message Filter 1
After logging in to WebMail, click on the 'Options' link near the top of the page. This will take the user to the general options page as displayed in the central pane.

On the general options page, find the link to 'Message Filters' and click on it. The page that then displays will show the current settings for message filtering and any filters that have previously been created. If there are any listed filters, they will be listed in the order applied. The first listed filter is applied first, followed by the second, and so on.

Next, to create a new Message Filter, click on the 'New' link.

After clicking the 'New' link, the options for entering a new filter will be displayed. Begin by selecting 'Header' in the dropdown box for Match.

Next, enter the following value in the text box for the Contains field:

X-Spam-Level: ****

Example Spam Message Filter 2
On the Message Filters page in WebMail, after clicking the 'New' link, and then selecting 'Header' in the dropdown for the Match, enter the following value in the text box for the Contains field:

X-Spam-Flag: YES