Technology
Help Desk
Antispam Filter
Unwanted, unsolicited email, otherwise known as spam, can fill your mailbox, making it difficult to find legitimate messages. Technology at Simmons College has implemented server-side filtering software to prevent as much spam as possible from reaching users mailboxes, without interfering with legitimate email and while allowing users the flexibility to filter messages themselves.Simmons uses Sophos PureMessage Spam and Virus to filter messages on the email system. Instead of receiving spam in your in box, you receive a daily message listing the spam that has been removed from your email. Our testing has shown that PureMessage is very successful at intercepting a vast majority of spam (well over 90%) and rearely or never intercepts real email. In the unlikely event that a message that was not spam was filtered, you may retrieve it with two clicks by following the instructions in the daily message. By default, Technology will filter all email sent to Simmons.
Please read on for more information about the default settings and how you may change them.
Using the Email Digest to Manage Filtered Mail
You receive a daily digest in your inbox of email that has been labeled as spam. The message contains a brief description of each email including the sender, date and time. To release a message, click the "ID" link of the message. If the "ID" link is not active, you may need to use an email client that is html-enabled. To release all of the messages listed in the digest, reply to the message and click send. The released message(s) will be delivered to your Inbox after about 20 minutes. If you forward your Simmons email to another account, note that you have to release messages directly from your Simmons account; replies to the digest messages must come from your Simmons emai address.
Your digest will expire after 14 days. Once expired, you will be unable to release messages from the digest. You can still access and release your pending filtered email using your nospam login (See "Nospam" below). You will only receive a digest if email has been filtered from your Inbox within a 24 hour period.
Using Nospam Web Site to Manage Filtered Mail
You can manage your filtered, or quarantined, email through your nospam login at http://nospam.simmons.edu (log in with your Simmons email username and password). You will be able to view all of your email that has been filtered within the past two weeks. You will have the option to deliver an email to your Inbox or delete an email from the server. Email older than two weeks will be automatically deleted from the server. If you will be away from your Simmons email account for longer than two weeks and want to extend the deletion date, select "Options" to select up to an additional two weeks.
Although Sophos PureMessage has demonstrated to be effective at filtering email with spam-like characteristics, it will occasionally filter legitimate email. You can use the "Approved Senders" option to prevent email from specific email addresses or domains from being filtered. To block email from a sender or domain, use the "Blocked Senders" option.
To discontinue reception of the daily email digest, select "Options" and then unselect "Notify me periodically of messages that have been blocked."
Email Preferences
You can change the level of spam filtering for your email account at http://preferences.simmons.edu. Click the Set anti-spam level to
- Filter email for spam,
- Tag email with a header and deliver to inbox or,
- Opt out of filtering altogether.
1. Filter: This is the default setting. Each incoming email will be rated by the probability that it is spam, if that probability exceeds 50% the message will be placed in quarantine. You may access quarantined messages by going to http://nospam.simmons.edu or following the instructions in the daily spam alert.
2. Tag and pass: Each incoming email will be rated by the probability that it is spam. The message will be tagged with a header that indicates the probability that the message is spam. (Using the default view, you will not see this header, but you may set up a "filter" or "rule" in your email client to move or mark messages rated at a level of your own choosing.) The header name is *X-PerlMx-Spam.* The ratings are a percentage, expressed with X and I representing 10s and 1s. For example, 75% is XXXXXXXIIIII. The Simmons system is set to filter spam with a 50% probability rating.
3. Opt out: Email messages will not pass through the anti-spam filtering system.