Message Filtering

The webmail interface allows you to set up and manage filters to apply to incoming messages. These filters can be used (for example) to:

• block spam;
• forward your mail to another address; or
• automatically file to particular messages into their own mailbox.

Filters created through webmail will always be applied to incoming email, whether the account is checked via webmail, POP3 or IMAP.

Note: Users checking their account via POP3 will NOT be able to see mail filtered into other server mailboxes.

Spam Filtering

Spam filters are added by using the "Options" » "Message Filters" » "Add SPAM rule" menu. Once there, you have the choice of two types of spam filters to create:

• A simple rule which moves all mail considered as spam to the "Spam folder"
• A more advanced rule that allows you to configure the target score required for a message to be considered spam, as well as offering the option of setting whitelist options so some messages will never be classified as spam. For example, all messages from the "unimelb.edu.au" domain.

Simple spam filter

If you select "Add SPAM Rule" without customising the rule, any email with a spam score of more than 5 will be automatically moved to your Spam folder. 5 is a reasonable default however you should sure you check your Spam folder regularly to see if any messages are being falsely classed as spam. If this happens, then you should customise your spam filter as explained below.

Click "If this rule matches, do not check any rules after it" if you don't want any of your other filters to be applied to messages already classed as spam. It is a good idea to select this option to prevent the chance of a vacation message being replied to spam messages.

To save your new rule, click "Add SPAM Rule".

Advanced Spam filter

The "Advanced Spam filter" option allows you to adjust what spam score a message will require to be classified as spam, as well as adding whitelists which ensure some messages are never classified as spam. You can also decide whether spam messages are moved to your Spam folder or silently discarded based on header information including the "From" domain or address.

It is recommended that you add a whitelist for messages whose "From" address "contains" "unimelb.edu.au".

Click "If this rule matches, do not check any rules after it" if you don't want any of your other filters to be applied to messages already classed as spam. It is a good idea to select this option to prevent the chance of a vacation message being replied to spam messages.

Custom Filtering

A custom filter allows you to specify an action that will be applied to all messages, or selected messages based on their headers or their size. Creating a filter has four steps (three to match "All messages").

1 - Rule type

The type of information to be checked for the new rule.

• Header match - Matches messages based on their header information (e.g. From, To)
• Message size - Matches messages that are larger or smaller than the value you set
• All Messages - Matches all incoming messages

2 - Conditions

The conditions a message must match for the rule to be applied.

• For header match rules, specify one or more headers and what they should match
• For message size rules, specify the message size and whether you would like the rule to match messages that are larger or smaller than the value you set
• For "All Messages" rules, this screen is not displayed as all messages automatically match

3 - Action

All rule types have the same choice of actions.

• Keep - the default
• Discard Silently - without notifying the sender or the recipient
• Redirect to another email address - with or without keeping a local copy
• Move message to a different folder - remember these won't be viewable from POP3 clients
• Vacation - Set an automated message to be sent once to each person that sends you mail (excluding mailing lists)

4 - Confirmation

Review and confirm the new rule by clicking "Finished".

Once you have finished adding rules, make sure you click "Save Changes" to apply the new rules and return to your mail.