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SPAM Quarantine Explained
This feature is provided by Sophos PureMessage (SPAM protection) software. For an explanation of what PureMessage does at SLAC, go here.
- Why We Are Doing This
- Reduce the disk space and resources the spam is taking and using in our mail servers;
- Reduce the level of frustration people feel when they receive spam;
- To keep spam from getting into our mailing lists;
- To prevent our Vacation and Out of Office messages from going back to spammers.
- What to Expect - an afternoon Quarantine Digest
The PureMessage software sends you an e-mail each afternoon (called the Quarantine Digests) with a list of spam e-mails rated at 50% or higher. There will be one line for each e-mail delivered into the quarantine for you in the prior 24 hours. The list is ordered with the lowest rated spam the top. If you don't want the spam then you don't need to do anything.
The quarantine message will look something like this if you read your e-mail in Outlook:
If you use Pine it would look like this:
- Getting E-mails Released From Quarantine and Sent to Your Mailbox
There will be multiple lines if there are multiple messages. If you want them all released to you then just REPLY to the e-mail. This is the same for all e-mail users.
HTML e-mail users only: If you want just one (or a few) released then you must click on the link for the message(s) in question and an e-mail will be created for each one. If no email is created when you click on the link then look to the top of the email message. There is likely a grey bar saying links are disabled. Right click on the grey bar and select "turn on links". Now the links in the email are enabled and you can click on one and the new message window will open. Just press Send on the e-mail created for you.
All e-mail users: Press Reply and delete all lines not associated with the spam you want released. The software will just look for the [#spam-id] string (including the brackets) which you see at the beginning of each line in the message. It is the first column in the pictures above.
If you own mailing lists and you get a digest in the afternoon for your list you can still click and release messages but they'll be sent to you as the owner of the list. You'll need to redirect, bounce or forward the released message to the mailing list by hand, depending on what option is available in your e-mail client.
Within approximately 10 minutes the message(s) you requested will be released from the quarantine and sent to you.
You can also use the web interface described in the next section to release a message and add the sender to an Approved senders list. When you connect to the web interface (after getting the password emailed to you) then just select the message to release and click the button at the top which says "Deliver & Approve Sender".
- Getting immediate Web Access to the Quarantined messages
Most browsers will work to connect to this web service, but the browser needs to write a cookie to your computer.
If you want to see all the messages in the Quarantine or manage white/black lists then you can use this link: https://spam-central.slac.stanford.edu:28443 to ask for a PureMessage password. NOTE: You must be on the SLAC network to connect to this web page. If you are not already on the SLAC network then you'll need to get a SLAC IP address before going to the website by using either the Citrix Farm, DHCP, or VPN. If your connections to the website time-out then you are probably not on the SLAC network.
When you go to the website above you'll see the window below. Click on the bolded word "here" in the "If you do not have a password, please go here" sentence in the center of the web page.
Then, on the next window, fill in your email address and press Send Authorization button. An email will be delivered to you within about 10 minutes. This password is good for 6 months. Just save the e-mail for easy reference or bookmark the URL. This will make it much faster to get into your SPAM Quarantine database.
When you receive the email, click on the password web link in it and you'll be taken to a web page which shows all the messages being held in quarantine for you. They are ordered by percentage on the initial view but you can click on any heading to change the ordering (e.g. click on Date heading twice to get the newest ones at the top).
Managing your Own Approved and/or Blocked Lists of E-mail Addresses You can use the Web interface explained in the previous section to enter the email addresses which you do not want held in quarantine (approved senders) or for which you never want to receive emails (blocked senders).
Once you have connected to the spam quarantine web site you should select "Approved Senders" from the column at the left. Press the Add Sender button from the window in the center. Read the instructions in the Add Sender panel and then type in the desired e-mail address at the bottom. Press the Add Sender button to complete this transaction.
When you are done setting up your Approved and/or Blocked senders then press the Log Out button on the left.
Automatic Purge From Server The messages are only held in the quarantine for 14 days to make sure we do not fill the disk on our mail gateways, while allowing enough time to cover most people's vacations.
If you have multiple SLAC e-mail accounts then you could receive multiple quarantine messages, but we try to combine all your e-mail "identities" into one quarantine digest message for you (e.g. spam to teresa@* and teresa.downey@* would get combined into one digest).
- Opt-Out?
If you'd rather continue to receive your SPAM into your Inbox please send an email to mail-admin@slac.stanford.edu requesting to opt-out of spam quarantine. Those who opt-out could see delays in e-mail delivery of about 5 minutes on messages which were addressed to multiple e-mail addresses. This is a limitation of the software.
Last Updated: 06/17/2008
