How are the Junkmail Filters different
from the spam filters in my email client?
About 95% --- that's how accurate your
filters can be with the Junkmail Assistant
superior design. In addition, the mail
filters found in email products have
a number of limitations and often assume
a "one size fits all" solution. You
are often expected to develop your own
filter rules from the limited tools
provided. Further, you must still download
email before the mail client can filter
it, possibly wasting time and bandwidth
while waiting to read mail, such as
spam, that you would not want anyway.
The Junkmail Assistant filters
do all email processing behind the
scenes before it arrives in your inbox.
This saves time and bandwidth by not
forcing you to download superfluous
email, such as unsolicited offers.
Moreover, improvements to the filters
are done without modifications to
your email client or account.
How do I know junkmail is being
filtered and not my regular (legitimate)
email?
Advanced filtering technique built
on heuristic rules, lists of approved
and blocked senders, and databases
of known junkmail maintain the effectiveness
of the rules system. Despite these
advanced measures, some good email
may get caught since the concept of
junkmail is subjective (one man's
trash is another man's treasure).
To remedy this, you can set a lenient-to-aggressive
tolerance for filtering suspicious
email: lenient filtering potentially
lets more junkmail through, but
also minimizes the risk of legitimate
email from getting mistakenly directed
to the Email Center; conversely,
aggressive filtering catches more
suspicious email at the risk of mistakenly
diverting normal email to the Email Center. You are notified with regular
summary reports of your activity.
Does someone read personal emails?
No. All email processing is done through
automated filters, in milliseconds.
In the event a "suspicious" email
is discovered, it will be directed
to your private Email Center pending
your review.
Am I notified when email is quarantined
as suspicious junkmail?
You will receive a weekly report via
email of the activity in your Email Center. However, you can log in to the
Email Center at any time to monitor
and review detained messages.
What are Email Center filter
categories?
In addition to the Bulk Mail default
filter category, you can also select:
- Sexually Explicit - Block inappropriate
sexually oriented messages.
- Get Rich Quick - Block the moneymaking
offers and high-risk investments
messages.
- Racially Insensitive - Block offensive
messages about sex, creed, religion,
and race.
- Special Offers - Block annoying
advertisements.
What is Filter Sensitivity?
Filter Sensitivity determines how
aggressive the filters are in capturing
suspect email. The settings are Lenient,
Moderate, and Aggressive. Lenient
will capture less suspect email, while
aggressive is likely to capture more.
What is the Approved Senders
list?
Entering specific email addresses
or entire domains to the Approved
Senders list will allow these to override
your junk mail filters and allow that
email to flow directly to your inbox.
What is the Blocked Senders list?
Entering specific email addresses
or entire domains will prevent ALL
messages from those listed will be
detained in your Email Center.
What if I want to receive junkmail?
You can turn the Junkmail Assistant
off at anytime by simply logging in
to your Email Center, and turning
OFF the Junkmail toggle switch on
the Junkmail page. Note:
If you turn off your Junkmail Assistant,
you will not be able to use the complementary
Virus Protection Assistant.
However, if too much legitimate
email is being detained, first try
setting "Filter Sensitivity" to moderate
or lenient and/or uncheck any "Filter
Categories" that are unwanted. It
also helps to explicitly list certain
email addresses to allow their messages
through the filters, regardless of
content. Do this by entering valid
addresses in the Approved Senders
field.
What happens in the event that
the email processing servers' fail?
A large number of enterprise-scale
servers are dedicated to processing
email. However, in the event of a
catastrophe, email will be passed
through the system by defaulting to
your email provider's regular mail
servers. There will be no noticeable
performance hit. Any suspect messages
that were diverted to the Email Center are contained on redundant
disk storage devices that are backed
up.
How often is email deleted from
the Email Center?
Email messages are kept in the Email Center for 14 days following the receipt
of the message--this includes any
messages that have been moved to your
"Trash Folder". After 14 days from
first receipt, any message will be
deleted. Email service providers will
send an email activity report on a
regular basis to remind you to check
your Email Center. You can also
access the Email Center at any time.
What if I receive spam, what
should I do with it?
If junkmail reaches your inbox,
you can simply delete the message
or forward it to spam@postini.com.
You can also visit the Email Center
and add the sender's address to your
"Blocked Senders" list if it appears
to be a repeat offender, preventing
that sender from reaching the inbox
again. It might also be useful to
try increasing the sensitivity level
in the configuration or turn on specific
filter categories.
What if legitimate email is quarantined
in your Email Center?
Unfortunately, some legitimate email
may be erroneously directed to your
Email Center. This is due to the
subjective nature of email messages
and what could possibly be considered
junkmail. If a significant amount
of valid email is being misdirected
to the Email Center, You should
build a list of approved senders,
thereby minimizing the possibility
of detaining a valid email in the
future.
Also, from the Email Center, click
"deliver" for any legitimate email
you will be prompted to add to the
sender to the "Approved Sender" list.
This is the easiest way to improve
your filter accuracy. You may also
manually build your approved senders
list by visiting your junkmail settings.
Does the Junk Mail Assistant
watch for obscene language and other
questionable content?
The Junkmail Assistant is tuned
for identifying unsolicited commercial
email (UCE), otherwise known as spam
or junkmail. This is somewhat different
than filtering specifically for content,
like most email filtering. For example,
a friend sends a joke containing obscenities.
This originates from a known source,
whereas a message of unknown origin
containing obscenities that refers
to a pornography site WOULD likely
be directed to the Email Center.
Does the Junk Mail Assistant
watch for email only written in English?
Yes, at this time English is the only
language supported.
How do I set up Junkmail filters?
- Log into your Email Center and
click on the "Junkmail" link at
the top
- Make sure that the 'ON' button
is selected activated.
- Select 'Filter Categories' decide
what type of filtering you would
like to take place.
- Always 'Save Changes' to save
or 'Cancel' to cancel and begin
again.
- Also check 'Filter Sensitivity'
to determine how aggressive you
want your filters.
- Add friends, family, and acquaintances
to your 'Approved Senders' list
and add nuances to the 'Blocked
Senders' list.
