D3 Technologies

Using the Spam Filtering Service

D3 Technologies' spam filtering service provides virus, attachment, and spam filtering services for email. Note that changes made by domain administrators will affect all users in that domain (unless the user has changed their default settings), and changes by users will only affect that user. For support options, click on "Support" on our website.

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Accessing the System

To access the spam filtering service, open your browser and navigate to http://smtp.d3pact.com. You will be prompted to enter your username and password.

After you enter your username and password, click OK to access the system. Note that after you logout, you will be prompted with the same authentication box. Because of the way our system is configured, authentication will always fail after you logout (even with the correct username and password). To work around this, click on Cancel. You can either close your browser tab or click the hyperlink to log in again.

The Interface

When you log onto the system, you will be taken to the summary page. Here, you will be presented with the last 50 messages sent through the system. Depending on your permissions, you will either be able to only see emails sent to you or to the entire domain. The following sections will describe in detail the information and actions available in the system interface.

Color Codes

Each email that is received by the spam filter undergoes certain checks, and the result of those checks is shown in the user interface. The messages are highlighted with the color code of the result of the email scan. The Color Codes key is on the top center of the interface for reference.

Jump to Message

The 'Jump to message' box allows the user or administrator to quickly see the contents of a blocked message. This box requires the Message ID assigned by the system (for example, C8FAF2232B.AA8AA). Press the ENTER key to view the message headers.

Menu Bar

The menu bar is used to access different parts of the system. 'Recent Messages' will list the last 50 messages received by the system, only showing those the user has permissions to view. 'Lists' provides the interface for customizing the whitelist and blacklist. 'Quarantine' is used to view the messages in the Quarantine, by date (note that all available dates are displayed- you may not have any messages quarantined on that date). The 'Reports' menu links to a number of available reports. The 'Tools / Links' menu provides the user administration link and other information. To logout of the system, click on 'Logout'.

Message Operations

As email messages are received and processed, the messages that are categorized as 'Spam' are stored, and further operations can be performed on them. To access a message's properties, click on the box ('[ ]') to the left of the message. The information listed is generally for troubleshooting purposes, such as the message headers. The following sections explain what happens when a scan of the email triggers the filter. We do not store 'clean' messages, so these operations cannot be performed on them.

Anti-virus / Dangerous Content Protection

All messages received by the filter, regardless of Spam checks, are scanned for viruses and other dangerous content. In this example, the message contained a file that has been blocked by the filter. The particular file was a Windows Executable (.exe) file.

Spamassassin

The SpamAssassin section notes what actions (if any) were taken during the spam checks. In this example, the email triggered 'Spam' and 'High Scoring Spam' checks, which modify the email header to include the spam information and store the message in the Quarantine. Additionally, the IP address sending the email has been listed in a Real-Time Black List (RBL), meaning it has been sending a large amount of spam. The total SpamAssassin score assigned to the email is also listed.

Below the SpamAssassin Score is the Spam Report. This section lists the checks that matched common spam properties, and the score assigned to each check. The scores are added to provide the SpamAssassin score, and it is this score that the filter takes action on. The first item in the Spam Report indicates that a score of 6 or greater is required before the email is classified as 'Spam', and the second item indicates that the SpamAssassin system will auto-learn the message as Spam. The auto-learning process enables the system to block spam messages that have been sent to multiple email addresses in the organization.

Message Content Protection (MCP)

If enabled for the domain, Message Content Protection (MCP) will filter emails based upon content. Similar to spam checks, MCP checks messages for compliance with email policies.

Quarantine Actions

If an email has been classified as Spam, the message is automatically quarantined. At the bottom of the message information, the quarantine actions can be performed. Checking 'Release' and then clicking on Submit will send the quarantined email to your address. Likewise, checking 'Delete' and then clicking Submit will delete the email from the quarantine. You can view the contents of the email message by clicking the link under 'Path'. If you wish to release the email to an alternate recipient, check and type in their email address in the 'Alternate Recipient(s)' box, and then check the 'Release' box and click submit.

Managing Your User Account

To manage your user account, click on the 'Tools/Links' menu, and then select 'User Management'. You will be presented with the user management interface.

Although the user can change their username and Name, this is neither recommended nor supported, as spam checks and filtering is performed based upon the username. If a user accidentally changes their username, contact us and we will change it back.

To change your password, type the new password into the 'Password' box, and click Update. To cancel the new change(before clicking Update), click on Reset.

To receive daily quarantine report summaries, ensure that the check box next to 'Send Daily Report?' is checked. By default, the box is not checked. You can also specify an alternate recipient of the report, which is useful when filtering on a mail group or list.

By default, all accounts created have the 'Scan for Spam' box checked. To disable spam checking for a user or domain, uncheck this box. Note that we (D3 Technologies) need to perform additional configuration when setting up a new user.

You can adjust the Spam Score and High Spam Score in this interface, too. Our system defaults are to use a score of 6 for the Spam Score, and a score of 10 for the High Spam Score. However, lower (or higher) thresholds can be specified on a per-domain or per-user basis. To change your spam scores, enter the new threshold and then click 'Update'. Our system is scheduled to refresh these settings periodically, and changes may not take effect immediately. We recommend that you utilize the Message Operations report (found under the Reports menu) to gauge any changes to the Spam Score or High Spam Score.

Whitelist and Blacklist Settings

From time to time, legitimate emails may get categorized as spam. Users and Domain Administrators can whitelist or blacklist email addresses to address these situations. To access the whitelist and blacklist entries, click on the 'Lists' menu. A whitelist is a list of allowed senders (regardless of Spam content), and a blacklist is a list of blocked senders. When a domain administrator creates a whitelist or blacklist entry, the setting is in effect for the entire domain.

Viewing Whitelists and Blacklists

The whitelist and blacklist entries are listed on the page. You can either enter an individual email address, or place a star (*) before the '@' symbol to include all email from a domain. To remove an address from the list, click on 'Delete'. Similar to the spam filter settings, new whitelist and blacklist entries will not go into effect until the next system refresh.

Adding an Address to the Whitelist or Blacklist

To add a domain to the appropriate list, enter '*@' followed by the domain name in the 'From' section. To add an individual email address, enter the email address in the 'From' section. Then, select the appropriate list entry, and click 'Add'.

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