Configure email filters to allow users to receive email
from people whose messages would otherwise be blocked or to block
email that is not normally blocked but that your users do not want
to receive.
About this task
You can create the following filters and specify their
order to manage incoming email:
- Address filters act based on the sender address. You can create
multiple address filters.
- Keyword filters are based on an email category. Newsletter is
the only Keyword category currently supported.
- Attachment filters apply to messages that contain attachment files. You
can create one filter for each of the attachment categories listed
in Table 1.
In addition to creating filters, you can customize the
service spam filter by allowing email that matches the filter to be
delivered to the Inbox or the Junk folder. Delivering email that matches
the service spam filter to the Inbox is not recommended unless your
company applies its own filtering software to mail before it is routed
to the service.
The number of all filters, excluding the spam
filter, cannot exceed 100.
The service malware, anti-virus,
and phishing filters are not configurable and take precedence over
all other filters.
Perform the following steps to configure
email filters for inbound Internet mail.
Procedure
- Log on to the service as an administrator.
- If your account also has the
User role, click .
- In the System Settings section
of the navigation pane, click IBM SmartCloud Notes.
- Click Account Settings and click Email
Filters.
- To create a filter:
- Click a type of filter:
Table 1. Types
of filters| Filter type |
Description |
|---|
| Address Filter |
Use to filter by sender address.
To
allow or block email for a specific user, type the user's address,
for example, branney@renovations.com.
To allow
or block email for multiple addresses in a domain, use an address
expression that contains one or more asterisks (*), for example, *@renovations.com.
To
separate multiple address entries in a filter, type a comma (,)
or press Enter.
Each address or address
expression must contain one at sign (@).
|
| Keyword Filter |
Use to filter by email category. The category
that is currently supported is newsletter, which filters newsletters
and other automated email.
You can enable one newsletter filter.
By
default, the service delivers newsletters to the Inbox.
|
| Attachment Filter |
Use to filter based on email attachments.
A variety of content is recognized for each available category. You
can filter files in the following categories: - Application/executable files
- Archive files
- Image files
- Video/multimedia files
- Sound files
- Text/document files
You can enable one filter for each file type.
By
default, the service delivers non-spam messages containing attachments
to the Inbox.
|
- Click a delivery option.
Table 2. Filter
delivery options| Filter delivery option |
Description |
|---|
| Allow |
Deliver mail that matches the filter to the
Inbox. |
| Filter |
Deliver mail that matches the filter to the
Junk folder. |
| Block |
Prevent delivery of mail that matches the filter. |
- Click OK.
- To control the delivery of mail that matches the service
spam filter, click System Filter, click Edit,
and then click Allow, Filter,
or Block.
By default, the service
blocks mail that matches the spam filter.
Note: The Allow option
is intended for companies that apply their own filtering software
to mail before it is routed to the service.
- If you configure more than one filter, drag them or use
the arrows to order them by precedence.
The service
evaluates the list of filters from top to bottom. The first filter
that matches a particular message is applied to it, and that message
is not evaluated further.
- Click Save Changes.
Results
The changes take effect immediately.
Effort is taken
to avoid the inclusion of legitimate email such as order and flight
reservation confirmations, invoices, or other mail lists in the newsletter
filter. However, if users consider an email that matches the newsletter
filter or another filter to be legitimate, and you configure the filter
to deliver matching email to the Junk folder, users can use the Remove
Sender from Junk List option. Selecting this option delivers
future email from a sender to the Inbox.
Example
The following table provides examples of addresses that
match and do not match rules in address filters.
Table 3. Examples
of matching and non-matching addresses| Address rule |
Matching addresses |
Non-matching addresses |
|---|
branney@renovations.com
|
branney@renovations.com
|
b.ranney@renovations.com
branney@ny.renovations.com
|
*ranney@renovations.com
|
ranney@renovations.com
branney@renovations.com
b_ranney@renovations.com
wm.ranney@renovations.com
|
branney@ny.renovations.com
|
*.ranney@renovations.com
|
b.ranney@renovations.com
wm.ranney@renovations.com
|
b.ranney@ny.renovations.com
branney@renovations.com
b_ranney@renovations.com
|
*@renovations.com
|
branney@renovations.com
s.daryn@renovations.com
|
asingh@bos.renovations.com
cfield@ny.renovations.com
|
*@*.renovations.*
|
asingh@bos.renovations.com
cfield@ny.renovations.com
asingh@bos.renovations.net
cfield@ny.renovations.us
|
branney@renovations.com
s.daryn@renovations.com
|
The following table provides an example filter configuration
that blocks spam and then blocks the delivery of email that is sent
from asingh@bos.renovations.com and cfield@ny.renovations.com.
Table 4. Example of filter configuration that blocks spam and then blocks
email from specific addresses| Number |
Filter name |
Rule |
Action |
|---|
| 1 |
Spam: System Filter |
Spam as defined by the service |
Block |
| 2 |
Addresses: Two
renovations addresses |
asingh@bos.renovations.com
cfield@ny.renovations.com
|
Block |
The following table provides an example filter configuration
that blocks spam, then blocks email from any subdomain of renovations.com (for
example, email from cfield@ny.renovations.com but
not branney@renovations.com), and then allows newsletters
to be delivered to the Junk folder.
Table 5. Example of
filter configuration that blocks spam and blocks email from a subdomain
and allows newsletters| Number |
Name |
Rule |
Action |
|---|
| 1 |
Spam: System Filter |
Spam as defined by the service |
Block |
| 2 |
Addresses: Renovations
subdomains |
*@*.renovations.com |
Block |
| 3 |
Keywords: Newsletters |
Newsletters as defined by the service |
Filter (deliver to Junk folder) |
The following table provides an example filter configuration
that blocks email from branney@renovations.com and s.daryn@renovations.com,
then allows all other email from the renovations.com domain,
and then delivers spam to the Junk folder. Email from renovations.com that
matches the spam filter is delivered to the Inbox because in this
case processing stops after the second filter is applied.
Table 6. Example of filter configuration that blocks email from specific
addresses in a domain, allows other addresses in the domain, and then
delivers spam to the Junk folder. | Number |
Filter name |
Rule |
Action |
|---|
| 1 |
Addresses: Two
renovations addresses |
branney@renovations.com
s.daryn@renovations.com
|
Block |
| 2 |
Addresses: Renovations |
*@renovations.com |
Allow (deliver to Inbox) |
| 3 |
Spam: System Filter |
Spam as defined by the service |
Filter (deliver to Junk folder) |