How do I set up filtering?

To effectively manage spam, you need to filter messages that have been identified as spam to a separate mailbox so you can deal with them collectively, apart from your regular mailbox. You do this by setting up one or more message filters in your email client. There are many email client programs and their message filtering capabilities differ so you need to learn how to set up filters for your particular email client. Specific instructions are provided below for several popular email clients at CSM. The general instructions are as follows:

1. Create a mailbox where you want your spam messages to be sent. Call it something like spam, junkmail, or spambox so you can easilty identify it.
2. Create a message filter (with appropriate priority in your filter hierarchy) that looks for [spam: at the beginning of the Subject line and moves the message to your spam mailbox.

This is a fairly simple process. E-mail you receive from this point forward that is identified as spam will be automatically moved to your spam mailbox. You should review your spam mailbox routinely for false positives. If you find false positives, you should move them back to your Inbox and whitelist the sender in your .spamassassin/user_prefs file if you want to exempt all future messages from the same sender being marked as spam.

Filtering in CSM's Webmail system

1. Login to webmail
2. Click on Folders along the top row (Inbox, Compose, Folders, Options, Search....)
3. Under the Folder Navigator, press Choose Action: and select Create Folder
4. Enter the name that you want to call your spam folder (spam, spambox, junkmail, etc.) and press OK. Your folder should be created.
5. Click on Options along the top row (Inbox, Compose, Folders, Options, Search....)
6. Under the Mail Management column, click on Filters
7. If you want the filter rules applied automatically when you login to webmail, select Apply filter rules upon logging in and press the Save Options Button. (You can apply the filter rules manually by clicking on the second icon to the right of INBOX in your Inbox message window - this can be useful if you don't use webmail routinely or as your primary email client.) You will be taken back to the Options screen - Click on Filters again.
8. Click on Edit My Filter Rules
9. Under Rule Definitions, check Subject, and in the text area type [spam:
10. Click the radio button next to move message to and click on Select Folder and select the spam folder you created above.
11. Press Create, the rule will appear as Filter Rule #1 (if you have no existing rules)
12. You're done. Future messages identified as spam will be moved to your spam folder automatically when you login if you chose that option and anytime you instruct webmail to apply your filter rules.
13. Be sure to examine your spam box and actually delete real spam messages since they take up disk space and are counted toward your quota.
14. To most effectively use this feature, under Options-->Mail Management-->Deleting and Moving Messages, you should probably enable the option that says "When deleting messages, move them to your Trash folder instead of marking them as deleted." Otherwise, messages that are filtered as spam and moved to your spam folder will be shown as deleted messages in your Inbox that must be purged to actually go away.

Filtering in Netscape Messenger 4.x

1. From the Edit menu, select Message Filters. In the Message Filter dialog box, select Filters for Inbox and click New
   
2. In the Filter Rules dialog box, name your filter spam or something meaningful to you. Select Subject of the message begins with and enter [spam: into the text area to the right of the drop down list.
   
3. Select Move to folder and click the New folder button.
   
4. Name your folder spam, spambox, junk or something else meaningful to you, select Local Mail from the drop down list if you don't want the spam box to be a subfolder of Inbox, and then press OK.
   
5. Press OK to close the Filter Rules dialog box.
   
6. Press OK to close the Message Filter dialog box.
   
7. Be sure to routinely review the contents of your spam mailbox for false positives and delete the contents of the mailbox to get rid of the spam.
   

Filtering in Netscape Mail 6.x

1. From the Edit menu, select Message Filters. In the Message Filter dialog box, click New
   
2. In the Filter Rules dialog box, name your filter spam. Set it to filter messages where the Subject begins with the characters [spam:
   
3. Under Perform this action, select Move to folder and click the New folder button.
   
4. Name your folder spam, spambox, junk or something else meaningful to you.
   
5. Click OK to close the Filter Rules dialog box.
   
6. Click OK to close the Message Filter dialog box.
   
7. Be sure to routinely review the contents of your spam mailbox for false positives and delete the contents of the mailbox to get rid of the spam.
   

Filtering in Microsoft Outlook Express (pre 6.0)

1. From the Tools menu, select Inbox Assistant.
2. Click Add, and in the Properties box, in the Subject: line type in [spam:.
3. Under Perform the following action: select Move to:, click the Folder button, and, create a folder called spam, spambox, junk or something meaningful to you. Press OK.
4. Click OK to close the Properties box and then OK to close the Inbox Assistant box.
5. Be sure to routinely review the contents of your spam mailbox for false positives and delete the contents of the mailbox to get rid of the spam.

Filtering in Microsoft Outlook Express 6.0

1. From the Tools menu, select Message Rules and then Mail...
2. Under "Select the Conditions for your rule" click "Where the subject line contains specific words" and under "Select the Actions for your rule" click on "Move it to the specified folder". Under "Rule Description" click "Contains Specific Words" and type in [spam: then click Add and OK. Click "Specified" and add a new folder.

Filtering in Microsoft Outlook 2000 & 2002

1. From the Tools menu, select Rules Wizard.
2. Press New.
3. Select "Check new messages when they arrive" and press Next.
4. Check "with specific words at the beginning of the subject" or "with specific words in the subject." The rule will be added to the lower window. Click on "specific words" in the lower window.
5. In the Search Text box that appears, type [spam: in the Add new text area. Press Add, then OK. (In Outlook 2000, now press Next).
6. Check "move it to the specified folder" ("Move messages based on Content" in Outlook 2002). When the rule appears in the lower area, click or select "specified" and create a folder called spam, spambox, junk or some other name meaningful to you.
7. When you are satisfied with the rule description, press Finish.
8. Be sure to routinely review the contents of your spam mailbox for false positives and delete the contents of the mailbox to get rid of the spam.
   

Filtering in Eudora

1. From the Tools menu, select Filter.
2. Set it to filter Incoming mail. In the Header: box, type X-Spam-Status: that starts with the word Yes.
   
3. In the Action area, set it to Transfer the spam to a mailbox called spam, spambox, junk or something meaningful to you.
   
4. Close the window and save the changes.
5. Be sure to routinely review the contents of your spam mailbox for false positives and delete the contents of the mailbox to get rid of the spam.
6. For additional assistance, see Eudora's help pages or visit Eudora's support pages.