SPAM Blocking
The SPAM Blocker module is responsible for analysing each email, identifying and processing SPAM.
To do this it uses a set of rules, configurable string matches and statistical pattern matching.
A rule is typically the detection of some feature of the email that is a good indication that the email is SPAM. Obviously some rules will incorrectly match legitimate emails, while some SPAM may not match a given rule.
For this reason there are multiple rules, and each can be individually tuned to allow you to best process SPAM in your environment: each company's email will be different and therefore some rules will be more suitable for
one company than another.
Don't be alarmed by the numerous configuration options in the SPAM Blocker pages: the default settings work excellently for most companies, and individual rule settings only need changing if they are causing problems (for example blocking emails that should not be blocked)
In general it is safe to leave the settings on their defaults and merely review the SPAM store from time to time to check that legitimate emails have not been blocked. If a legitimate email is blocked you can ensure that it does not happen again by either turning off the rule
or by always allowing the specific sender of the email to have their emails bypass SPAM blocking in future - i.e. you whitelist the sender.
The rules can be set to perform different actions when matched. The list of actions and the resulting actions taken are listed below:
| Off | The rule will not be used at all |
| Weight | The rule will contribute to the pattern matching if matched |
| Mark | The rule will only ever mark emails as SPAM and cannot block or delete emails |
| Block | The rule will block emails and store them in the SPAM store (if storing is configured) |
| Delete | The rule will block emails and delete them immediately: they will not be stored in the SPAM store |
In addition to the individual rule controls you can set the overall allowed actions of the SPAM blocker in the General settings Page.
The overall settings allow you to instantly turn on and off any particular resulting action (such as blocking emails) simply by unchecking the
respective checkbox. For example you may wish to temporarily suspend the deletion of any emails: uncheck the delete checkbox.
If you wish to prevent any emails being blocked and merely mark them as SPAM as they go through the system: uncheck the Block and Delete checkboxes and leave the Mark and Store checkboxes selected.
In this way you can control the overall SPAM blocking processing without having to change all individual rules. The settings in the Action page set what is allowed to occur.
