SPAM Filtering

Anti-Spam for Students

Are you tired of receiving junk email messages in your Inbox?  Western students now have robust spam filtering available using MyWestern Mail.  The university has implemented a powerful spam filtering software product to greatly minimize the amount of spam reaching the desktop.

Basic Spam Filtering: No further action is required for students using MyWestern Mail – the most obvious and egregious spam is already being eliminated at the student mail server.  Testing indicates that this level of spam filtering should not affect legitimate messages in any way.

Advanced Spam filtering is also available for users of MyWestern Mail.  Filtering of email messages that fall into a gray area (i.e., not definitely SPAM) is accomplished by sending suspected spam to an individual user's Quarantine E-mail folder for further evaluation.  To get this advanced level of spam protection you will need to enable it while logged into your MyWestern mail. Click here for a screenshot of where this option is located in your MyWestern mail screen.

To learn how to use these advanced spam filtering features, please refer to the whitelist and blacklist features of MyWestern Mail.

Anti-Spam for Faculty and Staff

Outlook

Western's faculty and staff members who use Outlook email have access to a comprehensive set of tools to combat spam on the desktop. Those not currently using Outlook/Exchange for email may want to consider such use in the future in order to gain access to the robust anti-spam features available.

• Basic Spam Filtering: No further action is required by those already using Outlook/Exchange email – the most obvious and egregious spam is already being eliminated at the Exchange server before it reaches your desktop. Testing indicates that this level of spam filtering does not affect legitimate messages in any way. If you are not an Outlook/Exchange user, you can gain access to this basic spam filtering by requesting establishment of an Outlook account. Simply fill out this account request form.
• Advanced Spam filtering is available for users of Microsoft Outlook 2003. Filtering of email messages that fall into a gray area (i.e. not definitely spam) is accomplished by sending suspected spam to an individual user's Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail folder for further evaluation. To install or upgrade to Outlook 2003 and to learn how to use these advanced spam filtering features choose: Say-No-To-SPAM Using Outlook 2003

You may want to review instructions for Managing Your Junk Email Using the Outlook 2003 Desktop Client. Macintosh users and users who travel can make use of Managing Your Junk Email Using the Outlook Web Access Client. You may also be interested in learning about the new features of Outlook 2003.

Changing your Spam Filtering Level is easy for users of Outlook 2003. Two levels of spam filtering, Moderate (default) and Strong are available.

If Spam filtering is too effective:

• Campus-wide Whitelist: If you see that legitimate e-mail from known sources is regularly being identified as spam (e.g. name@uwashington.edu) you can ask to have that source placed on our campus-wide whitelist, so that all e-mail from that source gets through. Please complete and send the eSign Web Form: Spam Whitelist for consideration.
• Cancel all Spam filtering: In the unlikely event that you actually want to receive spam (e.g., research or too many ‘false positives') you can request that the Basic spam filtering be removed from your account. Simply contact the ATUS Help Desk at 3333.

MyWestern Mail

Faculty and staff who don’t use Outlook may be able to use MyWestern Mail for spam filtering.   Please refer to the Advanced Spam Filtering instructions for students.  If you have questions regarding your spam filtering options, please contact the ATUS Help Desk or your departmental technical support staff.