We use a spam database which keeps 'fingerprints' of spam emails.
We also look for words / phrases which regularly occur in spam messages.
Finally, we also check the machine that is sending the message in several different
anti-spam databases.
In all, over 800 checks are carried out and each check will return a score. You can
set a threshold for your mail and if the score is above that then the mail
is designated suspect and will then be quarantined - more details below.
We have a database of viruses which is updated daily. The message and any attachments will be scanned and if it contains a known virus it will be quarantined.
When mail is downloaded, the contents of the quarantine stay on our server. The
user is provided with a page where the contents of the quarantine can be
inspected for 'false positives' (legitimate mail incorrectly identified
as spam), and messages there can then be approved or removed.
Messages in quarantine will be left on the server for 7 days by default
(user-configurable), and then removed. The quarantine area can also be
accessed as a separate folder called 'Junk' if you are using the IMAP service.
You can be updated as to the content of your quarantine by daily email if you wish.
As mentioned above, you can also tweak the spam-detection threshold. Not only that,
this facility can be set per email address i.e. you can have a very high
threshold on risky addresses like 'sales@' and a lower threshold on a safer address
such as 'yourfullname@'.
A whitelist will let you specify addresses that you want to receive mail from.
This is useful in case there is some mail that is being incorrectly picked
up by the spam filters that you wish to receive. Conversely, a blacklist
lets you specify addresses that you never want to receive mail from. Mail from
these addresses will be rejected by the servers upon receipt. These lists
can be configured from the mailbox control panel.
No guarantees can be made as to the effectiveness of this system, but testing has
shown it to be very accurate, and can cut out over 90% of spam if an appropriate
threshold is used.
Finally, please remember that our anti-virus & anti-spam service should be
regarded as an additional protection to anti-virus/spam being run
on the receiving PC.
Email is included with all of our domain registration and hosting packages.
