SouthEast Telephone's Spam Filtering allows users to individually customize filters on their mail accounts to reduce the amount of spam and other unwanted junk mail they receive. This is accomplished in three parts: The main filter settings, sender filter rules, and subject filter rules.

The Filter Status setting turns the Spam Filtering on and off. To enable it, move the light switch to the "On" position and select Apply.

Once enabled, the Filter Level can be adjusted by selecting the up and down arrows on the Filter Level control. At the lowest setting, only the rules listed in the Sender Address and Subject Line Filter Rules (explained below) are applied to incoming e-mail. At each of the higher settings, MMS will detect and filter out spam more aggressively using its own internal spam filtering rules.

Finally, the last of the main controls is the Filter Action control, which determines whether filtered e-mail should be Deleted, or if it should be marked as spam and still delivered (Tag and Send). When operating in Tag and Send mode, e-mail identified as spam is marked in its Subject line with the tag "[SPAM]" and the spam e-mail itself is included as an attachment.

After changing these settings, selecting Update to apply the new configuration.

through The Sender Address Filter Rules allow e-mail to be accepted via a Permit rule, or denied via a Block rule. Filter Rules can be words found in the subjects commonly used in spam mail. These rules match on the sender of an e-mail and override the spam detection of MMS. This allows legitimate e-mail that may be incorrectly identified as spam to be accepted, and unsolicited e-mail that is not caught by the internal spam filter rules to still be blocked. Rules can be set to match a full e-mail address, a domain, or any part of a domain.

Examples:

1. joe@example.com matches joe@example.com or mynameisjoe@example.com but NOT joe smith @example.com
2. @example.com matches any e-mail address from example.com, like bill @example.com or sally @example.com ; but NOT from subdomains of example.com, such as bob @ marketing. example.com
3. .com matches any e-mail address that contains '.com', i.e.. joe@example .com or susy@mail.computers.org. (Not recommended!)
4. joe@ matches any user whose name ends in joe at any domain, i.e.. joe@ example.com , joe@ somewhere.org , bobby joe@ anyplace.net

To add rules to the Sender Address Filter Rules, simply type in a rule consisting of one of the above patterns in the Sender Address Filter Rules box. Select the action for this rule from the drop down Action List to the right. "Permit" will ensure that e-mail matching this rule will be saved, while choosing "Block" will cause e-mail matching this rule to be handled according to the Filter Action setting (either deleting the e-mail, or tagging and delivering it). Finally, select Add to add the new rule. The rule will appear in the Sender Address Filter List below, including the time it was added. To Delete rules, select the check boxes after the rules, then select Remove Selected in the Sender Address Filter Rules box.

through The Subject Line Filter Rules operate in the same way as the Sender Filter Rules, except they match on the text of the Subject line of an e-mail, rather than the sender. Filter Rules can be words found in the subjects commonly used in spam mail. Like the sender rules, these override the spam detection of MMS. Rules will match any part of the subject of an e-mail.

Example: free matches "New free product!," " Free for a limited time," and "Ice Storm Freezes Everything.''

Rules are added to the Subject Line Filter Rules in the same way as the Sender Filter Rules. Enter a pattern into the text box in the Subject Line Filter Rules box. Select the action for this rule from the drop down Action List to the right. "Permit" will ensure that e-mail matching this rule will be saved, while choosing "Block" will cause e-mail that matches this rule to be handled according to the Filter Action setting (either deleting the e-mail, or tagging and delivering it). Finally, select Add to add the new rule. The rule will show up in the Subject Line Filter List below, including the time it was added. To Delete rules, select the check boxes after the rules, then select Remove Selected in the Subject Line Filter Rules box.

At the bottom of the MMS control panel, there is a display of the recent Filter History. Entries are generated every time an incoming e-mail matches a user-specified rule or is identified by MMS as spam. Each entry contains the date and the subject of the filtered e-mail as well as the rule it matched and what action was taken. The log is a good tool to verify that the filter rules are working as intended.

General Notes

There are a few things to note about the Sender Address Filter Rules and the Subject Line Filter Rules. First, all rules are case-insensitive. Second, the order that rules are added doesn't matter. E-mail will always be checked in the following order:

1. Permit rules
2. Block rules
3. Internal spam filtering rules

MMS is designed to minimize the chance of legitimate e-mail being incorrectly marked as spam, but with any spam filtering setup there's always a chance of losing other e-mail. Customers may wish to start using MMS with the Tag & Send action, so they can be sure that MMS is not losing their e-mail. Any mistakes that MMS makes, either marking legitimate e-mail as spam, or not catching spam, can be corrected by adding rules to the Sender Address and Subject Line Filter Rules. Once a customer is comfortable setting up rules and confident in MMS, they can enjoy the full benefits of MMS by simply deleting unwanted spam without ever having to download it.