email filters

[Cassie]

I am struggling with filters again.

It looks like one of the filters I had set up was filtering all my back up emails (orders) to be deleted but I haven't got a clue which one. So I deleted them all and have decided to start again with them.

What exactly is the difference between "user level filtering" and "account level filtering"? Which is the best to use in which situations?

I have forwarders set up so some of the email addresses I had set up (orders@, admin@, webmaster@ etc) all go to one account (contact@).

I get hundreds of spam a day so really need to get the filters back up and running correctly soon, so any tips on what to filter out would be good too.

[Cassie]

I have set up various account level filtering including one for the Royal Bank of Scotland spam this is doing the rounds. But whatever I put in the subject, body or from they are still coming through.

The only thing I can think of is that the forwarding (see previous post) is happening before the filtering and therefore these emails are just bypassing the filtering and still being forwarded.

I had a major problem with filters not working at all a time ago and Tech Sup put me back on the old cpanel - they said they knew about the email filtering problem and that was the only way to go until they fixed it. They upgraded me to the new cpanel again a few weeks ago - without letting me know why or if the previous problem had been sorted. So I don't really want to go through them again and have days of 'talking' to them and ending up downgraded again.

Does anyone know which order these things work or even how they work. The help files do not diferenciate between the two so I can only guess that the account level filtering works on all accounts and the user level only works on each user.

I know I am rambling but I am trying to work it out in my head as I type so someone can confirm I am right or shoot me down in flames.

Do they work like - 'Account Level Filters' then 'Forwarders' then 'User Level Filters' ?

[jon123]

Afraid I have no idea Cassie, I don't use filtering as every spam email I get seems to have been sent from a diffterent ip and email address.
I use boxtrapper which stops all spam getting through. Ok the bugbear is that if they send me a message it gets sent back to them asking them to confirm they are a real person, but they only ever have to do this once, ans because spammers don't reply none get through.

[Cassie]

I have seen those confirmation things from the other side. I send out Newsletters (opt in) and even though there is a note in the subscribe form saying "put us on your white list" we still get lots of emails back saying "click this link" etc. As most of our bouncebacks, out of office and unsubscribes are done automatically by GroupMail it is annoying when you get these. And 9 out of 10 times when you do click them they don't work.

I know all spam is sent from different ips etc - which is why I am using the filters in cpanel. You can set them up so that certain words or phrases don't get through. So any email which has Royal Bank of Scotland in the Subject or Body of the email should be deleted (I do not bank with them). You have to make them fairly spacific though or it could stop others good emails. I had one set up to stop 'sex' and then had a customer called Sextant - her order didn't come through the filters.

This all works well except in a few cases which is why I need to know which order the things work in and what the difference is between the different types.

I also use MailWasher Pro so that no suspect ones gets to my computer but it is still annoying every morning coming down to a screen full of red emails.

[byteme]

Originally Posted by Cassie

I have seen those confirmation things from the other side. I send out Newsletters (opt in) and even though there is a note in the subscribe form saying "put us on your white list" we still get lots of emails back saying "click this link" etc. As most of our bouncebacks, out of office and unsubscribes are done automatically by GroupMail it is annoying when you get these. And 9 out of 10 times when you do click them they don't work.

I know all spam is sent from different ips etc - which is why I am using the filters in cpanel. You can set them up so that certain words or phrases don't get through. So any email which has Royal Bank of Scotland in the Subject or Body of the email should be deleted (I do not bank with them). You have to make them fairly spacific though or it could stop others good emails. I had one set up to stop 'sex' and then had a customer called Sextant - her order didn't come through the filters.

This all works well except in a few cases which is why I need to know which order the things work in and what the difference is between the different types.

I also use MailWasher Pro so that no suspect ones gets to my computer but it is still annoying every morning coming down to a screen full of red emails.

Hi Cassie, I have been playing with the spam filters upon all of my 40 odd domains (I run a website design co) so I have had some experience of what does and doesn't work and the various ctrl panels, so perhaps I can help?

You can set up filters in many different ways, but first to the confusion you have over forwarding is that if you use account level filtering it will be DOMAIN wide, if you use user level it is PER user e.g fred@somedoma.com rather than all emails for somedoma.com

To further help, you can set up to work on subject and body of the email to ensure it conforms to the rules you need to set:

i.e if
subject does not contains sextant AND subject contains sex set up to disard message ( see you can click on the PLUS + sign and change from or to and )

It is all about logic. I have managed to reduce spam to 25% with little effort.

[Cassie]

Ok but which is applied first - the forwarding, the user filter or the account filter?
If an email is forwarded is it then filtered or not.

[byteme]

if you do the account filter it does the domain so this is the one to use as the user depends upon each mailbox

[Cassie]

Thats what I have used but emails with subjects etc I have filtered to discard are still getting through.

I assume because I have asked for all emails starting admin@ webmaster@ etc to be forwarded to contact@ that the filters for the spam emails is not working. That is what I need to know if my assumptions are correct or not.

[byteme]

Originally Posted by Cassie

Thats what I have used but emails with subjects etc I have filtered to discard are still getting through.

I assume because I have asked for all emails starting admin@ webmaster@ etc to be forwarded to contact@ that the filters for the spam emails is not working. That is what I need to know if my assumptions are correct or not.

OK I have no idea which way round they go, but if you do this domain wide it would cover them REGARDLESS of where they go after arriving at mail.yourdomain.com

Either:
1) the discard has reverted to send through (yes I have seen it happen)
2) you have not got the logic correct

Do you wish me to look for you? If so let me know, I am a website designer by trade and you can change passwords on your Cpanel once I have looked, Please do not put these details on the forum, PM me.