There is a way that you can filter your E-Mail before you retrieve it using an E-Mail client program or before you see it in your web mail page. You can filter your E-Mail according to keywords, E-Mail addresses or even file attachments. This will help you prevent spam from entering your inbox.

When you set up your filters, all incoming E-Mail will first go through these filter tests before they are delivered to your inbox. If they should contain anything you rule out using your filters, then the message will be put in a designated folder in your web mail page or deleted, depending on which you choose. When you go to retrieve your E-Mail using either your web mail page or your favorite E-Mail client program, what arrives in your inbox will only be messages that have already passed through these filters. If you have set up to put E-Mail in special folders, you will need to access your account's web mail page to retrieve them.

Keep in mind that we already do some spam filtering before E-Mail messages reach your domain's mail server. Please see A Technical Explanation of How E-Mail Works for more information.

NOTE: Please remember to use the domain name of the E-Mail account you are adding filters to in place of yourdomain.com in the steps below.

1. Visit your Web Mail Interface at http://mail.yourdomain.com

2. For the username, type in the complete E-Mail address of the account you want to set up Filters for (ie., your_name@yourdomain.com). Type in the password for that E-Mail account.

3. Click on Options in the toolbar at the top of the page.

4. Click on Filtering in the second toolbar at the top of the page.

5. Click on the Enable Filtering button.

6. Click on the Add... button on the right.

7. In the Filter Description box, type in a name to describe your filter. This is for your reference so that you can tell what each filter does. Some suggestions are "Advertisements", "Spam", "Friends". Keep in mind that you can filter E-Mail in many ways from here. You can have it deleted or you can ensure that it makes it to your inbox.

8. Next you will see a number of fields. You do not have to fill in every field, but you do have to fill in at least one. Which one is up to you. You can fill in more than one item in a field. Separate each item with a comma. You can also use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard. Such as *@yourdomain.com, for example. This would filter anything that has your domain name in it.
   
   Message From: The E-Mail address of those whom may be sending you E-Mail.
   
   Message To: Your E-Mail address or the E-Mail addresses that may be showing up in the E-Mail message's To field. This is useful if you are filtering your postmaster E-Mail account or want to ensure that mail is only sent to you and not included in a list.
   
   Message Cc: The E-Mail address which may show up in the Cc of the E-Mail Message. Cc means Carbon Copy. This is used to send E-Mail messages to more than one person. So if someone put you on a bulk list, you can filter this out simply by putting a *@* in this field. This means that any E-Mail messages that have any E-Mail addresses in the Cc field will be filtered.
   
   Message To or Cc: This is the same as the Cc described above, except this filter will work on both the To: and Cc: fields of the E-Mail messages at the same time.
   
   Attachments: You can choose files which you do not wish to receive. You can use wildcards such as *.exe, *.pif, etc. We already filter some of these file extensions. Please see What files can I attach to E-Mail? for a list of files we filter. It will not be necessary to enter these extensions in your filtering. Note that this field will be filled in with our list of filtered extensions once you submit your settings.
   
   Message Subject Contains: Use this to filter out certain keywords in the subject line of the E-Mail Message. Separate each keyword with a comma. For a suggestions, please see Spam Keywords To Add To Your Filter Lists.
   
   Message Contains: This works the same way as the Subject filtering above, but operates on the contents of the E-Mail message itself.
   
   

9. From the Action drop down box, you have a choice of the following options:
   
   Delete the Message: This will delete the message from the mail server, and you will not see it in your inbox. Please note that unlike moving the message to your Deleted Items folder, this option will permanently delete the message. There is no way to recover a permanently deleted E-Mail message.
   
   Move Message to Folder: You can move the message to any folder available in the Data drop down box. If you do not see a folder in the box that you wish to move the message to, you will need to create one first. Note that you will have to start over with your filter setup. This is why it's best to make any folders you need first before you add your filters.
   
   Copy Message to Folder: This works like Move Message to Folder but it will leave the message in the inbox and place a copy of the same message in the folder you choose from the Data drop down box.
   
   Move Message to Junk Mail Folder: This will place the message in a Bad Mail folder. There may not be a Junk E-Mail folder in your folder list at first. However, if any E-Mail is caught by this filter, then this folder will automatically be created for you and the messages will be stored in there.
   
   Move Message to Quarantine Folder: You can use this folder to filter mail with attached files or suspected viruses, for example. As with the Junk Mail folder, you may not see it in your folder list at first, but it is automatically created for you if a message comes through that needs to be placed in this folder.

10. Click the Add button when finished.

You can also delete any filter by selecting the filter name in the filtering box and clicking the Delete button. To edit or change a filter, select the filter to change and click the Edit button.

When you're done setting up your filters, you can log out using the link at the top of the page. Your filters will remain in effect, even if you use your favorite E-Mail client program (such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird, for example) to retrieve your E-Mail. Keep in mind that these filters will take effect before any of the filters you set up in your E-Mail program, since all E-Mail must pass through your domain's mail server first.