Barracuda Spam Filtering:
The Barracuda Spam
Firewall filters spam before it reaches our mail server, meaning that you
can filter your spam message before even downloading them. This saves
you time and bandwidth, and it works even with your web-mail interface.
Configuring Barracuda Spam
Filtering:
Step 1: Create an
account.
To begin setting up your personal filtering settings you will need to
create a user account on the Spam Firewall. To do this, go to
http://barracuda.yk.com:8000 . You will see a login page similar
to this:
Follow this by entering
your full e-mail address as your username. If you have a "@yk.com"
address, use your username "@tamarack.nt.ca"
For instance, if your
account name is johndoe@yk.com, you would enter the username johndoe@tamarack.nt.ca.
| Technical Note:
Currently most all yk.com addresses are set up as aliases to
tamarack.nt.ca accounts where your mailbox exists. |
Then click the "Create
New Password" button. An e-mail coming from "Barracuda Spam Firewall"
will be sent to your e-mail account. This message will contain
information to log in: Your username, your password, and a link to quickly
log in.
Step 2: Setting
Personal Settings
By default, the barracuda is making no decisions as to what spam to
delete from your account. This is to ensure that messages you wish to
receive aren't accidentally removed.
Click the link in your
"User Quarantine Account Information" e-mail that was sent in step 1.
It will bring you to a page with a Quarantine Inbox tab and a Preferences
Tab. The quarantine inbox is where messages that the barracuda isn't
quite sure about are stored for you to review.
For now, click on the
Preferences Tab, and then the Spam Settings header.
This will bring you to a
page with the following information. By default you will be using the
system defaults so you wont be able to change your scoring settings.
To be able to do that, Click "No" to "Use System Defaults" and then click
"Save Changes" in the Spam Scoring Heading.
This is where you can
modify your spam settings, and allow the Barracuda to block spam messages
from ever getting to you. Be cautious when setting these settings as
they could cause valid e-mails to be discarded if set too strictly.
Each action has a score
from 0 to 10. When a message is received it is analyzed and given a
score, if the barracuda is very sure the message is not spam, it is given a
score close to 0. If the barracuda is very sure that the message is
spam, it is given a score of 9 or higher. A message that is scored
between 1 and 9 the barracuda is unsure about. The closer to 0, the
more likely the message is not spam, the closer to 9, the more likely that
it is.
Each action will occur to
messages above the score set. For instance, a Tag Score of 1.5 means
that all messages rated over 1.5 will be tagged with the words [SUSPECTED
SPAM]. A score of 0 should never be used since it means that all
messages will have that action taken on them. A score of 10 means that
the action will never be performed. (For instance, to remove any
tagging and filtering, set all scores at 10)
The actions do the
following:
Tag: Precedes the
suspected message with [SUSPECTED SPAM] and delivers it to your mailbox.
Quarantine: Does
not deliver the message to your mailbox. Instead, delivers it to your
Quarantine box. You will get a daily message telling you which
messages have been quarantined, and allowing you to tell the barracuda which
messages are spam, and which message are not so that it is able to more
accurately determine in the future.
Block: Does not
deliver to your mailbox. Deletes the message completely.
A typical configuration
may have a low tag score, a moderate quarantine score, and a high block
score so that the fewest messages get blocked by the filter, and you have
the option to use the quarantine to train the filter to better classify your
messages.
The other typical
configuration would be to set the quarantine score at 10 so that no mail is
ever quarantined, but then you will rely on the mail plug-in to train the
filter.
Step 3: Using the Mail
Plug-In (Advanced)
If you use Microsoft Outlook and you are comfortable installing plug-ins
for it, you can download a plug-in for your mail client that will let you
classify your messages as spam/not-spam without having to log in to the
barracuda. To do this, go to
http://barracuda.yk.com:8000 and click on the "Get Mail Plugins Here"
link. Download one of the two options and run the installer that is
downloaded.
You will notice a couple
of buttons in Outlook the next time you start it up.
To classify messages as
spam, or not spam, select the messages you wish to classify, and then click
the green arrow if you want to let the barracuda know that messages like the
ones you have selected should not be classified as spam in the future, or
click the red arrow if you want to let the barracuda know that a message
should be classified as spam in the future. |
