New UW Email Anti-Spam Features

12/13/06, email to all UW Exchange users

Many UW email users have expressed frustration with the increasing amount of SPAM they receive. Microsoft’s Junk E-mail feature and SPAM filtering, http://www.uwyo.edu/spam are two ways to help with the SPAM onslaught.

Information Technology will be implementing two more tools to help curb SPAM. One tool is a new anti-spam feature recently made available by SophosLabs™. The feature, MTA (Message Transfer Agent) level IP blocking, will be implemented on December 18.

MTA level IP blocking rejects messages originating from known spammer IP addresses. The addresses are blocked, or blacklisted, by the SophosLabs™ software and other blacklisting services. The catalog of blacklisted IP addresses is updated frequently throughout each day.

As with all anti-spam systems, none are perfect. It is possible email should be allowed from some blacklisted sites. Information Technology will maintain a centrally managed address list of IP addresses that should not be blocked from the UW network (white-listed sites). If you encounter problems with improperly blocked email from IP addresses identified as SPAM you may request that the address be unblocked (white-listed). To request that an address be added to the central white-list, send the address and reason to userhelp@uwyo.edu.

Any email that is rejected from UW’s blacklist will be returned to the sender with an explanatory error message, so that senders who are inadvertently blocked can contact us for assistance.

It is expected that this feature will significantly reduce the volume of SPAM coming into the campus email servers. Information Technology is also developing a SPAM quarantining system that will stop SPAM from reaching user inboxes, but allow for users to review and release SPAM messages when needed. More information will be shared as Information Technology prepares to release the new quarantining system in the coming weeks.

Please contact the IT Help Desk at 766-4357 (6-HELP), option 1, or userhelp@uwyo.edu if you have any comments or concerns.