Due to the increasing volume of unsolicited e-mail (also known as
spam) received by faculty and staff District 87 has implemented an
anti-spam pilot program. District 87 Technology has installed
GFI Mail Essentials
on the District e-mail servers. All e-mail sent to and from
District 87 is analyzed for characteristics of spam.
1) How does this affect me?
2) What do I do with Spam messages from the
!Spam folder?
3) Can I automatically empty the !Spam
folder after a certain period?
4) What if I get a message in the !Spam folder
which is NOT spam?
5) How does the system determine if a message
is spam?
How does this affect me?
All e-mail is scanned for characteristics of spam. E-mail
which appears valid will be sent to you in the normal fashion to
your Inbox or other folder depending on your Outlook rules.
E-mail which the system rates as likely spam is still delivered to
you but is placed in a folder under your Inbox named !Spam.
The exclamation point (!) insures that the folder is near the top
of your folder list and easily viewable. In Outlook to view
the !Spam folder simply click 'View' then 'Folder List' then click
the + sign next to the word 'Inbox'. At that point you can
review and delete any messages that you confirm are spam in the
!Spam folder.
What do I do with Spam messages from the
!Spam folder?
Simply delete them in the normal fashion.
Can I make the !Spam folder
automatically empty after a certain period?
Absolutely! Please check out the
AutoArchive page for more information.
What if I get a message in the !Spam
folder which is NOT spam?
This may happen on occasion, generally only if you are on a
mailing list or a listserv. There are two possibilities:
1) If this is a list that you e-mail and others respond then
all you need to do is send a normal message to the list. The
anti-spam system will automatically add it to the whitelist.
2) If this is a list that you only receive from then simply open the message, double-click on the address on the
To: line and make note of the address that appears in the 'E-mail
address:' box. Send that address in an e-mail message to
notspam@district87.org
and it will be put on the Whitelist. The Whitelist is a list
of addresses that are never classified as spam.
How does the system determine if a message
is spam?
Four types of tests are used to determine if a message is spam.
They are 1) Blacklist/whitelist 2) Bayesian analysis 3) Header
checking and 4) Keyword checking. More information on these
methods are available at
http://www.gfi.com/mes/mesfeatures.htm.
Please make
the Technology Department your first contact with ANY anti-spam questions.
