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HOW TO USE OUTLOOK 2003 WITH GUMAIL: JUNK FILTERING YOUR MAIL

Microsoft Outlook 2003 - Junk Email Filter

Background - MS Outlook 2003 has a new email feature to combat SPAM, called the Junk Email Filter. This tool screens your incoming messages, then automatically moves the messages that are suspected as SPAM from the Inbox folder to a Junk email folder. There are several components of the filtering tool that will help you to combat SPAM.

Junk Email Filter - The Junk Email Filter with SmartScreen Technology screens incoming email messages and determines whether they are SPAM or legitimate. The SmartScreen Technology uses Bayesian probabilities to make this decision. To develop this technology, over 100,000 Hotmail volunteers submitted their incoming e-mail messages to Microsoft after marking each message as SPAM or legitimate. The filter automatically moves messages that are suspected as being SPAM from the Inbox to a local Junk email folder. The filter also has 4 levels of SPAM filtering (None, Low, High, and Safe Senders Only).

AutoUpdate - The Microsoft AutoUpdate feature adds more intelligence to the Junk Email Filter. When Microsoft discovers new spammers, they use the AutoUpdate tool to add this information to the SmartScreen technology, allowing for more intelligent SPAM screening.

Safe Senders List - The Safe Senders List is a list of users who are 'exempt' from being affected by the Junk Email Filter. This tool allows you to add contacts who are your friends and colleagues, so that incoming messages from the users on this list will not be affected by the Junk Email Filter. You can easily add all of your Outlook Contacts to the Safe Senders List by selecting a single checkbox.

Safe Recipients Lists - The Safe Recipients List allows you to add an entire domain from being affected by the Junk Email Filter. For example, you may want to make sure that all incoming messages from a Georgetown University email address (an email address ending in @georgetown.edu) are NOT screened by the Junk E-mail Filter. This is similar to the Safe Senders List, except it acts like a wildcard so that anyone@georgetown.edu will be unaffected by the Junk Email Filter.

Blocked Senders List ? Despite the technology used to identify SPAM, some undesirable messages may still reach your email Inbox. The Blocked Senders List allows you to indicate specific incoming messages as SPAM. Future incoming messages from the same sender will be identified as SPAM by the Junk Email Filter, and automatically moved to the Junk email folder. This is especially useful when the same sender repeatedly transmits undesirable messages. The Blocked Senders List also allows you to filter incoming messages as SPAM by coutry of origin (for example, all incoming messages from a New Zealand email address), or by character set (such as all incoming messages with Japanese characters).

 

How to Set Up the Junk Email Filter

1. Ensure you set up rules to automatically identify filter the spam identified by GUMail according to the instructions in Setting Up GUMail Spam Filters for Outlook 2003.

2. Open Microsoft Outlook 2003 by double-clicking the MS Outlook icon.

3. From the top menu bar, select Actions, Junk E-Mail, Junk E-Mail Options.

 

A new Junk Email Options dialogue box will open.

4. Choose you desired level of Junk Mail Filtering:

  • No Automatic Filtering - Only messages from the "Blocked Senders" list is filtered.
  • Low - This is the recommended setting. Only the most obvious SPAM is moved to the Junk Email folder.
  • High - Under this setting, most SPAM is caught by the Junk Email Filter, but some of your legitimate messages may be incorrectly identified as SPAM. For the first few weeks, you will need to check your Junk Mail Folder at least once a day to make sure that the proper messages are filtered.
  • Safe Lists Only - ALL mail is filtered as SPAM, except for the people or domains that are listed in the Safe Senders list or the Safe Recipients list.

5. Determine if you want to automatically delete all messages that are identified as SPAM. This option is not recommended. Select this option only after you are confident that the Junk Mail Filter tool is working properly.

  • If No, make sure checkbox is unchecked next to "Permanently delete suspected junk e-mail instead of moving it to the Junk E-mail folder."

6. Select the Safe Senders tab to add or remove senders

  • Select the Add button to type sender email addresses that will be excluded from filtering.

7. Place a checkmark next to "Also trust e-mail from my Contacts."

8. Place a checkmark next to "Automatically add people I e-mail to the Safe Senders List."

9. Select the Safe Recipients tab to add or remove domains.

  • Select the Add button to type sender domains that will be excluded from filtering.
    We recommend that you add the domain georgetown.edu.

10. Select the Blocked Senders tab to add or remove individual spammers.

  • Select the Add button to type sender names that will ALWAYS be filtered.
  • A better way to accomplish this is to right-click on the message from your Inbox, then select Add this User to the Blocked Senders List.

11. (optional) Select the International tab to filter messages from a certain country, or to filter messages that are written in a specific language.

 

Congratulations! You have sucessfully set up your SPAM filters.

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