Setting up
After you install the program you need to set up your Serviced Mailbox parameters and the rules for filtering the unwanted messages. To start using the service, you may set up just basic simple rules. Gradually, you can begin using more advanced and complicated set of rules.
You can set up several different mailboxes to be served by Mail Filter simultaneously. Each Serviced Mailbox should support POP3 access via standard POP3 protocol. This is the regular protocol used by e-Mail Client Programs, such as Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, or Eudora, etc.
When accessing the Serviced Mailbox, Mail Filter will quickly scan all new messages which have been received by the mailbox after the previous scan, and will automatically delete junk mail, spam messages, and other messages with unwanted content.
The criteria whether the message should be accepted or rejected are defined by the user with the wide and flexible set of parameters. Mail Filter allows user to filter and to separate incoming mail based on:
- keywords and key phrases - with positive or negative effect
- proper or improper recipient addressing and return addressing
- address and/or domain of the sender of the message
- message size
- presence and type of attachments (including virus unsafe types)
- number of specified recipients
- domains in the trace route of the message
- signatures of specific Mailer programs used by spammers
- other options
As experience shows, upon correct definition of the above criteria most of junk mail can be successfully filtered out.
Automated forwarding of mail messages to another address
In addition to deleting the unwanted messages from the server, Mail Filter can forward the accepted messages from the Serviced Mailbox to another arbitrary e-Mail address set by user. If you use Mail Filter in this mode, you may retrieve only filtered content from your second, less publicized mailbox, while giving out the address of your first mailbox, which will be your Serviced Mailbox. In this case, the second mailbox does not even need to support POP3 protocol.
The advantage of using this two-mailbox mode is that you surely avoid to occasionally retrieve a message with unwanted content into your Mail Client Program before it was scanned by Mail Filter.
This mode is especially useful if you set up Mail Filter on one computer (better - if permanently connected to the Internet), while retrieving your filtered mail on another computer. In this case, you do not need to run Mail Filter on the second computer at all. Instead, it may run in automated mode on the first computer.
However, you can also use Mail Filter with the same POP3 mailbox where you retrieve your incoming mail from. Just make sure that you have run the Service recently before retrieving mail into a Mail Client Program.
Automated Rejection Replies
One of the important special features introduced in Apdsoft Mail Filter is use of Automated Rejection Replies. If requested in the settings, Mail Filter will automatically generate and send a brief text notification to the sender of each scanned message which has been rejected and deleted.
Having such notification sent will ensure that none of possibly important and legitimate incoming mail may be silently lost. If you set too strict rejection rules, the senders of your incoming mail, whose messages were rejected, would receive a corresponding notification and could take further actions to correct the problem.
For example, if the message was rejected because it contained an attachment of some unwanted type, or because its size was too big, the sender will receive the corresponding text notification, stating that his or her message was not delivered to the recipient, along with the reason for that.
The option of sending automated rejection replies may be turned off for all or for some of the serviced mailboxes. It may be turned off selectively depending on recipient addressing in the incoming messages. See Settings for Replies.
Reviewing accepted and rejected messages
In addition to generating automated rejection replies, Apdsoft Mail Filter also keeps track of all processed messages - both accepted and rejected.
In fact, the initial portion of each message - or the entire message if it was not too big - is saved on your computer for further review, if such review may be required.
You can even read your accepted mail in the Mail Filter View Window, without running your regular Mail Client Program at all.
Accepted messages will still be a subject to retrieval into the Regular Mail Client Program regardless of whether you read them in Service View Window, or not - unless you delete them from the server using the option of manual deleting.
Rejected messages can also be reviewed and/or read in a separate folder in the Mail Filter View Window, if you want to check them just for control and reference purposes.
Therefore, no important message can be occasionally lost as a result of too strict filtering rules or by mistake.
