User Guide for the UVSC E-Mail Firewall

Introduction to the UVSC E-Mail Firewall

The UVSC E-Mail Firewall provides comprehensive spam-blocking for UVSC. It includes Bayesian analysis which has been shown to be the most effective and most accurate method of blocking spam. The methods and techniques used by the UVSC E-Mail Firewall are constantly updated to keep up with changes that spammers and virus writers are constantly making. The system is designed for high-performance, handling 30 million e-mail messages per day.

The UVSC E-Mail Firewall provides quarantine mail boxes for users. Users can review their quarantine to ensure they don't miss any important messages. Each user can also classify messages to help the system learn what is and isn't spam.

Receiving Messages from the UVSC E-Mail Firewall

The first time the UVSC E-Mail Firewall quarantines an email intended for you, the system sends you a greeting message with a subject line of “User Quarantine Account Information”. The greeting message contains your username and password for the system. The UVSC E-Mail Firewall automatically provides your login information (username and password) in the link to access the quarantine interface. You should save this email because future messages from the system do not contain your login information, which you may need if you access the quarantine interface outside your e-mail (http://firewall.email.uvsc.edu:8000).

Note: The auto-login links sent in messages from the UVSC E-Mail Firewall will no longer work after three days. You will want to use the links from newer messages or access the firewall directly by providing your username and password at http://firewall.email.uvsc.edu:8000.

The UVSC E-Mail Firewall sends you a daily quarantine summary report so you can view the quarantined messages you did not receive. From the quarantine summary report you can also add messages to your whitelist, delete messages, and have messages delivered to your inbox. At the end of every quarantine summary report is a link that automatically logs you into the quarantine interface where you can set additional preferences and classify messages as spam and not spam. A quarantine account will be automatically created for each unique e-mail address at UVSC. If you have other UVSC e-mail accounts forwarded to you or if you have one or more aliases at which you receive e-mail, you will receive quarantine related messages for each account. This can become confusing, so be sure to notice which account you are working with.

Changing your Account Password

After logging into the quarantine interface, go to PREFERENCES-->Password. In the provided fields, enter your existing password and enter your new password twice. Click Save Changes when finished.

Managing your Quarantine Inbox

After logging into the quarantine interface, select the QUARANTINE INBOX tab to view a list of your quarantined messages. When you first start using the quarantine interface, you should view this list on a daily basis and classify as many messages as you can.

The UVSC E-Mail Firewall has a learning engine that learns how to deal with future messages based on the ones you classify as spam and not spam. The learning engine becomes more effective over time as you teach the system how to classify messages and as you set up rules based on your whitelist and blacklist.

Clicking on an email within the quarantine inbox displays the message.

The following describes the actions you can perform from this page.

Deliver

Delivers the selected message to your standard email inbox without updating the learning database. If you want to classify a message or add it to your whitelist, make sure to do so instead of choosing “Deliver.” Once a message has been delivered, it is removed from your quarantine inbox.

Whitelist

Adds the selected message to your whitelist so all future emails from this sender are not quarantined unless the message contains a virus or banned file type. This option also delivers the message to your standard e-mail inbox, deleting it from your quarantine inbox.

Delete

Deletes the selected message from your quarantine inbox. If you want to classify a message as Spam, make sure to do so instead of choosing “Delete.” You cannot recover messages you have deleted.

Classify as Not Spam

Classifies the selected message as not spam and delivers the message to your standard e-mail inbox, deleting the message from your quarantine inbox.

Classify as Spam

Classifies the selected message as spam and deletes the message from your quarantine inbox.

More Information

Additional information is available about other options available to you within the quarantine interface. Please click on "end_user.pdf" in the left menu.