Anti-spam

Spam protection for POP mailboxes with Web hosting and Custom Email accounts.

Spam is a serious threat to the usefulness of email, which is why Intermedia offers anti-spam protection free with each Web hosting plan mailbox. Based on the SpamAssassin open source product, it defends against spam through sophisticated email PageHeader and body analysis and by checking senders' email servers against realtime blackhole lists:

Basic anti-spam for POP

Free basic spam filtering, included with all Web hosting and Custom Email accounts.

All mailboxes that come with Web hosting from Intermedia are protected against spam. The free basic anti-spam solution includes:

• Fixed settings. Sensitivity level automatically set to identify most spam without blocking genuine email.
• Rejection of bad email PageHeaders. Messages non-compliant with SMTP RFC-2821 are blocked on the server side.
• Filtering of dangerous attachments. Scans for suspect file extension and blocks them on the server side.
• Choice of delivery. Choose whether to deliver spam with [SPAM] prefix or simply block from inbox.

Intermedia's basic anti-spam is designed to protect our customers' productivity and defend against dangerous email attachments - all at no charge. If you need a more customizable solution for POP mailboxes, we recommend our SpamStopper solution

If you would like more details on the spam-filtering technology we deploy, read more about how it works.

SpamStopper for POP

Sophisticated and customizable spam filtering for POP email addresses.

For Web hosting customers requiring highly-advanced spam filtering, Intermedia offers its advanced anti-spam filtering service, SpamStopper. Fully-managed and maintained by us, it keeps your email protected with minimal time investment from you:

• User-defined sensitivity. Customers can define sensitivity levels and refine spam detection according to their specific needs.
• White and black lists. Define in detail which senders should always or never be allowed to email you.
• Server and local flexibility. Give your users the ability to manage their own white and black lists at a mailbox level.

If you need customizable spam filtering for POP mailboxes, our SpamStopper service is an excellent solution. Pricing is as follows:

If you would like more details on the spam-filtering technology we deploy, read more about how it works.

How Anti-spam (for POP) works

Anti-spam from Intermedia is a fully-managed spam filtering service, including all updates, testing and maintenance. There is nosoftware to install on client workstation. Users simply specify their preferences using HostPilot and we take care of the rest.

Anti-spam Technology

The service is based on SpamStopper, an open source anti-spam project optimized by Intermedia for our customers. Through an advanced combination of checking against real-time black hole (RBL) lists and weighting of emails for signs they are spam, it blocks unwanted messages very effectively.

When a certain sensitivity threshold is reached, our anti-spam service assigns the status of 'spam' to an offending email. For both basic anti-spam and advanced anti-spam, the following checks are always performed:

• check against DNS RBL (see the list below)
• check for NoDisplay TO and FROM fields in PageHeaders (not in the "message envelope")
• check for a valid fully-qualified sender's (FROM) e-mail address
• check for a valid domain in the FROM address

All email messages that do not pass one of the above checks will not be accepted by mail servers for delivery to recipients.

ntermedia anti-spam uses the following RBL Lists:

• relays.ordb.org - open relays based on submissions and tests
• sbl.spamhaus.org - realtime database of verified spam sources
• dun.dnsrbl.net - a list of Dial-Up Networking address pools such as modems, home DSL and Cable modems
• dialups.mail-abuse.com - a list of Dial-Up Networking address pools such as modems, home DSL and Cable modems

Key features of the SpamStopper:

White and black lists

Black lists let you identify senders you never wish to receive messages from again - emails from black-listed senders will never be delivered to your mailbox.

White lists allow you to specify senders whose email will never be considered spam and which will always be delivered (messages from senders on the White List will always be delivered to your mailbox and never be marked as Spam).

There are two options for managing white and black lists:

Administrators can do this at a server level (company-wide) through HostPilot. It will affect all domains and mailboxes on your account.

Individual mailbox owners can do it through DeskPilot (where the administrator gives mailbox owners permission to manage their own white and black lists).

Please note: mailbox-level lists rules always take priority over domain-level lists rules.

Customize spam sensitivity

SpamStopper allows sensitivity adjustment from 1 to 10, where a lower number requires stricter adherence to spam detection rules before an email is classified as spam.

Administrators can adjust this setting to optimize detection for their organization. Setting the sensitivity level to a lower number will catch more spam, but also result in a higher number of genuine emails being intercepted as spam.

Need help with advanced anti-spam? Read more here.

The award-winning Community Server 3.0 platform allows you to create an online community, and is included with all our Windows 2003 hosting plans free of charge. More information about Community Server 3.0 is available here.

Pricing

Community server 3.0 is included free with all our Windows 2003 hosting plans.

Customers can install Community Server via their HostPilot Control Panel by going to the "Community Server" area of the "Website Tools" section (" Web/FTP Server > Web Server > Website Tools > Community Server") and selecting the directory where it can be installed, then clicking on the "Install Community Server" button.