Is spam reaching your inbox?
wITH THIS FILTER WE CAN STOP UP TO 95% OF SPAM AND VIRUS GETTING TO YOUR COMPUTER
The heuristic filters can block up to 95% of spam from reaching your inbox. Unwanted messages can still get through. Follow these steps to maximize your filter effectiveness:
Increase your settings. The more aggressive the filter setting, the fewer spam messages will reach your inbox. Please note that more aggressive the setting, the more often you should visit the Message Center to confirm that legitimate messages are not quarantined. If they are, add those senders or domains to your Approved Sender list.
Review your Approved Mailing List. Do you have other email addresses forwarding to this account? Check to be sure your addresses are NOT on the Approved Mailing List
Forward your spam. Participate in keeping the filters accurate by sending your unfiltered spam messages AS ATTACHMENTS in email to SPAM@OSNET.NET. This does not guarantee that these messages will be filtered in the future, but will make it more likely.
Is Virus Assistant up-to-date on its virus definitions?
Yes. Virus Assistant updates virus definitions continuously. Not only
will virus scanning of malicious email viruses prove extremely valuable
to you, but it also saves valuable time by scanning messages behind the
scenes. You are only notified when a virus is found in a message. A worldwide
virus-monitoring network continuously looks for new viruses and
subtle changes in old ones so that virus definitions stay current.
Does it cost to repair my infected email?
Virus scanning and detection is freely available.
How am I notified that virus-infected email has been detected?
You are notified immediately via email when an infected virus is
detected in an email message. From the Message Center, you can safely
review the infected email text.
How do I set up my spam filters?
Does the Message Center offer POP access?
No, at this time the only way to enter the message is via a web browser.
What if I don't want these email services?
This service is user-configurable, allowing you to simply turn off one or all email services. Typically, email providers will determine default settings for their users. If those setting are too intrusive or not effective enough, you are welcome to adjust them at any time.
Will it still work if I change my email service provider?
No, this service is unique to your email address.
Does the service work when I send mail or only when I receive it?
The current email applications only work on inbound email.
Why do I need to enable cookies when logging into my Message Center?
The purpose of cookies is to identify you as a unique user and prepare web pages that reflect your personalized applications. When you enter the Message Center using cookies, the experience is customized-your application settings, your quarantined email. Some information, such as your login email address, is packaged into a cookie and sent to your web browser which stores it for later use; for example, the next time you log in, your browser will send the cookie so that only your password is required-saving you time. We do not track personal information in its cookies or request any personal information through the Message Center-cookies are simply used to ensure you are in control of your email.
How can I read a quarantined email?
Once logged in you will be taken to the main Message Center page where you can view your quarantined email.
What happens to email I delete from the Message Center?
Once email has been deleted from the Message Center it is placed in the Removed Folder. Messages will be permanently deleted from the Removed Folder on a periodic basis.
What happens to email that I deliver from the Message Center?
When you deliver email from the Message Center, it is forwarded directly
and immediately to your inbox. A copy is also placed in the Delivered Folder.
Messages are permanently deleted from the Delivered Folder on a periodic basis.
Do the email services make email slower?
There is no noticeable latency especially since email delivery does not typically occur in real-time. We use enterprise-class servers that are capable of processing millions of messages per day-each message within milliseconds.
What operating systems are supported?
Mac, Windows 95 through XP and Unix (Solaris and Linux).
What browsers are supported?
Version 4 (v4) and above of Netscape and Internet Explorer.
What makes the Junk Email Assistant filters different from the spam filters found in my email application?
The mail filters found in email products have a number of limitations and often assume a "one size fits all" solution. You are often expected to develop your own filter rules from the limited tools provided. Further, you must still download email before the mail client can filter it, possibly wasting time and bandwidth while waiting to read mail, such as spam, that you would not want anyway.
With the Junk Email Assistant filters, all email processing is done behind the scenes before it arrives in the inbox. This saves time and bandwidth by not forcing you to download superfluous email, such as unsolicited offers. Moreover, improvements are done without modifications to your email services or email client. The Junk Email Assistant performance is superior, identifying up to 95% of your junk email.
How do I know junk email is being filtered and not my regular (legitimate) email?
An advanced filtering technique is used built on heuristic rules, lists of approved and blocked senders, and databases of known junk email to maintain the effectiveness of the rules system. Despite these advanced measures, some good email may get caught since the concept of junk email is subjective (one man's trash is another man's treasure). To remedy this, we let you set a lenient-to-aggressive tolerance for filtering suspicious email: lenient filtering potentially lets more junk email through, but also minimizes the risk of legitimate email from getting mistakenly directed to the Message Center; conversely, aggressive filtering catches more suspicious email at the risk of mistakenly diverting normal email to the Message Center. You're notified with regular summary reports of your Message Center activities. With the right configuration, less than 1% of valid email is falsely identified as suspicious.
Does someone read personal emails?
No. All email processing is done through automated filters. Further, it is unlikely that a particular email stays around long enough since a single message is processed within milliseconds and does not write valid messages to disk. In the event a "suspicious" email is discovered, it will be directed to your private Message Center pending your review.
How do I get notified when email is quarantined as suspicious junk email?
A regular report is sent via email of newly quarantined email. However, you can log in to the Message Center at any time to monitor and review detained messages.
What if I want to receive junk email?
Click on the Junk Email link at the top of the Message Center, and click on OFF.
However, if too much legitimate email is detained, first try setting the Spam Filters to a lenient setting. It also helps to explicitly list certain email addresses to allow their messages through the filters, regardless of content. Do this by entering valid addresses in the Approved Senders field.
What happens in the event that the email pre-processing servers fail?
A large number of enterprise-scale servers dedicated to processing email are deployed. However, in the event of a catastrophe, email will be passed around the system by defaulting to your email provider's regular mail servers. There will be no noticeable performance hit. Any suspect messages that were diverted to the Message Center are stored on redundant disk storage devices that are backed up.
How often is email deleted from the Message Center?
The email quarantine duration is determined by your email provider. You will
receive notification on a regular basis to remind you to check your Message
Center for suspicious messages.
What if I receive spam, what should I do with it?
If junk email reaches your desktop and appears in your email inbox, you can simply delete the message or forward it to spam@postini.com. This allows us to use the email for future enhancements. You can also visit the Message Center and add the sender's address to your "Blocked Senders" list if it appears to be a repeat offender, preventing that sender from reaching the inbox again. It might also be useful to try increasing the sensitivity level in the configuration.
What if legitimate email is quarantined in the Message Center?
Unfortunately, some legitimate email may be erroneously directed to your Message Center. This is due to the subjective nature of email messages and what could possibly be considered junk email. If a significant amount of valid email is being misdirected to the Message Center, a list of approved senders can be built, thereby minimizing the possibility of detaining a valid email in the future.
From the Message Center, click "Deliver" for any legitimate email and you will be asked if all messages from this sender should be delivered--that sender is then added to the "Approved Sender" list. Next time, messages from that sender will not be detained unless the Virus Assistant is active and detects a virus from that sender. You may also manually build your approved senders list by visiting your junk email settings.
Does the Junk Mail Assistant watch for obscene language and other questionable content?
The Junk Email Assistant is tuned for identifying unsolicited commercial email (UCE), otherwise known as spam or junk email. This is somewhat different than filtering specifically for content, like most email filtering. For example, a friend sends a joke containing obscenities. This originates from a known source, whereas a message of unknown origin containing obscenities that refers to a pornography site WOULD likely be directed to the Message Center. Of course, you have the ability to explicitly block any address--in case you want to restrict email from a known source.
Does the Junk Mail Assistant watch for email only written in English?
Yes, at this time English is the only language supported.
How do I get a password?
There are 2 methods. First, your email provider uses existing authentication, so that the password remains the same as your existing email account; or alternatively, an email provider may supply a new, temporary, password that can be changed after your first log in to the Message Center.
In some cases, a new temporary password is provided when the user account is activated. The user is requested to change this temporary password after first log in.
Can I change my password?
If the email provider utilizes its authentication mechanism for Message Center login, then the password must be changed through their user support system. To see whether you can change your password, go to Account Settings and, if "Password" is available, you can change the password.
What if I can't log in to my Message Center?
You should first try your email account password. If the password fails, the login page will display instructions for how to retrieve a password based on the authentication method used for the email provider.
Can't remember your password?
First, enter the email address that you were issued by your email provider. For example, joe123@service.com
Second, your password is either the same as your email account password, or you were assigned a new password in the activation email. We suggest that you try the password that accompanies that ISP email account. If it does not work, check the error message for instructions.
You can also get your password information by checking your email inbox for the activation message sent by your provider, titled "[your email provider] has activated your new mail services".
Other Useful Tips...
Remove and Deliver Messages:
Once you log in to your Message Center to review suspicious messages, you should DELIVER legitimate email and
REMOVE the junk email. The filters will increase in accuracy by doing this.
Check Back Often:
Check your Message Center on a regular basis and remove junk email and deliver legitimate email. The service can be configured to remember your legitimate email senders, and will allow those senders to bypass filters.