Some sample filters


Filter #1 - Take messages that are marked as "[SPAM]" by the Barracuda network appliance and mark them as Junk.

The Barracuda appliance calculates a score for each mail message as to how likely it's spam. If a message scores between 3.5 and 7, the Barracuda puts a prefix of "[SPAM]" in the subject line of the message, and delivers it (just in case it's not spam). Messages that rank over 7 are rejected at the mail server as Spam.


1) Go to Tools - Message Filters
2) Click New to open a new filter box
3) For Filter Name, I called this "Barracuda Spam filter"
4) In the criteria line:
  - I left the first box set to "Subject".
  - I left the second box set to "contains".
  - For the third box, I typed in "[SPAM]".
5) For the action, I chose Mark as Junk.
6) Click on OK to save the filter.




Why choose Junk as the action instead of Delete?

It's always possible for a legitimate message to meet enough criteria to be tagged as [SPAM] by the Barracuda. Remember, the Barracuda is scoring messages based on the statistical probability that it's spam - it can't evaluate the meaning of the words that the message contains. By moving such messages to Junk, I can go in and review them, then delete them en masse if none are false positives.





Filter #2 - A multi-subject filter to send a virus generated message to the Trash.

Before we had the Barracuda appliance, virus outbreaks would sometimes results in a mass of messages with differently named attachments getting dumped into out inboxes. I created this filter to deal with the most common subjects that the SoBig created.



1) Go to Tools - Message Filters.
2) Click New to open a new filter box
3) For the Filter Name, I called this "sobig".
4) I left the setting "Match any of the following" checked
5) For the first line, I set it to look for "Subject" "contains" "Re: Details"
6) I clicked on More to add another line.
7) For the second line, I set it to look for "Subject" "contains" "Re: Approved"
7) I clicked on More to add another line.
8) For the third line, I set it to look for "Subject" "contains" "That movie"
9) I clicked on More to add another line.
10) For the fourth line, I set it to look for "Subject" "contains" "Your Application"
11) For the action, I clicked on the "Delete the message" box, then clicked OK to save the filter.

The "Delete the message" option should be used with great caution. If you don't check your Trash folder before emptying it, any messages that are deleted are gone for good. For many filters, I use the "Move to Folder" option instead, so I can look over the messages and delete them manually.



Filter #3 - A multi-criteria filter to grab list-serv error messages and move them to a folder (and out of my In folder).

Viruses can forge mail addresses from a variety of sources, including other messages that have been received, Windows address books, web browser cache files, etc, so one occasionally impersonates a mailing list. This resulted in a backlash from anti-virus agents who sent back an automated "you are infected" message to the forged address. So, this filter looks for those and removes them from my in box:

1) Go to Tools - Message Filters.
2) Click New to open a new filter.
3) For the Filter Name, I called this one "Mailsubsystem to postmaster"
4) I clicked on "Match All of the following" because I want it to match both rules.
5) For the first line, I set it to look for "Sender" "contains" "mailer-daemon@clas.ufl.edu" (I could set the "contains" to "is", but "contains" is not case sensitive, whereas "is" looks for an exact match.)
6) I clicked on More to add another line
7) For in the second line, I set it to look for "To" "contains" "postmaster"
8) For the action, I chose "Delete the message"
9) I clicked OK to save the filter.

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