About this documentation

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1 Wilkes University, Staff, and Students have a new spam filter to protect against unwanted messages. Barracuda SPAM Firewall will filter for all campus accounts before it gets to your mailbox. You will be able to view quarantined messages and modify the default settings allowing more or less through the filter. About this documentation It is designed to introduce you to the Barracuda spam filtering system, and help you to set the filters to your desired preferences. Follow the links below to see information on these topics and be sure to view all the documentation presented here. If you have any further questions, please call the Wilkes University IT HelpDesk at (570) (HELP). How Does Barracuda Work? Messages are checked when they arrive and directed to your mailbox or Quarantine based on a score value. You will receive a daily Spam Quarantine Summary containing a list of all messages Barracuda has quarantined for the day. The allows you to manage the messages and take measures if legitimate is quarantined. Daily Spam Notification You will begin receiving daily reports on the messages that the Barracuda system has captured as spam. You can use these reports to stay informed about the messages being quarantined.

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3 To set your filtering preferences, click on the Preferences tab. From there, you may choose Whitelist/Blacklist or Quarantine Settings. Adding friends and colleagues to your Whitelist ensures those messages will be delivered regardless of spam-like content. To add addresses to your 'whitelist' and deliver the message to your regular mailbox, click the select box next to the 'good' that was quarantined and then click 'whitelist'. If you prefer to not receive messages from specific senders, add them to the Black List and they will be immediately deleted. Use this option with caution, messages cannot be recovered. Managing the Lists

4 Your Barracuda site displays all addresses you have entered into the lists. They can be managed at any time in the Preference section of your account. Managing the Quarantine Folder Barracuda allows you to view a list of messages in your quarantine. From there, you can classify the messages as Spam or Not Spam. However, marking messages as spam has little value for most users and takes much longer than simply deleting the messages. To delete an entire page of messages at a time, click on the check box to the left of the 'date received' header at the top of the list (which selects all of the messages on the page) and select 'delete'. You can choose to: Delete the message from the server Whitelist (add the sender to your Whitelist) Deliver the message to your Inbox Select the messages by clicking on the checkbox, then click the button above the list to perform the action. You may also click on the links beside the messages to perform these actions. Be sure to check your quarantine folder often to prevent losing any wanted messages. The spam messages will be automatically be deleted after 10 days if you take no action. Barracuda Spam FAQ Wilkes University has installed a new spam-filtering system made by Barracuda Networks. The following are the answers to some frequently asked questions about this new system. How does it work? The Barracuda Spam Firewall is a stand-alone system dedicated to running programs that filter out spam and viruses from our . All arriving at UTPA first passes through this filter. A variety of methods are used to test . First, the is compared to a "blacklist" of known spammers. Most spam originates from a relatively small number of hard-core spammers, and many of their servers are tracked by anti-spam services, who publish these blacklists. Similarly, most spammers send the same message to millions of recipients making it possible to "fingerprint" bulk mailings and then test our incoming against that fingerprint. Finally, and most powerfully, the system employs Bayesian statistical analysis of every recipient s own to distinguish good from bad. The system will actually learn the difference between your own personal valid and your spam. Every piece of incoming is assigned a score based on these tests. assigned exceptionally high scores is certainly spam and is "blocked", that is, it is simply deleted. that is probably, but not certainly, spam is saved, but "quarantined" on the spam filter. The remaining is probably all valid and is passed on to the server for delivery. When you have quarantined , the spam filter will send you an notification. This notification includes a link to the filter's web page, where you can review

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6 much disk space it has. Please make note of your address, the address of the sender, and the approximate date and time the was sent. What is the Barracuda MS Outlook Plugin? The Barracuda MS Outlook Plugin is a plugin for the Windows versions of Outlook. It requires Windows 98/2000/NT/XP. The plugin allows a user to classify messages as spam or not-spam right from their desktop. This classification performs Bayesian learning and results in higher accuracy for the Barracuda Spam Firewall. The plugin performs the same functionality as classification from the Message Log, except all feedback is stored in a per-user Bayesian database on the system. This mechanism prevents user's from compromising the global Bayesian database and results more specific scoring due to l earning about a user's personal preferences. More information will be provided in the future once the plugin is made available. I didn't receive a Daily Spam Notification. Is something wrong with my account? No. If your account didn't receive any spam, you won't receive a summary for that day.