Spam & Virus - Frequently Asked Questions

Home Customer Support Email Spam & Virus FAQ

Synopsis

WebValence uses Postini to provide optional spam and virus filtering services for WebValence-hosted Email accounts.

Incoming messages containing viruses or spam will be quarantined in your private Postini Message Center and not delivered to your In Box without your permission.

Contents

Getting Started

Where can I find messages that have been quarantined?
How do I access the Postini message center?
How do I get my Postini password?
How can I change my password?
What if I can't log in to my Postini message center?
What if I don't want Postini services?
Will Postini still work if I change my ISP?
Does Postini filtering apply when I send mail or only when I receive it?
How do I customize my Postini settings?
What are the recommended Postini settings?

Security

Why do I need to enable cookies when logging in to my Message Center?
How does Postini handle security?
Do Postini services compromise privacy?

Using Spam and Virus Filtering

What happens to messages that I delete from my Message Center?
What happens to messages that I ask the Message Center to deliver?
What if I have more than one Email address?
What if some of my wanted messages are being quarantined?
What if a lot of junk mail is still getting through to my In-box?
I'm getting unwanted messages that aren't even addressed to me. What can I do?
How do I notify Postini about Spam or Viruses that are being missed?
How do I Approve (white-list) or Block (black-list) Senders?
What if I run out of space in my Approved/Blocked Senders Lists?

Where can I find messages that have been quarantined?

Messages that contain viruses or spam will be quarantined in your private Postini Message Center. To see these messages, you need to login to your Postini message center.

Postini Message Center

How do I access the Postini message center?

From the Postini login page http://login.postini.com/ If you've forgotten your password, notice that you have the option to reset it.

After logging in, your personal Postini Message Center appears, where you can review messages that Postini has quarantined. Viral messages appear near the top and Spam messages at the bottom.

If you have problems with login, please contact support@webvalence.com.

How do I get my Postini password?

WebValence normally sets your password to be the same for both webmail and your Postini message center. If you've forgotten your password, notice that you have the option to reset it when you login.

How do I change my Postini password?

Password changes can be initiated online from within the Message Center settings; You may also request a password after a failed login attempt by clicking the "Forgot your Password?" link.

What if I can't log in to my Postini message center?

Try your Email account password if you have one. If the password fails, the login page will display instructions for how to retrieve a password based.

What if I don't want Postini services?

You can configure Postini settings to customize the service to your needs. Postini is optional. Please notify support@webvalence.com if you want to opt out of Postini service.

If you decide to opt out of Postini service, then you will need to configure your Email program to use an Email box. WebValence does NOT support unfiltered mail with forwarding accounts.

Will Postini still work if I change my ISP?

Your Postini account works with your WebValence hosted Email address. Changing the ISP which provides your Internet access will affect your Postini account. Moving your WebValence hosted web site to another provider lose the benefits of Postini, unless the new provider also provides Postini.

Does Postini work when I send mail or only when I receive it?

Currently, Postini only processes incoming Email. Your sent mail is not routed through Postini.

How do I customize my Postini settings?

When logged into the Postini Message center, choose either the "Junk Email" or "Virus Settings" to make changes to those filters. Here you can increase or decrease the thresholds of spam filters and enable/disable filters individually.

What are the recommended Postini settings?

We recommend that you set all spam filters to their most aggressive setting and add senders that send spammy looking messages to your approved senders list.

 

Back to Start

Security Questions

Why do I need to enable cookies when logging into my Message Center?

Cookies identify you so that Postini can present Web pages that reflect your individual Postini settings. Postini does not track any 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 does Postini handle security?

Postini takes the security and privacy of user data seriously.

• Legitimate Email is not written to disk on the Postini server.
• Passwords are not stored and never transmitted in plain text.
• Suspicious Email directed to the Message Center is broken up before being written to disk, so only you can access it.
• Postini resources, apart from the web and Email processing machines, are not accessible through the public Internet.

To ensure data integrity, Postini has stringent back-up schedules as well as redundant systems for load balancing.

Do Postini services compromise your privacy?

No. Neither Postini employees nor its business partners ever read an end-user's Email that is being processed during the course of normal mail delivery. Email is processed behind-the-scenes automatically by software.

Back to Start

Usage Questions

What happens to messages that I delete from my Message Center?

When messages are removed, they will be completely purged from the Removed items folder approximately 2 days after removal. If you would like the purge to be immediate, click on the "Empty Trash" button from the Removed folder. Unless specifically removed, messages will be quarantined for 14 days.

What happens to messages that I ask the Message Center to deliver?

They are delivered directly to your In-box and a copy is placed in the Delivered folder. Postini will normally remember the sender and assume that you want to receive future messages from this sender.

What if I have more than one Email address?

WebValence will attempt to map all your Email addresses to the Message Center to help stop as much junk mail as possible. It conceivable that we may have missed one of your addresses.

You can add additional receiving addresses to the Postini Message Center. From the Message Center page, use the "Account Settings" link at top right to reach the "Add an Alternate Address" page.

What if some of my wanted messages are being quarantined?

Keep checking your quarantine and requesting delivery. Postini will remember senders from whom you do want to receive mail.

Alternatively, you can adjust your junk mail filters to a more lenient setting and add senders to your Approved Senders list.

What if a lot of junk mail is still getting through to my In-box?

Check your Junk Email Settings to make sure that Junk Email Blocking is enabled and that each of the filters are set to Aggressive. See below.

Message Center Junk Email Settings

Consider the suggestions below to maximize your filter effectiveness:

• Increase your junk filter settings. The more aggressive the filter setting, the fewer spam messages will reach your In-box Please note that the 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 their domains to your Approved Sender list.
• Notice how the junk mail is addressed. Is it addressed to an address that is not your normal address? If so, add these additional Email addresses as "alternate addresses" in your Message Center. From the Message Center, choose "Account Settings" at top right. Then choose "Alternate Addresses" from left center. One by one, type any addresses that are not already listed in the box and select "Submit".
• Forward your spam to spam@postini.com, following instructions under notify Postini about Spam and Viruses that are being missed below.

I'm getting unwanted messages that aren't even addressed to me. What can I do?

Unfortunately, message To and From Addresses don't always tell the truth. Follow these steps:

1. Find the "Received for address" from the message headers in the unwanted message. If the "Received for Address" is different from the "To Address", it should be located near the end of a multi-line "Received" header. See example below.
2. Add the "Received for address" to your Postini message center. See the additional addresses topic above for help with adding addresses.

Viewing message headers helps in tracking down problems with spam. Viewing message headers is different in various Email program. Ask your Email program "Help" menu to search for help with: "Viewing Message Headers".

Here is an example of a spam message headers with a "Received for Address" that differs from the "To Address". The Received for Address is emboldened to make it find-able.

Return-Path: <trgamm@engro.com>
Received: from [64.18.2.77] (HELO psmtp.com)
by webvalence.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 4.1.5)
with SMTP id 1663721 for listsmanager@webvalence.com; Tue, 13 Jun 2006 00:07:00 -0700
Received: from source ([88.101.77.142]) by exprod7mx75.postini.com ([64.18.6.14]) with SMTP;
Tue, 13 Jun 2006 03:02:44 EDT
Received: from 88.101.77.142 by mx-6.engro.com;Tue, 13 Jun 2006 09:02:42 +0100
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 09:02:42 +0100
From: "pvkgw edwdqhb" <trgamm@engro.com>
X-Sender: trgamm@engro.com
To: <bogus address@webvalence.com>
Subject: forward specs for H-Y-W-I.PK Through the grapevine. 
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6700
Message-Id: <8280225892.077504-91868599-8085@engro.com> 
MIME-Version: 1.0 
Content-Type: text/plain

H-Y-W-I- H o l l y w o o d I n t e r m e d i a t e, Inc.
  We Strongly believe in this companies Performance, with its 5th stright day of climb
  see, we told you s

How do I notify Postini about Spam or Viruses that are being missed?

If you've taken all of the actions above, and spam or viruses are is still collecting found your Email box, you are encouraged to send examples of your spam to Postini engineers. They are constantly evolving their spam detection procedures and may find your input useful.

See the "Prevent Spam from Reaching Your In-box" link in the left margin of your message center for information on submitting suggestions with messages that should be stopped. For your convenience, we have also reproduced these instructions below.

Procedure for Notifying Postini About Spam:

1. Send the offending message to spam@postini.com as instructed below.
2. Open a new Email message in your Outlook or other E-Mail program. Drag a sample spam or virus message from the list view into the new Email message. This should create a new Email with the offending message as attachments.
3. Be sure to send the sample message as an attachment. If the sample messages are not sent as attachments, they won't be used, since they will not contain all necessary information, such as internet mail header information.

What to Expect After Notifying Postini:

• Messages sent to spam@postini.com are collected for evaluation. Postini collects them to get a large representative sample of the spam that is out there. Postini development staff evaluates them and uses them to make adjustments to the filtering engine. Do not expect feedback from Postini regarding the spam submission.
• Mailing spam@postini.com will auto-generate a reply once per week per user. If a user has not been sent an auto-reply within the past week, Postini will send the message informing the user what to expect.
• As with virus scanning, Postini can only react to new spam techniques as they are developed. Postini engineers always work as quickly as possible to update filter heuristics to adjust to different spam patterns. Postini appreciates the patience, time, and effort it takes to submit new messages to spam@postini.com.

How do I Approve or Block Senders?

Messages from Approved Senders are never quarantined. Messages from Blocked Senders are always quarantined.

From your Postini Message Center, choose "Junk Email Settings" from top left. Modify the Approved Senders and Blocked Senders using the forms near the bottom of the page. You can approve or block a whole domain, such as "amazon.com" or an individual address "offers@amazon.com".

Message Center Approved/Blocked Senders

What if I run out of space in my Approved/Blocked Senders Lists

The Message Center provides limited space for Approved Senders and Blocked Senders. The limit for is 4,000 characters for Blocked Senders and 1,000 characters for Approved Senders.

You can get more mileage from your Approved and Blocked Senders lists by entering only the domain name rather than the complete address. For example, enter "esellers.com" rather than "offers@esellers.com".

Postini also suggests removing older entries from the Blocked Senders because improvements in the junk mail detection may make the block senders entry unnecessary.

Contact support@webvalence.com for further help with Approved/Blocked Senders.

Back to Start

Acceptable Use Policy · Code of Ethics · Contact