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Ohio State University logo Office of Information Technology Technology Support Center (8help)

Anti-Spam Service: Whitelisting and Blacklisting Senders/Domains/Hosts



Within the OIT Central Anti-Spam service it is possible to "whitelist" (automatically accept all mail) and "blacklist" (automatically reject all mail) specific senders' e-mail addresses, domains (the part of the address after the @ symbol), or hosts (the specific machine address a message was sent from).

NOTE: In order for any whitelisting or blacklisting to take effect, you must first turn on the service and set up your personal stream. See Anti-Spam Service: Getting Started - Turning on the Service for instructions on doing so. Whitelisting and blacklisting rules will not be applied if you're using any of the Simplified Interface choices (such as LOW, MEDIUM, and HIGH, or the Tag Only options).

Once you have turned on the service, there are two ways of whitelisting or blacklisting:

The easiest way to whitelist or blacklist a sender, domain, or host is while Reviewing Trapped Messages. Go to the message you want to whitelist or blacklist, and under "Status and Action", select the appropriate action from the pull-down menu. From that pull-down you can blacklist or whitelist the sender's e-mail address, the sender's domain, or the host address the message was sent from.

Reviewing Trapped Messages pull-down menu

Alternately, if you need to whitelist or blacklist a sender, domain, or host and DON'T currently have a message from that source in your spam trap, you can add it manually. To do so:

  1. Log in to https://antispam.osu.edu
  2. On the blue horizontal menu bar, click "Rules".
  3. On the grey menu bar that appears below that, click "Senders", "Domains", or "Hosts" depending on what you want to block or allow.
    • For Senders, under "Enter a specific Sender's e-mail address:", enter the specific address to whitelist or blacklist, such as spambot811423@isendalotofspam.com.
    • For Domains, under "Enter a specific Domain:", enter the domain (the portion of the address after the @ symbol) that you want to whitelist or blacklist, such as isendalotofspam.com.
    • For Hosts, under "Enter a specific IP Address:", enter the specific host IP address you want to whitelist or blacklist. If you're not sure, then it's best to NOT whitelist or blacklist by host.

  4. Click Add Rule.
  5. Under Action, select the desired option:
    • No Change -- takes no action.
    • Always Allow -- whitelist this sender/domain/host.
    • Hold If It Looks Like Spam -- this will subject the message to the same antispam rules as other messages. If the message appears to be spam, it will be moved to the trap folder for review.
    • Always Reject -- blacklist this sender/domain/host.
    • Delete From Table -- remove this rule from the system.
  6. Click Submit Changes to save the change.

Blocking individual senders is not an effective way to combat general unwanted bulk e-mail -- i.e., what is commonly called "spam." Most spammers forge the return e-mail addresses on the messages they send, and change the return addresses frequently.



Current Record: 3559

Create Date: 10-31-2007
Last Reviewed: 11-20-2007
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