Kerio Mailserver Blacklists

Kerio Mail Server supports looking up in blacklist databases to identify known spammers. You'll find this under the "Blacklists" tab at Configuration->Content Filter->Spam Filter. Enabling the Internet blacklists will cut down on your spam load by a large amount.

However, there are down sides. First, you really need to be using IMAP or Webmail if you are doing any server side spam filtering because POP3 doesn't give you access to the default folder that Kerio moves spam to. You can change that default server side rule (access your account with Webmail to do so), but that leaves your Inbox cluttered with **SPAM** messages. You could then define a default rule in your mail client (Outlook, etc.) that would squirrel these away somewhere, but why fill up your hard drive with what is surely almost completely junk?

Note this important point aboout server side rules. Although you need Webmail to define server side rules, these rules affect all email as it arives at the users mail box. Rules defined in Webmail affect mail picked up by POP3 or any other method.

The reason you need access to the spam is that sometimes it isn't spam: aggressive spam filters incorrectly identify mail that you want to see. That's very apt to be true with blacklists: for example, I use Gmail to send mail, but Gmail often appears on one or more blacklists. If you want to be sure to recieve my emails, you have to whitelist my address when using blacklist lookups.

The default action for blacklisted mail is to block it entirely. You probably want to change that to instead increase its Spam score by enough so that it will always be seen as spam. That setting lets you whitelist by adding custom rules at the first tab of Configuration->Content Filter->Spam Filter. For whitelisting a particular sender, you'd add a rule that says "From" "contains address" "xyz@xyz.com" is to be treated as non-spam. That will allow their mail to get through. Important: if you have not changed the default "block" for the blacklist database lookups, the whitelisting will not work!

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Comments /Kerio/blacklists.html


Wed Jul 5 19:00:50 2006: Subject: Good idea   TonyLawrence
One current user just suggested adding 2-3 points PER blacklist, which prevents someone from being affected by one blacklist but still blocks them if they are listed in multiple places. Thanks, Lenny!



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