Spam and viruses
have become one of the biggest problems on
the internet and cost business R1000’s each
day. They waste time, bandwidth, expose you
to fraud and can even damage your computer
systems. So here at i360 Hosting we have
adopted a new spam and virus protection
system called Mail Guard for all new domains
hosted with us. This system enables on
average 98% of spam and all viruses to be
filtered out of your incoming mail so they
never get to your computer or they tagged so
they can be filtered out using your e-mail
client.
Features
Mail Guard has
many features to protect you from spam and
viruses on the internet, below are details
on how our system can identify spam and
viruses to protect you.
Heuristics Spam Detection Engine
- Our spam detection system uses
some of the most advanced rules to
determine if an e-mail message is
spam. Unlike most systems that just
look for keywords to identify spam
we look a little closer. The system
checks many parts of the e-mail
using our own special set of tests.
Each test giving the message a score
which are then added together at the
end and messages with a high enough
total score will be classed as spam.
This
system is far more advanced than
other systems and from our tests has
one of the lowest rates of false
positives. This is very important as
many other system fall down as they
block a lot of genuine e-mail which
ours doesn’t.
Checksum Databases
– Calculating check sums of mail you
receive allows us to compare it with
multiple databases of confirmed spam
messages. These databases contain
check sums of mail that other users
have already identified as spam and
reported. This is one of the best
ways of recognising a spam message
as most will have already been
report as spam so our system will
know its spam.
Virus Scanner
- Mail is also virus scanned to
check it doesn’t contain viruses and
is deleted if a virus is detected.
Our system is always right up to
date with all the latest virus
definitions, updating many times
throughout the day. It can also scan
for viruses hidden in zip and other
compressed files so can be relied
upon to protect you.
Intelligent white listing system
– This is very special part of our
system that we developed to stop any
genuine mail which under very rare
circumstances might be blocked. If
this did happen and you have
selected to have the mail bounced
back, the send will be given the
option to add them selves to a white
list. This will then allow them to
resend their message and prevent it
from being blocked. What makes this
system very special is the way it
works to prevent spammers from
adding their addresses and allows
the send to instantly resend their
message.
1.
Genuine e-mail is sent to
you but our system blocks it
as it believes its spam.
2.
An e-mail is sent to this
person telling them that
this has happened and
offering them the chance to
be added to our white list
so they can resend the
message.
3.
They follow a link in the
bounced message which takes
them to our white listing
system where they can enter
their details.
4.
An e-mail will then be sent
to them with a link they
must click on which shows
that they are sending from
address they have access.
This is what prevents
spammers from using the
system as they rarely use a
genuine e-mail addresses so
would not be able to
complete the white list
signup.
Most
other spam protection systems do not
offer this option and if mail is
blocked the sender has no way of
getting their mail through. This can
mean important e-mail can never get
through so this is why we developed
this system.
