Skip to the page content Skip to primary navigation Skip to the search form Skip to the audience-based navigation Skip to the site tools and log-in Information about website accessibility

Computing Services

Spam Management FAQ

Email spam is an insidious problem. As the spammers get better at what they do, new techniques must be used to combat the growing amount of spam that gets sent to our mail system. Mail filtering is an appropriate way to help decrease the amount of spam messages that get delivered to our email inboxes.

What is Spam?

Email spam involves sending nearly identical messages to thousands (or millions) of recipients. Perpetrators of such spam ("spammers") often harvest addresses of prospective recipients from web pages, obtain them from databases, or simply guess them by using common names and domains. By popular definition, spam occurs without the permission of the recipients.

What is Mail Filtering?

Every email message delivered to UALR is scanned to determine if the message is spam or contains a virus. This occurs before the message is sent to your mail account. If a mail filter determines a message to be spam, the message is quarantined and not delivered to your mail account.

What are quarantined messages?

Any message determined to be spam is prevented from being delivered to your mail account. It is stored on a separate server for thirty (30) days before being deleted. Because some messages may get marked as spam when in fact they are valid email you wish to receive, it is recommended that you periodically check your quarantined messages. When you check your quarantined messages, you are given the option to mark each message as "Spam" or "Not Spam". Doing so over time will train the system to make better decisions about which messages to deliver to your inbox and which messages to quarantine or delete.

How do I check quarantined messages?

Full instructions can be found in the Barracuda Spam Firewall User's Guide.

  1. Access the UALR mail filter tool at mailfilter.ualr.edu.
  2. Login using your UALR email account username and password.
  3. View your quarantined messages under the Quarantine Inbox tab.
  4. If you find a message in the list that should not have been quarantined (it is not spam):
    1. Click the checkbox to the left of the message
    2. Click the Classify as Not Spam button
  5. If you find a message in the list that is definitely spam:
    1. Click the checkbox to the left of the message
    2. Click the Classify as Spam button
  6. Repeat this process until you have dealt with most or all of your quarantined messages. You can select multiple messages at once and mark them as Spam or Not Spam.

Do I need to check my AutoJunk folder anymore?

Because any messages marked as spam are now being quarantined on a separate server, spam messages will no longer be delivered to your AutoJunk mail folder. Instead of checking your AutoJunk folder, check the list of quarantined messages using the Mail Filter Tool.

How do I stop messages from a particular sender from being quarantined at all?

Full instructions can be found in the Barracuda Spam Firewall User's Guide.

The Mail Filter Tool provides a way to store the email addresses that you trust to never send spam. The list is called the "whitelist" and can be managed with the following steps:

  1. Access the UALR mail filter tool at mailfilter.ualr.edu.
  2. Login using your UALR email account username and password.
  3. Click on the Preferences tab and view the options under the Whitelist/Blacklist tab.
  4. In the text field under Allowed Email Addresses and Domains (Whitelist), enter the email address (e.g., john@aol.com) or domain (e.g., uams.edu) that you absolutely trust to never send you any spam.
  5. Click the Add button.