Spam Quarantine: Overview

The Spam Quarantine holds spam and suspected spam messages addressed to you. These messages were set aside during processing so that you could verify whether or not these messages are indeed spam. You can use this page to examine the messages and determine how to treat each one; however, your quarantined messages will be automatically deleted after a certain amount of time (set by the email administrator), so you do not need to take any action.

You can sort the message listing by clicking on the column headers (From, Subject, Date, Size). From the Spam Quarantine, you can perform the following tasks:

Spam Quarantine: Working with Messages

Reading Messages

To read a message in the quarantine, click the message's subject (in the "Subject" column). The message is shown in the Message Details page. From the Message Details page, you may release a message from the quarantine or delete it.

If the message you intend to read has already been deleted, the Message Not Found page is displayed. Messages are typically deleted from the quarantine automatically, so if you try to view a message from an old spam digest email, you may find that the message has already been deleted.

Releasing Messages

To release a message from the Spam Quarantine, click the checkbox next to the message (or messages) and then select Release from the drop-down menu. If you are viewing the message in the Message Details page, simply select Release from the drop-down menu. The message is then released from the quarantine and delivered to your inbox.

Deleting Messages

To delete a message, click the checkbox next to the message (or messages) and then select Delete from the drop-down menu. If you are viewing the message in the Message Details page, simply select Delete from the drop-down menu. Remember, messages in your quarantine will be automatically deleted after a certain amount of time (set by the email administrator).

Searching Messages

Using the search field, you can search your quarantined messages for a specific term in the message From: or Subject. Search results are displayed in the Search Results page.

To perform more complicated searches, including specifying a date range, click Advanced Search.

Advanced Search

Click the Advanced Search link to access the Advanced Search page. To search only for messages arriving today, simply click Search (the "Today" date range is selected by default).

Search Results

Messages matching your search criteria are displayed in the Search Results page. You can read, delete, and release messages on the Search Results page. To clear the search results, and return to your current list of quarantined messages, click Clear Search.

Using Safelists and Blocklists

You can create safelists to ensure that messages from certain senders are not scanned with anti-spam scanning engines, and you can use blocklists to ensure that messages from certain senders are not delivered to your inbox. For example, you may receive email from a mailing list that no longer interests you. You may decide to add this sender to the blocklist to prevent these emails from getting delivered to your inbox. On the other hand, you may find that emails from specific senders get sent to your Spam Quarantine when you don't want them to be quarantined. To ensure messages from these senders are not scanned with anti-spam scanning engines, you may want to add the senders to your safelists.

NOTE: Safelist/Blocklist settings are contingent on other settings configured by the system administrator. A safelisted message may not be delivered to your inbox if it is determined to be virus-positive, or if the administrator determines that the content does not conform to company email policies.

Also, your administrator may modify safelists and blocklists for all users including you.

Accessing Safelists and Blocklists

To modify safelists and blocklists, you need to log into your account if your account is authenticated using LDAP or Mailbox (IMAP/POP) authentication. If you do not know your login, check with your system administrator. You must log into your account even if you are accustomed to accessing your messages via a link in a spam notification (which usually doesn't require authentication). However, you can still view the messages in your Spam Quarantine without logging into your account.

Adding Entries to Safelists and Blocklists

Entries can be added to safelists and blocklists using the following formats:

You cannot add a sender or domain to both safe and block lists at the same time. However, if you add a domain to a safelist and a user for that domain to the blocklist (or vice versa), the IronPort appliance applies both rules to incoming mail. For example, if you add example.com to the safelist, and add george@example.com to the blocklist, the IronPort appliance delivers all mail from example.com without scanning for spam, but will treat mail from george@example.com as spam. You cannot allow or block a range of sub-domains using the following syntax: .domain.com. However, you can explicitly block a specific domain using the following syntax: server.domain.com.

Working with Safelists

You can add senders to safelists in two ways. From the Spam Quarantine, you can manually add a sender to the safelist by selecting Options > Safelist. Then, add an email address or domain to the list, and click Add to List .

You can also add senders to the safelist if a message from the sender has been sent to the end-user quarantine. If the message from a given sender is sent to end user quarantine, you can select the checkbox next to message, and choose "Release and Add to Safelist" from the drop-down menu.

Working with Blocklists

You can use blocklists to ensure that you never receive mail from specified senders. To add senders to a blocklist, you select Options > Blocklist from the end-user quarantine. From the end-user quarantine, you can enter an email address or domain in the field, and click Add to List. When the IronPort appliance receives mail from the specified email address or domain that matches an entry in the blocklist, it quarantines or rejects the email. The mail is rejected or quarantined depending on the safelist/blockist action settings configured by your administrator.