If you are a registered member of Real Guns, you may or may not know, you also have a realguns.com email account. This account may be used with the Real Guns web interface, or with any conventional POP mail client in the Windows or Mac world. Real Gun email service now includes Spam Hippo, a very effective anti spam system. It is not a black list filter, and it does not require updates or tinkering. It works by detecting spammer behavior and its specific configuration is determined by you.To access the Spam Hippo configuration page, on the home page select the “Members” button on the menu and mouse click on “Check Email”. If you are not already logged onto the site, you will be promoted for your registered user name and password. You will then be transferred to an email overview page where you can set your Spam Hippo preferences, check email or get the settings require to set up your pop mail client to use your Real Guns email account. If you are in the web mail interface, you can accomplish the same by clicking on the Spam Hippo menu button.
There is a help screen in these sections that cover details, but I wanted to provide a general overview. First things first. The mail accounts are defaulted to require sender verification as described below, and to catch email viruses sent to your account before they can infect your system. You can turn off these features at the configuration page by deselecting these configuration options.
Overview
Each email account has an optional “Approved Sender List”, a place to enter the specific email addresses or Internet domains from which you wish to receive email. When mail is received from a sender or location not specifically indicated on your approved list, Spam Hippo can be configured by your determination to do one of the following:
- Delete the sent message prior to receiving at the mail box – the mail is deleted at the Real Guns mail servers and will not be downloaded to your system.
- Email the sender a verification link & queue their message until they respond – Real Guns servers will hold this mail for approximately 72 hours. The intent is to intercept automated bulk mail programs by require a human to acknowledge sending. This is only required once from any given address.
- Disable this feature – this effectively neutralizes this process and mail will be received to your mail box without intervention from Spam Hippo.
In the first instance, any non-match to any address book entry will be discarded. However, the date, time, sender’s address and email subject line will appear in the Spam Hippo log for your review. Logs are retained for approximately 72 hours, however, you may elect to clear the log sooner.
In the second instance, mail is not deleted, but retained in queue for 72 hours pending approval by the sender. You may, at any time, examine the queue and approve any mail without waiting for the sender to approve. This mail will be delivered when email is next checked.
Any email address or any domain that appears on the Approved Senders List is not subjected to any other Spam Hippo processing. In my own personal use of Real Guns email, I pre-approve domains where I frequently shop and also where I am a member of a mail list, especially when mail may come from multiple “From” addresses within a common domain.
- Delete messages that do not reference my specific email address in the To/Cc lines
- Delete message when combined To/Cc addresses exceeds
- Delete all mail containing executable viruses
In the first case, any mail where your address does not appear in the “To:” or “CC:” fields is deleted. Spam sent through the “Bcc:” field is deleted. Spammers frequently hide or disguise the “To:” address to avoid being detected by conventional spam filters.
In the second screening rule, you may select the combined number of names that may appear in these fields. It is common spam practice to run an alpha order list of many names in the “To:” and “CC:” field when spamming. It is also common for a mail list to have many names, but again, if the mail list address or domain is entered in the “Approved Sender List”, it will be unaffected by this filter. These selections may also be left unchecked for no action at all to be taken.
The third rule allows virus detection software running on our servers to delete these specific files and prevent them from making their way to the account holder’s email box, or the system you use to access the Internet. This is not a filter that removes all attachments or executable programs, it is designed to specifically locate infected files.
This section is for those of you who like to play with more cryptic control codes and compound filter rules. Mail can be screened by any number of header and content criteria and dispositoned in a variety of ways. These entries can also be used to forward mail, auto respond with messages, advise of being away of vacation, etc. There is a help screen is the section that illustrates use and available command structure.
It is really nice to open and email box and find only legitimate messages. We hope you will find this new feature a way to get to that result. If you have any questions, or if you get stuck, write us at support@realguns.com and we’ll be glad to help.
Thanks
Joe
Email Notification