Email Filters and Rules

Filters, may also be referred to as Message rules.  Different email programs have different methods of applying them.  What I hope to accomplish in this document is to show you how to use words or phrases to create effective Filters, or Message Rules. [I will use the word "Filters", to refer to both]

My most important filter is the virus filter, it is my first one.  In it I have blocked  subjects like 'Ha Ha sexy fun', GONE.SCR, and other known virus phrases obtained from the virus warnings.  I have it set to delete these as they come in.

I also like to set up folders for my incoming mail. I call my second filter 'Friends'.  If an incoming email is from any of my 'friends', people I know; I have subfolders for 'special' ones<g>. groups I subscribe to (I have subfolders for each one), newsletters, and product updates.

You should test each filter as you apply it, you would not want to set up a filter which deletes all email containing strings of capital letters. Better yet to move to a 'possible junk', or other name you wish. This will avoid you permanently deleting email that you may wish to read.  I have found several emails intended for me, which I had filtered out into my 'Junkyard', which is where all email which doesn't fit in my other filter rules ends up.

For a really good look at what types of filters you can set up, based on words, phrases, email addresses, and domains, see this site:  Spam Tracking 101

Some instructions for setting up filters:

from the Win 98SE Outlook Express 6 Help files:

To create a rule for e-mail messages:

1.  On the Tools menu, point to Message Rules, and then click Mail.  Message rules cannot be created for IMAP or HTTP e-mail accounts. 

2.  If this is the first rule you are creating, proceed to step 3. Otherwise, on the Mail Rules tab, click New and proceed to step 4.

3.  Select the conditions for your rule by selecting the desired check boxes in the Conditions section. (You must select at least one condition.)  You can specify multiple conditions for a single rule by selecting more than one check box. Click the and hyperlink in the Rule Description section to specify whether all of the rule conditions must be met before the specified action occurs (and), or whether at least one must be met (or).

4.  Specify the actions for your rule by selecting the desired check boxes in the Actions section. (You must select at least one condition.)

5.  Click the underlined hyperlinks in the Rule Description section to specify the conditions or actions for your rule.  You can click contains people or contains specific words in the Rule Description section to specify the people or words you'd like Outlook Express to look for in messages. If you enter multiple people or multiple words per condition, use the Options button in the Select People or Type Specific Words dialog boxes to further customize the condition.

6.  In the Name of the rule text box, select the default name or type a new name for your rule, and then click OK.

(more on Outlook Express message rules from G Man. or see Outlook Express and Filters

Creating rules in Microsoft Outlook is covered at Linda's website and in Parker's Mailbox.

also, read Microsoft's article, Deleting Multiple Junk E-mail Messages in Outlook 2002 By Paul Cornell

Filtering in The Bat! ~ by John Galvin:

In The Bat, filters are set up and managed using the Sorting Office, which is accessed from the Account Menu. There are various types of filters which can be used e.g. filters for incoming mail/outgoing mail/read messages/replied messages and selective download filters.

For a typical user, the filters for incoming mail are most important.

To set up a new filter for incoming mail, click on the Incoming Mail folder in the Sorting Office, and then click new.

Enter a name for the filter e.g. My friends and then select the folder where you want to send the mail to.

The most important bit is the Filter Strings. This is where you determine what to filter e-mails on. For this, I will choose an e-mail address. So for "Strings" I will use "myfriend@myfriendsisp.com", and the "Location" will be "Sender".

If I receive a new e-mail, the filter will check to see if my friends e-mail address is in the Senders field of the e-mail. If it is, then the e-mail will be moved to whichever folder I have specified previously.

Filters in The Bat are processed from the top down.

So when a new e-mail is received, it is first checked by the filter at the top.

If that filter doesn't catch it, the next filter down will check it and so on.

If it gets to the bottom of the list of filters, and none of them were able to catch the e-mail, then the e-mail is left in the Inbox.

Once an e-mail triggers a filter, it will stop being processed by the rest of the filters, unless it is specified otherwise.

The Actions/Options and Advanced Tabs in the Sorting Office, allow greater flexibility in dealing with e-mails.

For example, I could set up a filter which takes customer orders, moves the e-mails to a special folder, and automatically appends each order to a text file while sending a confirmation e-mail back to the sender."

Calypso Email Program ~ From the Calypso help file:

Using Individual Messages to Modify a Filter Rule

You can add a filter rule based on a message.

1. Right-click the message.

2. Click Add to Filter.

3. In the Add rule to filter dialog box, select the appropriate filter rule from the Filter list.

4. Create a filter rule. Refer to Creating a Filter Definition for help about creating a rule.

5. Click OK to save the rule.  The filter definition will be applied to the message.

Applying Filters Manually

You can apply existing filter definitions to a message or folder.

To apply a filter definition to a message:

1. Right-click the message.

2. Click Filter then the filter name.

To apply a filter to a folder:

1. Right-click a folder.

2. Click Filter All Messages, then the filter name.

Creating a Filter Definition

1. In the mailbox folder list, right click Filter, then click New Definition. The Filter Definition dialog box appears.

2. Type a descriptive name for the filter in the Filter definition name field.

3. To make this filter definition your JunkYard filter, see Creating a JunkYard Filter. Otherwise, go to step 4.

4. Click the Add button to create a filter rule.

5. In the What Pattern to Search For field, type the character pattern that Calypso will use to search incoming and/or outgoing mail.

Click the arrow [v] (hyperlink) and select an operator. If applicable, type a second character pattern in the second text box.

6. Select the Match case check box if you want capitals and lower case

letters in the filter pattern to match those in the message.

About Patterns, Wildcards, and Operators (hyperlink)

Patterns

Filter patterns tell Calypso what to look for when it is searching your mail.

A pattern may be a whole word or part of a string.

For example, if you use "university" as your pattern, Calypso will consider State University, clark@university.edu, (university), or university news as a match, depending on which objects you selected.

In other words, if you use "university" as your pattern, Calypso will look for "university" surrounded by non-alphanumeric characters. Non-alphanumeric characters can be spaces, periods, parentheses, commas, tabs, etc.

If you want to search for all instances of the word, surrounded by non-alphanumeric

characters or not, you may want to use wildcards.

Note

Calypso ignores any spaces at the beginning or end of the pattern.

Wildcards

Wildcards are symbols that stand for one or more characters.

Calypso uses the asterisk symbol (*) to indicate wildcard characters.

For example, "*mclark*" would refer to samclark, tomclarkson, pamclarke@univ.edu, mclark@home.net, and so on.

Use "*" before a pattern to indicate that other characters may precede it.

Use "*" after a pattern to indicate that other characters may follow it.

Operators

Only Only the pattern string in the upper pattern box will be evaluated.

The e-mail message must include the pattern to be considered a match.

And The pattern strings in the upper and lower boxes will be evaluated.

The e-mail message must include both patterns to be considered a match.

Or The pattern strings in the upper and lower boxes will be evaluated.

The e-mail message must include at least one pattern to be considered a match.

Not Only the pattern string in the upper pattern box will be evaluated.

The e-mail message must NOT include the pattern to be considered a

match.

And Not The pattern strings in the upper and lower boxes will be evaluated.

The e-mail message must include the first pattern, but cannot include

the second pattern to be considered a match.

7. In the Filter Mode field, select whether you want the filter rule to apply to incoming mail, outgoing mail, or both.

8. In the What Objects to Search field, select one or more of the filter objects.

Calypso will search the selected objects in the message to find a matching filter pattern.

9. In the What Action to Take field, select one or more of the filter actions.

Use 'What's This?' Help [?] (hyperlink) for information about individual actions.

Learn more about running a program

About Run Program

The Run Program option can initiate an application and provide information from the message to the application.

When creating a filter rule, specify the application to use and the part of the message to be included.

The command line in the Run Program field should include the path to the application, any options, and the following tokens:

<<SZ>> = message size

<<DS>> = date and time ("3/27/99 10:09AM" format)

<<DL>> = date and time ("1999-03-27 10:09:50 -0500" format)

<<DT>> = date only

<<TM>> = time only

<<SJ>> = subject

<<FR>> = from alias

<<FA>> = from address

<<TO>> = to alias(es)

<<TA>> = to address(es)

<<CC>> = CC alias(es)

<<CA>> = CC address(es)

<<BC>> = BCC field

<<BA>> = BCC address(es)

<<RT>> = ReplyTo field

<<AC>> = account name

For example, the Run Program field could contain a command line that sends the subject of a message to a pager.

The filter rule might look like this:

Mode: Incoming

Pattern: user@company.com

Case: Off

Objects: From

Action: Run program 'C:\program files\pager.exe <<SJ>>'

When the filter definition finds a matching filter pattern, the application will run.

WARNING

It is possible to place a message header token in the Run Program field without associating any specific program.

When a matching message was found, the program listed in the message's header would be run.

For example, a filter rule has the following settings:

Mode: Incoming

Pattern: user@company.com

Case: Off

Objects: From

Action: Run program '<<SJ>>'

An incoming message matches the filter pattern and has the subject of "netscape.exe".

Based on the filter rule above, Calypso would start the Netscape program; however,

if the subject were "deltree c:\", your hard drive would be erased.

Use extreme care if you place only a header token in the Run Program field.

10. Click OK to add the filter rule to the filter definition.

11. Repeat steps 4-11 to add another filter rule.

12. In the Filter Definition panel, click a rule and use the Priority Up and Priority Down keys to arrange the rules.

The order of the rules tells Calypso which filter action to accept first.

13. Click Save when finished.

14. To apply the filter definition to your mail, select the Apply selected filter definition check box in the Filter tab.

The Filter tab is located in Account Properties.

Filters

Filter definitions perform various actions on incoming and outgoing mail. This feature is useful if you send or receive many e-mail messages and want to organize them automatically.

A filter definition is made up of filter rules. A filter rule identifies a pattern that Calypso will look for in a message header and then takes action on that message. Actions can include running a program, saving a message as a text file, deleting the message, or routing the message to a folder or person.

For example, Sam Clark wants all his incoming university mail placed in a folder labeled "School." Sam would create a filter rule that looks for "university" in the From field of incoming messages. When Calypso finds a match, it places the message in the School folder.

You can create as many filter rules as needed to sort your messages. The order of the filter rules within the definition determines which actions are accepted first.

While you can apply only one filter definition to an account, that definition can reference other filter definitions. This gives you greater control over how your mail is sorted.

Each account in your mailbox can have a different active filter, or you can activate the same filter definition for several accounts.

Eudora:  How To Use filters:

Netscape and Filters

http://help.btinet.net/pcnetscape.shtml

Recommended Reading and Other Resources:

SpamCon Foundation Newsletters

HELP FILE: Using filters to sort spam out of your life

>From the 16 November 2001 issue (#019)

Magic Mail Monitor ~ freeware

Post Office Protocol v3 (POP3) compliant e-mail notifier for Windows

Easy Notification 2.0 ~ free

Is a simple e-mail notification program. It allows you to view messages on a POP3 mail server without downloading them with a mail client. .0

Consumer Reports Digital chaperones for kids

Adding Spam Filters

Tired of spam messages from every address in a domain?

Tired of spam message from every address in a TLD (such as .ru, .ch or .kr)?

Filters: Improve the quality of your Inbox

Email filters are a powerful management tool when it comes to moving incoming or outgoing email around within your email program.

iCom Stealth

One of the most advanced content filters. It is capable of monitoring all user activity, internet sessions and applications, and to block access to all resources containing material that is objectionable or potentially harmful for your children and for your family. Compatible with all Windows versions and ISPs.

MailWasher ~ free

Is a powerful email checker with effective spam elimination.

Discover the safe way to stop unwanted viruses and emails before they get to your computer.

PopTray 2.0 ~ freeware

Mail Notifier

Setup Filters

Mail filters are setup on your computer within your email program to help prevent some spam messages.

Cyberspace Law - Unsolicited E-mail

including e-mail and Usenet "spamming"; sender address falsification; unauthorized relaying

Mike Baynes is the editor of MikesWhatsNews .  To subscribe, send a blank email to mikeswhatsnews-request@freelists.org?Subject=subscribe