Virus and spam filtering with Mailguard

All email sent to "ucar.edu" addresses is scanned for malicious software (malware) before being delivered to recipients. Email that contains known malware is quarantined and scheduled for deletion.

Two anti-virus programs run on the UCAR email relay server (right) and monitor incoming and outgoing email attachments for known malware. When malware is identified, it is deleted and the email message that carried it is automatically quarantined. During this time, the recipient can view the message. Ten days after the message was quarantined, the system automatically deletes it. Users do not need to take any action to deal with malware in their email.

To control unsolicited bulk email (spam), UCAR users are offered two methods to block it. The first method is blocklist filtering. It can be set up in less than five minutes, and it requires no maintenance. Blocklist filtering provides sufficient spam control for many people.

Content filtering is the second way that CISL provides for UCAR users to block spam. It takes many minutes to understand and set up, and it requires ongoing maintenance, but it can intercept spam that is missed by blocklist filtering.

Users must take action to control the spam they receive because no spam blocking is performed by default. Blocklist filtering can be implemented at two levels of blocking or it can be turned off. In addition, users may also activate the content filtering provided by the Mailguard system on the email relay server.