How can I
configure Exchange 2003 to block
unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam)
with Intelligent Message Filter?
Microsoft Exchange
Intelligent Message Filter is a product
developed by Microsoft to help companies
reduce the amount of unsolicited
commercial e-mail (UCE), or spam,
received by users.
Intelligent Message
Filter is based on Microsoft
SmartScreen Technology from
Microsoft Research. By using e-mail
characteristics tracked by
SmartScreen technology, Intelligent
Message Filter can help determine
whether each incoming e-mail message is
likely to be spam. Based on this
likelihood, you can choose to block
e-mail messages at the gateway or at the
mailbox store.
How it works?
When an external user
sends e-mail messages to an Exchange
server with Intelligent Message Filter
installed, IMF evaluates the textual
content of the messages and assigns the
message a rating based on the
probability that the message is UCE or
spam. All incoming messages are marked
with a Spam Confidence Level SCL rating,
regardless of the rating threshold you
set. This rating is saved with the other
message properties and these properties
are sent with the message to other
Exchange servers.
In Gateway Blocking
Configuration, select the rating in
Block messages with an SCL rating
greater than or equal to above which
Intelligent Message Filter takes action
on this message.
If a message has a rating
higher than the gateway threshold, IMF
takes the action specified. If the
message has a rating below the gateway
threshold, the message is sent to the
Exchange mailbox store of the recipient.
At the Exchange mailbox store, if the
message has a higher rating than the
mailbox store threshold, the mailbox
store delivers the message to the user's
Junk E-mail folder rather than to the
Inbox.
Intelligent Message
Filter does not need to be installed on
Exchange mailbox servers. If Intelligent
Message Filter is installed and enabled
on the gateway SMTP virtual servers,
Exchange mailbox servers receive the SCL
rating with each incoming Internet
message and take the appropriate action. |