How to Configure MailScanner in cPanel

How to Configure MailScanner in cPanel

This article describes how to configure MailScanner in cPanel. MailScanner is an anti-spam/anti-virus suite consisting of several open source utilities including: MailScanner, SpamAssassin, ClamAV, DCC and Vipuls Razor. Together, these utilities can dramatically reduce the amount of spam and viruses that make it to your email inbox. To configure Mailscanner for your domain(s), please follow the tutorial below.

1. Login to cPanel for your hosting account
   
   
2. In the "Mail" section, click on the MailScanner link/icon
   
   
   
   
3. On the Mailserver Configuration screen, you will see 2 settings groups, along with 2 settings links.
   
   
   
   
4. The "Current Settings" section shows you the current settings configuration for your domain(s).
   
   
5. The "Change Individual Domain Settings" section allows you to configure each of the settings for each of your domains listed under your account. These settings are described below:
   
   Spam Scanning - Enables the scanning of emails for spam. Options are yes/no.
   
   Virus Scanning - Enables the scanning of emails for viruses. Options are yes/no.
   
   Deliver Cleaned Emails - Enables the delivery of emails in which viruses have been removed.
   
   Low Scoring Spam - Tells MailScanner what to do with emails determined likely to be spam, but that could also be false positives. Options are Deliver, Delete, or forward to a This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. NOTE: If you use the option to forward to a spam address, you will need to create the email account afterwards. The Low Scoring Spam Setting determines what the initial spam score/threshold will be for Low Scoring spam. The default setting is 5.
   
   High Scoring Spam - Tells MailScanner what to do with emails determined to almost definitely be spam. The High Scoring Spam Setting determines what the initial spam score/threshold will be for High Scoring spam. The default setting is 20.
   
   So ... here is an example of spam handling based upon spam scores.
   
   Low Spam Score Setting = 5
   High Spam Score Setting = 20
   
   Spam Score = Rule that will be applied
   1 - 4 = Messages that will not be flagged/marked as spam and will be delivered normally.
   5 - 19 = Messages that will be flagged/marked as low scoring spam and will apply the handling rule you have defined (Deliver or Delete)
   20 - 30 = Messages that will be flagged/marked as high scoring spam and will apply the handling rule you have defined (Deliver or Delete)
   
   
6. The "Email Black/Whitelist settings" link is used to configure your email whitelist/blacklist.
   
   
   
   
7. The Spam Whitelist section allows you to configure your whitelist of email address that you want to always allow to be delivered.
   Allowed Format: *@domain.com or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or IP address, only one entry per line. Up to 30 entries are allowed.
   
   
8. The "Spam Blacklist" section allows you to configure your blacklist of email addresses that will always be flagged as high scoring spam.
   Allowed Format: *@domain.com or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or IP address, only one entry per line. Up to 30 entries are allowed.
   
   
9. The "Other Settings" link is used to access the spam scoring system and additional settings.
   
   
   
   
   This section is used to configure the spam scoring system and how to rate emails based upon their spam score
   
   
   
   These settings are described below:

• Low scoring spam setting - You can change the level at which MailScanner will identify an email as low-scoring spam (probably spam) by changing this setting. If you change it to a higher number you may receive more spams that have not been identified as spam by MailScanner. If you change it to a lower number you may find that MailScanner is identifying non-spam emails as spam, i.e. there will be more false-positives.
  
  
• High scoring spam setting - You can change the level at which MailScanner will identify an email as high scoring spam (almost certainly spam) by changing this setting. The default is 20 and this setting works well in most cases. If you find you are getting excessive amounts of low scoring spam with a score just below 20, you may want to change this setting to a lower number, such as 15. If you change it to a lower number we would recommend NOT setting high scoring spam to Delete until you've tested it for a while to be sure the new scoring is working well for you.
  
  
• - If you'd like to have spam forwarded to a different email address than "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.", for instance an email address on another domain, you can specify that email address here. It will then be listed as one of the options for Low and High Scoring Spam in the Other Settings panel.

Once you have your configuration complete, you may want to set up a filter in your local email application to route messages tagged with {Possible Spam} in the subject line. You can find instructions for setting up filters for your specific email software using the Help menu in the application, or using a search engine like Google to search for a phrase like "set up spam filter". Visit http://www.interactivevillages.com/support-info/emailfilters  for basic instructions for Outlook and Thunderbird.

For additional support please open a ticket at http://helpdesk.interactivevillages.com