How do I set up Mailshell to stop spam?

Mailshell's major feature is our advanced spam filtering technology, which gives Premium users the ability to clean spam from your existing email address. (If you are a free trial user, this feature is available during the 30-day trial period after you first sign up.) To start right away, all you need to do is set up an account to be cleaned and choose your settings.

• First, set up an account in the Clean Existing Email section of Spam Filtering.



• Choose how you want to receive your email. If you want to continue using the service you're using now, we recommend that you set up another address with that service and forward your email there. (For instance, if you use AOL, you could set up another address for your account and forward the cleaned messages there so that you can continue using the setup you're familiar with.)



• If you want to change your Spam Catcher strength, you can do so from either the Spam Catcher Settings section of Spam Filtering or by using the Address Options for the address you are delivering cleaned messages to.



• Finally, start keeping a list of senders you trust by using your Address Book and Approved Senders list. (If you already have an address book, the easiest way is to simply import it to Mailshell.) These senders will never be filtered as junk, and by listing them you'll always get the messages you want right away.

Then, you can start taking advantage of Mailshell's additional spam-fighting options:

• If you received an @mailshell.com address when you signed up, give this address out instead of your existing one and choose your settings the same way you would to clean your existing email address. You can even forward messages to your existing address so you still get all your email in the same place.



• Start giving out disposable email addresses so you'll know who gave your address away and be able to block spam easily without affecting all of your email.



• Block individual senders who are sending you unwanted email.



• Use custom email filters to automatically organize your messages.



• Sign up anonymously for newsletters, services, and other offers using Mailshell's Special Offers Directory.

How do I set up Mailshell to stop my existing spam?

Premium users have the option of cleaning spam from up to three other email accounts by retrieving and filtering messages at Mailshell: click here to learn how to set this up.

If you have the free trial service, this feature is available during the 30-day trial period after you first sign up. Once that period has expired, you can upgrade to the Premium Service to continue using it.

If you don't want to retrieve messages or if your free trial period has expired, you can also try to forward your current email address to Mailshell--many ISPs and email services let you forward email to a different address or to set up a filter that will forward, although some do not. For example, if you want to forward your Yahoo! email you could create a yahoo@your-name.com disposable address, then set your Yahoo! email to forward to that address. Use the Address Options for yahoo@your-name.com to set the Spam Catcher strength and other settings to whatever you like. You will now receive all of your Yahoo! email at Mailshell and have all the benefits of Mailshell filtering. (If you do decide to do this, note that you should also add the address you're forwarding from to your Approved Senders list. Because the Spam Catcher normally penalizes messages that aren't addressed directly to the Mailshell address that receives them, messages that are simply auto-forwarded are more likely to be filtered out as spam even if they aren't. By adding the address you're forwarding to this list, the Spam Catcher won't apply that penalty and will be able to assess the messages more accurately.)

How do I see my current spam filtering setup, and how do I change it?

By going to the Spam Filtering Overview page in Spam Filtering, you can see general setup information like your default Spam Catcher setting and which existing email addresses you are cleaning. You can edit any of this information by clicking the "edit" links next to the setting you want to change or by using the dark blue navigation bar to go directly to the page you want:

• To edit your Spam Catcher or Virus Protection settings, click the "Spam Catcher Settings" link in the dark blue navigation bar.



• To add or edit existing email accounts to be cleaned, click the "Clean Existing Email" link.



• To create, delete, or approve your disposable addresses, click the "Disposable Email Addresses" link.



• To edit your Approved Senders which will never be filtered as junk, click the "Approved Senders" link.



• To edit your Blocked Senders, click the "Blocked Senders" link.



• To create, delete, or rearrange your custom email filters, click the "Custom Email Filters" link.

How do I set up a "white list" of senders I trust that will never be filtered as junk?

Mailshell lets you list two types of senders that will never be filtered as junk: your Address Book contacts and your Approved Senders. You may wish to add friends, family, newsletters you subscribe to, and other senders you expect email from to ensure that their messages are always delivered properly.

There are three ways to add contacts to your Address Book:

• Go to the Address Book section of Check Mail and enter the sender's name and email address in the fields provided, then click the "Add" button.



• When reading a message or after sending a message, click the "Add to Address Book" link to add the sender or your recipients.



• If you already have an address book with another email account, import that list.

There are two ways to add Approved Senders:

• Go to the Approved Senders section of Spam Filtering and enter the sender into the field provided, then click the "Add" button. You can specify either an email address (e.g., joe@yahoo.com) or a domain (e.g., joe.com). If you specify a domain, any address sending from that domain will be approved.



• If a non-spam message is inadvertently sent to your Junk folder, select the message and click the "Not Junk" button. The message will go to your Inbox and the sender will be automatically added to your Approved Senders list.

How do I use Mailshell to protect myself from email-borne viruses, unwanted images, and hidden tracking devices?

If you're a Premium user, you can use the Virus Protection setting to protect you from email-borne viruses, tracking devices, unwanted images, and other security problems. When this feature is turned on, Mailshell will remove all images, attachments, java, and javascript from messages you receive through Mailshell. (If you are concerned about missing important parts of messages, you can also save a copy of the full, unaltered message.)

You can change this setting for individual disposable addresses by using Address Options. You can also reset all of your settings or just the default setting for newly created and pending addresses in the Spam Catcher Settings section of Spam Filtering.

If you have the free trial service, this feature is available during the 30-day trial period after you first sign up. Once that period has expired, you can upgrade to the Premium Service to continue using it.

How do I use disposable email addresses?

Mailshell makes creating and managing your disposable addresses easy: you can create, approve, edit, and delete addresses in the Disposable Email Addresses section of Spam Filtering. Creating new email addresses for each website registration or for each person you correspond with is a good idea because it lets you automatically organize your email for different purposes and prevent junk email.

You can use disposable addresses in a variety of ways:

• The best way to prevent spam is to use a new email address every time you are asked for it--if you want to register with a website, you can give a disposable address without compromising your real address. For example, if you sign up for an account with Amazon.com, you could give your address as amazon@your-name.com. If you begin receiving spam at that address, you can easily delete it.



• Similarly, if you want to sign up for a newsletter not listed in the Mailshell directory, you can give a disposable address. For example, if you want to receive "TigerNews" you can give your address as tigernews@yourdomain.com.



• You can also have specific addresses for friends, family, and other uses. For example, you could give your work contacts one email address and have it forwarded to your work email address, but tell your family to email you at a different address and save that address in a "Family" folder. Because you never give these email addresses to anyone else, you should never receive spam at them and should be able to continue using them permanently.

How do I use a registered domain for my disposable addresses?

If you have the Premium Service and would like to use a registered domain (your-name.com) instead of a Mailshell subdomain (your-name.mailshell.com) for your disposable addresses, you can do so by clicking the "Wouldn't you like to have 'your-name'.com?" link in the Disposable Email Addresses section of Spam Filtering. You will be asked to select from a list of available domains or enter a new one to search for. (If you already own a domain, you can also use that domain with Mailshell.)

Registered domain names are limited to 63 characters and can use only letters (a-z), and numbers (0-9), and they are not case-sensitive (e.g., "joe.com" is the same as "JoE.com"). Domain names containing hyphens (-) are not supported.

Registering a new domain to use with Mailshell costs $16.95 a year.

Please note: Mailshell does not offer web hosting services for domains registered with us. If you wish to have a website associated with your domain, the Premium Service gives you the option of either forwarding your domain to an existing website or specifying the IP address of an existing website.