What are Approved Senders?

Approved Senders are senders that will never be filtered as junk. Think of them as your VIPs: friends, family, newsletters you subscribe to, and other senders you expect email from. By specifying these senders as approved, you ensure that their messages are always delivered properly.

Approved Senders can be either email addresses (e.g., joe@yahoo.com) or domains (e.g., yahoo.com). The From: addresses of all new email are compared against your Approved Senders list. (Note that your Contacts folder and your Junk Senders Exception list are also treated as Approved Senders.)

Why would I want to maintain an Approved Senders list?

Depending on the kind of emails that you receive, some non-spam messages may occasionally be identified as spam even though they are not. By listing Approved Senders — friends, family, colleagues, newsletters you subscribe to, and anyone else who emails you regularly — you ensure that their messages are always delivered properly.

How do I add an address or domain to my Approved Senders list?

There are four ways to add Approved Senders:

• To add one or more senders from within your Outlook folder: Select all the messages from the senders that you want to add. Click on the Approve Messages button on your Mailshell Anti-Spam Outlook toolbar or type in the keyboard shortcut Alt+M then A. The messages you selected will go to your Inbox and the senders will be automatically added to your Approved Senders list.



• To add a sender while viewing a message: Click on the Approve Messages button on your Mailshell Anti-Spam Outlook toolbar or type in the keyboard shortcut Alt+M then A. The messages you selected will go to your Inbox and the senders will be automatically added to your Approved Senders list.



• You may also approve senders by clicking on the Mailshell Anti-Spam icon on the Mailshell Anti-Spam Outlook toolbar. On the Mailshell Anti-Spam popup, double-click on Approve Options and click on Senders; then select the Add button. Enter the sender into the field provided, then click the OK button. You can specify either an email address (e.g., joe@yahoo.com) or a domain (e.g., yahoo.com). If you specify a domain, any address sending from that domain will be approved.



• You may also approve senders by adding them to your Contacts folder or your Junk Senders Exception list.

Note that your Contacts folder and your Junk Senders Exception list are also treated as Approved Senders.

How do I remove an address or domain from my Approved Senders list?

To remove an Approved Sender from your list, click on the Mailshell Anti-Spam icon on your Outlook toolbar. On the Mailshell Anti-Spam popup, double-click on Approve Options and click on Senders; then select the address or domain you no longer want to approve and click the Delete button. Mail from this address or domain will no longer automatically be approved.

Blocking an address will also remove the address from your Approved Senders list.

How do I choose to only accept email from Approved Senders?

Start by clicking on the Mailshell Anti-Spam icon on the Mailshell Anti-Spam Outlook toolbar. On the Mailshell Anti-Spam popup, double-click on Approve Options and click on Senders; then click on the check box in the lower left hand corner of the popup. This "Exclusive" setting only allows emails from your approved addresses and address book. All other email is treated as spam.

What are Approved I.P. Addresses?

Mail sent from an I.P. address listed on your Approved I.P. Addresses list will be treated as legitimate mail.

Each message you receive through the Internet travels through one or more machines along the way before it arrives in your Inbox. These machines have different Internet Protocol addresses. To ensure that messages coming from a particular Internet address do not get filtered as spam, you can specify its I.P. address. You can enter an individual I.P. address such as 10.2.3.4 or a range of I.P. addresses such as 10.2.3.4-10.2.3.255.

We recommend that you consult your network administrator before making changes to this option.

How do I specify I.P. addresses?

You can use any of the following notations to specify I.P. addresses:

• a single I.P. address, e.g. 127.0.0.1



• the first and last addresses in the netblock, separated by a hyphen, e.g. 127.0.0.1-127.0.0.3
  
  
• using network prefix notation, e.g. 127.0.0.1/29

How do I give preference to messages addressed to me?

Most spam does not include your email address in the To: address. Most legitimate email does include your email address in the To: or CC: address. Also, most email newsletters use unique To: addresses in their emails. You can give preference to messages that are explicitly addressed to you. This feature may help distinguish messages you wish to keep versus spam you wish to reject, thereby increasing the accuracy of Mailshell Anti-Spam Outlook.

To specify your preference, click on the Mailshell Anti-Spam icon on the Mailshell Anti-Spam Outlook toolbar. On the Mailshell Anti-Spam popup, under the Approve Options section, check "My Email Addresses". Next, click the Add button and add all of the email addresses where you receive mail.

Note: If you subscribe to email lists, be sure to add the addresses to which the messages are sent.

How do I specify a mailing list address?

Messages from some mailing lists arrive with a "To:" address that isn't your e-mail address, so they may be caught as spam. You can use the Mailing Lists feature to specify mailing list addresses so they will always be allowed and never be scored as spam.

To specify a Mailing List address, click on the Mailshell Anti-Spam icon on the Mailshell Anti-Spam Outlook toolbar. On the Mailshell Anti-Spam popup, under the Approve Options section, select "Mailing Lists". Next, click the Add button and add all of the email addresses where you receive mail.