The LJPc premium spam filter and how it works

The LJPc premium spam filter stops unwanted email before it reaches your mailbox. This article explains how the filter works and how you manage it yourself in the customer portal: viewing the quarantine, releasing held messages, keeping a list of allowed and blocked senders, checking the email that got through, and blocking a sender or marking a message as spam. No technical knowledge required.

What is the LJPc premium spam filter?

The premium spam filter is a separate service that you add per domain, alongside your regular hosting. It checks all incoming email for that domain and only delivers clean messages to your mailbox. Anything that looks like spam, phishing or bulk mail is held in a quarantine, so it never lands in your inbox unchecked.

The goal is simple: less clutter in your mailbox without missing legitimate email. Because you manage the quarantine and your sender lists yourself, you stay in control of what gets through and what does not. For a broader look at protecting your mail, see our article on email security.

How the premium spam filter works

Email finds the right server through a domain's MX record. With the premium spam filter, your domain's MX records point to the LJPc filter servers. As a result, all incoming email arrives at the filter first, rather than going straight to your mailbox.

The filter assesses each message in a few steps:

• Is the sender on your list of blocked or allowed senders?
• Is the sender genuine? The filter checks email authentication using techniques such as an SPF record and DMARC.
• Does the message look like bulk or marketing mail?
• Does it contain typical spam or phishing characteristics?

Clean messages are passed on to your mailbox. Suspicious messages go to the quarantine. That way, less spam is left in your inbox while ordinary email still comes through.

In the portal a domain has the status Pending until its MX records are in place and have been verified. After that the status changes to Active and the spam filter starts filtering your email.

Opening the spam filter in the customer portal

You manage the spam filter in the customer portal. Log in and open the Services menu at the top. Click Spam filter. You now see an overview of the domains covered by the spam filter, with the status and the number of messages in quarantine for each domain.

Click a domain to manage it. At the top of the detail page you see how much email was processed, delivered and blocked over the past 30 days, plus a chart of the traffic over the last 14 days. Below that are three tabs: Inbox, Quarantine and Settings.

Cannot see the Spam filter item in the menu? Then your account does not have any domains in the filter yet, or your user is missing the right to manage the spam filter. Check with the main user of your account.

Viewing the quarantine and releasing email

Open the Quarantine tab. This holds all the email the filter has stopped. For each message you see the subject, the sender, the date and a label with the reason, for example a blocked sender, bulk mail or a failed authenticity check. Use the search box to search by subject or sender.

Is there email you want to receive after all? Release it:

1. Find the message in the list and check the sender and the subject.
2. Click Release.
3. The message is then delivered to your mailbox after all. Delivery is queued, so it may take a moment to arrive.

Want a message gone for good instead? Click Delete and confirm. Do you often see legitimate email from the same sender in the quarantine? Add that domain to your list of allowed senders, so its mail comes straight through from then on.

Managing allowed and blocked senders

Open the Settings tab. You see two lists: Allowed senders and Blocked senders. Email from a domain on the allowed senders list is never held as spam. Email from a domain on the blocked senders list is always held.

Please note: both lists work at domain level, not on individual email addresses. So you enter a domain, for example example.com, and not name@example.com. The rule then applies to every sender at that domain.

Adding a domain works like this:

1. Type the domain in the input field below the right list, for example example.com.
2. Click Add.

To remove a domain again, use Remove next to the item. A domain cannot be on both lists at once: put it on one list and the filter automatically takes it off the other.

Checking the email that got through in your inbox

The Inbox tab shows the email the filter let through and sent on to your mailbox. You can search by subject or sender and filter by status: Delivered or Failed.

The statuses mean the following:

• Delivered: the message arrived at your mailbox.
• Sending: delivery is still queued.
• Failed: delivery to your mailbox did not succeed.

Has a message failed? Click Retry to queue delivery again. That only works while the original message is still stored. If it keeps failing, contact support.

Blocking a sender or marking a message as spam

Both in the quarantine and in your inbox you can act on a sender straight away. It helps to know the difference, because the buttons do not all do the same thing.

Block sender

With Block sender you add the sender's domain to your list of blocked senders. All email from that domain is held from then on. Use this for domains you never want to hear from again.

Mark as spam

With Mark as spam in your inbox you flag that a message that got through is spam after all. This is mainly a signal for the filter. The message has already been delivered, so it stays in your mailbox. If you really want to keep the sender out, use Block sender.

Allowing and marking as not spam

In the quarantine it works the other way around. With Allow sender you add the sender's domain to your list of allowed senders, so future messages come straight through. With Mark as not spam you flag that a held message is in fact legitimate. Please note: marking as not spam does not release the message itself. You do that separately with Release.

Tips to avoid missing legitimate email

• Check the quarantine regularly at first, so you can see what the filter holds and release anything quickly.
• Add domains you trust and receive important mail from, such as your bank or accounting software, to your allowed senders list.
• Make sure your own domain is set up properly with SPF, DKIM and DMARC. That helps recipients trust your email and prevents messages being seen as spam by mistake.
• If you keep missing legitimate messages, see how to fix email problems or contact support.

Requesting the premium spam filter

The premium spam filter is a standalone service that you add per domain alongside your hosting. After your request, LJPc activates the filter and points the MX records at the filter servers, so your email runs through the filter. Until that has been verified, the domain shows as Pending.

Want to switch on the spam filter for a domain, or have questions about the options and pricing? Contact support and we will set it up for you.

Cannot work it out? Contact LJPc support and we will be glad to help you further.