Our Advanced Spam Protection system uses several different components to determine whether to accept an incoming piece of email. The very first line of defense is our Spike DNSBL. The sending IP address is matched against our Spike list and, if matched, refuses to accept any email from that IP address.

If Spike does not find a match, the email is accepted and the content scanned for spam my our spam filters.

Most of the IP addresses we list within Spike are a direct result of our customers using the Delete As Spam button when using the CCC for email. The IP address of the sending server is recorded when you remove a message using Delete As Spam. We then use that database of "spammer" IP addresses to determine what IP ranges need to be blocked from sending any mail to to our system.

The majority of the time the Spike system correctly identifies spammer IP ranges and acts accordingly. Every now and then however a legitimate ISP or mail service provider gets blocked through no real fault of their own.

To eliminate problems of this nature we have changed the way the Blocklist works. For the majority of IP addresses we no longer block outright at the mail server level. We will now accept that email, but the spam filters will now heavily score that email as suspected spam.

If you have whitelisted senders, their mail will now reach you, even if it is sent using an IP address that happens to send a lot of spam.

This also means that mail users who have not enabled the Advanced Spam Protection rules in the CCC will no longer be protected by SPIKE! If you have not already done so please visit the CCC. You will find the Advanced Spam Protection rules in the Tools menu. The default score of 5 will be sufficient to deal with most spam you might receive.

If you have never used our spam filtering system before be sure to also take a look at our Spam Filtering Tips. There you'll find extensive information on how to use our ASP rules, how to protect (or "whitelist") senders, and craft custom mail rules of your own. If you have any questions about these changes, let us know.

Avvanta Support