The spam filter that is already in use is called Sublime. Sublime is designed to catch messages that it knows are spam, but if it isn't sure if a message is spam or not, it lets it through. This keeps Sublime from generating what are called false positives (mistaking non-spam messages for spam), but it also means that not all spam messages are caught.

The new spam filter will let you configure settings yourself. Let's run through the settings so you can configure exactly how you want it to behave.

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First of all, it's important to understand that if this filter thinks that a message is spam, it doesn't delete it. It keeps it on the server in a folder called "spam" so that you can look at it to see if it's spam or not. The settings for the filter are configured using webmail. Log in to your account on the New Hope mail server, which is located at

http://mail.nehp.net

and type in the username and password that you normally use for your email.

 

This should bring you to a screen that looks something like this, except there will probably be more messages in your inbox:

What we want to do now is to make sure that we can see the folder that contains the spam that is getting filtered out. Check the list of folders on the top left corner of the screen:



On your account, the "spam" folder at the bottom may not show up. What we're about to do is to make it show up, so if it already is there you can skip to the bottom of the instructions where we configure the filter. Otherwise, we need to subscribe to the folder. Here's how we do it:

 

 

Subscribe to the spam folder:

1. When you log into the mail server, you'll probably go right to the inbox. At the top of the screen, there will be a link that says "Folders." Click on it.
   
   
   
   
2. This will bring you to a list of folders that you can subscribe to. What we want to do is subscribe to the spam folder. The screen should look like this:
   
   
   
   
3. Select the folder that says "INBOX.spam." It will look like this:
   
   
   
   
4. Click on the "subscribe" button. After you do, the screen should refresh and then "INBOX.spam" should show up in the list of folders that you are subscribed to, like so:
   
   
   
   
5. At this point, the "spam" folder will still not show up on the left side of the screen. Click on the "refresh folder list" pictured below, and then it should show up.
   
   
   
   
6. It should now look like this:
   
   
   
   
7. Now, messages that the filter thinks may be spam will go to this spam folder that you just set up. This spam folder will also show up on your mail client (such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape Mail, or Macintosh Mail) if it's configured to use IMAP mail (and not POP mail). Here's how it looks in Macintosh Mail:
   
   
   It may look slightly different in your client, but the basic idea is the same - there will be a spam folder somewhere, and it will probably associated with your Inbox. Messages that the filter thinks are spam will be placed in this folder. Because this spam filter doesn't guarentee false positives, it may be a good idea to check this from time to time to make sure there aren't any messages that you wanted in there.

   Also, messages in the spam folder will not get ereased on their own. It's a good idea to go erase messages in the spam folder every once in awhile to make sure that you don't end up with several hundred (or thousand) messages sitting on the mail server.

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