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Mail filtering for spam and unwanted messages

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You can filter your incoming email to automatically find (and remove) spam messages. When you are using Nexus, this email filtering is a two stage process: you have to set the level of spam filtering and then you need to make sure that spam filtering is activated.
1. Setting level of spam filtering
Go to your Nexus account settings page on the OUCS Registration page https://register.it.ox.ac.uk/self/nexus. Select Spam email filter settings and choose your preferred option (off, low, medium, high).
2. Activate spam filtering
You also need to have spam filtering turned on in Outlook Web Access (both the full and light versions have this option). To do this access the page at https://nexus.ox.ac.uk/owa. Next click on Options in the top navigation bar.

Figure owa_full_options.png [Image showing OWA Full top navigation bar with the Options button to the far right]

Figure owa_lite_options.png [Image showing OWA Light top navigation bar with the Options button to the far right]

In the Full version of OWA:
  • Select See all options
  • Click the Block or Allow link in the left navigation bar
  • Make sure Automatically filter junk e-mail is ticked
In the Light version of OWA:
  • Click the Junk E-Mail link in the left navigation bar
  • Make sure Automatically filter junk e-mail is ticked
(see the Outlook Web Access Guide or the Outlook Web Access Guide (light version) for more details.)
Messages that are identified as spam or junk mail by Nexus are moved to the Junk E-mail mailbox. If you do not remove them, they are automatically deleted after 90 days (see more information about Deleted email).

In addition to the Nexus filtering, you may be able to set additional filters if you are using an email client to access your mail.



A note for Microsoft Outlook users

OUCS recommends that the Outlook client is not used for spam filtering. The server-side filtering is largely reliable but many people experience problems with the Outlook client spam filtering. We recommend that, once an appropriate setting has been selected at the the OUCS Registration pages, the Junk E-mail preferences in Outlook should be set to No automatic filtering. This can be done by choosing [Tools -> Options] and then clicking the Junk E-mail button on the Preferences tab.

Figure /email/filter/outlooksettings1.png [Image showing options screen in Outlook]

and then selecting No automatic filtering from the Junk E-mail Options window:

Figure /email/filter/outlooksettings2.png [Image showing spam filtering option in Outlook]

Making this change should minimize the number of false positives, ie non-spam messages, that appear in your Junk E-mail folder.

If you wish to deactivate all spam filtering

If you do not wish Microsoft Exchange (the server) to move any emails to your Junk E-mail folder, you should do the following: Go to your Nexus account settings page on the OUCS Self Registration Nexus page at https://register.it.ox.ac.uk/self/nexus. Select Spam email filter settings and choose off.

If you only ever access Nexus using your web browser then you need do nothing else to deactivate the spam filtering on your email. However, if you use an email client installed on your computer you will need to ensure that your Junk E-Mail or spam settings are turned off. If you are a Microsoft Outlook user then you should also follow the instructions above to turn off filtering in Outlook.

Note: the spam setting on the OUCS Self Registration Nexus page is a global setting so if you set this to off then it does not matter how you configure the spam setting in Outlook Web Access as no junk mail filtering will take place.

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