cPanel MailScanner Configuration

With MailScanner service, you have control over how spam and viruses are managed. To configure MailScanner settings, log in to your cPanel account and navigate to "MailScanner Configuration."

On the main MailScanner configuration page, you'll find two main sections if you have one domain in your cPanel account: "Current Settings" and "Change Individual Domain Settings." If you have multiple domains, you'll also see "Change All Domain Settings." You can apply settings uniformly to all your domains or customize each domain's configuration.

Note: Until you modify these settings for the first time, they will display as "Not Set," and mail scanning will follow your hosting provider's default configuration.

Mail Scanning Options

Spam Scanning – To enable spam scanning for all email on this domain, select "Yes." To disable spam scanning, choose "No."

Low Scoring and High Scoring Spam – MailScanner assigns scores to emails based on various criteria. The higher the score, the more likely the email is spam. There are two levels: low scoring and high scoring spam. High scoring spam is almost certainly spam, while low scoring spam may have some false positives. You can adjust the threshold scores for low and high scoring spam. By default, low scoring spam has a score of at least 5 but less than 20, while high scoring spam has a score of at least 20. Your hosting provider may configure these scores at the server level, and you can also customize them for your email (see Other Settings).

If MailScanner identifies an email as low or high scoring spam, you can choose to have it delivered with a tag, deleted, or forwarded to a different email address for your review.

If you opt for forwarding spam to an alternate email address, you must create this address in cPanel. You can use the default "spam@yourdomain.com" or set up a different email address in Other Settings.

Virus Scanning – To scan all emails for viruses, select "Yes." To skip virus scanning, choose "No."

Deliver Cleaned Emails – Most email viruses are sent by infected "zombie PCs" and often contain no valid content. If you want notifications for each virus detected, select "Yes." To skip these notifications, choose "No." Note that, depending on your hosting provider's MailScanner configuration, selecting "Yes" may also notify you of blocked file attachments sent to you legally. Contact your provider for information on blocked attachments and notifications.

Blacklist and Whitelist Settings

Spam Whitelist – Add email addresses or domains to this list that you never want marked as spam. Keep in mind that emails from these addresses or domains will still be scanned for viruses and dangerous attachments, but they won't be flagged as spam. Avoid adding your own domain to this list, as it will whitelist all emails sent to and from your domain.

Spam Blacklist – You can add email addresses or domains to this list that you always want marked as high scoring spam. The action specified for High Scoring Spam in the Mail Scanning Options will be applied to any emails from domains or addresses on this list (e.g., marked and delivered, deleted, or forwarded).

Other Settings

Low Scoring Spam Setting – Adjust the threshold for MailScanner's identification of low-scoring spam (probably spam). Raising this number may result in more undetected spams, while lowering it may lead to more false positives.

High Scoring Spam Setting – Modify the threshold for MailScanner's detection of high scoring spam (almost certainly spam). The default is 20 and works well in most cases. If you receive excessive low scoring spam with a score just below 20, you can lower this setting to, for instance, 15. When changing it, we recommend not setting high scoring spam to "Delete" until you've tested it to ensure the new scoring works for you.

Additional Email Address – If you want to forward spam to an email address different from "spam@yourdomain.com," specify it here. It will be listed as an option for Low and High Scoring Spam in the Mail Scanning Options.

Courtesy of: Configserver Logo