Inbound mail filtering

Inbound mail filtering is the process through which incoming emails are scanned and filtered before delivery to users.

Inbound emails are routed to GFI MailEssentials and processed as follows:

  1. SMTP level filters (Directory Harvesting, Greylist, IP Blocklist & IP DNS Blocklist) can be executed before the email body is received.
  2. The email is scanned by the malware and content filtering engines. Any email that is detected as containing malware is processed according to the actions configured. If an email is considered as safe, it then goes to the next stage.
  3. The email is checked to see if it is addressed to a list in the list server. If the email matches a list, it will be processed by the list server.
  4. The incoming email is filtered by the anti-spam filters. Any email that fails a spam filter check is processed as configured in the anti-spam actions. If an email goes through all the filters and is not identified as spam, it then goes to the next stage.
  5. If configured, auto-replies are next sent to the sender.
  6. If configured, email monitoring is next executed and the appropriate actions taken.
  7. Email is next checked by the New Senders filter.
  8. If email is not blocked by any scanning or filtering engine, it is sent to the user’s mailbox.