How to Enable Sender Filtering

You can block messages sent by specific senders by using sender filtering. This approach is useful if you receive unsolicited commercial e-mail from particular domains or sender addresses. This procedure outlines how you can enable sending filtering.

Although you configure SMTP message filtering options in the Message Delivery Properties dialog box, you must enable the filtering options on the individual SMTP virtual servers where you want to apply the filtering. Exchange applies these filters during the SMTP session when a remote SMTP server connects to the SMTP virtual server.

Procedure

To enable sender filtering

1. On the Sender Filtering tab of the Message Delivery Properties dialog box (see the following figure), click Add to add the SMTP address of a user or a particular domain from whom you want to block messages.

   You can block an individual sender, a whole domain, or a display name by entering the display name in quotes.

   Sender Filtering tab in the Message Delivery Properties dialog box

   

2. To have Exchange save any messages that sender filtering blocks to an archive folder (instead of automatically deleting these filtered messages), select Archive filtered messages.

   The archive folder is in the <drive>: \Program Files\Exchsrvr\Mailroot\vsi *n\*archivefolder, where n is the virtual server instance of the SMTP virtual server where sender filtering is enabled.

3. To block messages with a blank sender address (a technique that some senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail messages use), select Filter messages with blank sender.

4. To end the SMTP session when a sender matches an address on the sender filter, select Drop connection if address matches filter.

5. To accept messages from senders on the block list without sending notification to the sender that mail was not delivered, select Accept messages without notifying sender of filtering.