Spam Filtering
Eradicate Unwanted Email From Your Mailbox
Mail With CIX
- Bolt-on for existing hosting accounts
- Price per hosting account
- No additional charges per domain
- No additional per user / mailbox fees
- Pricing isn't tiered based on usage
- 14 day free trial provided as standard
Externally Held Mail
- Subscription is per domain name
- Scan an unlimited number of recipients
- All recipients must be added in the control panel
- Not operated on a catchall / wildcard basis
- Pricing isn't tiered based on usage
- Backup solution queuing email for up to 7 days
- 14 day free trial provided as standard
Filtering for mail we host, and mail we don't
Reduce Spam & Viruses
We offer two versions of our spam filter. The first version is a bolt-on feature for customers who use CIX to host their email. The second version is designed for customers who operate their own external mail server (eg MailEnable or Exchange) where we can scan emails prior to passing mail on.
In simple terms, the filter analyses every incoming email using hundreds of advanced checks to determine — with an extremely high degree of accuracy — whether a message is legitimate, suspicious, spam, or potentially dangerous. Despite the complexity of these checks, all processing is completed within seconds, ensuring there is no noticeable delay to your email delivery.
The system combines a self-learning Bayesian database with an intelligent point-scoring engine, alongside proactive monitoring of emerging spam techniques. This allows new spam threats to be identified quickly without increasing the risk of legitimate email (ham) being incorrectly blocked. The filter’s accuracy makes false positives exceptionally rare and significantly reduces the ability for spammers or virus writers to bypass protection mechanisms.
How Would You Like Your SPAM Served?
Filtering Options
Move Spam
Suspected spam messages can automatically be moved to a mailbox of your choice. This allows emails to remain accessible while enabling your mail client to process them differently — for example, moving them into a dedicated folder or assigning them to a designated member of staff for review.
Quarantine Spam Email
Potential spam can be quarantined to prevent harmful emails from reaching your devices. Messages are moved into a secure "Spam" folder, accessible only through our webmail system. If a legitimate email is incorrectly identified as spam, it can easily be released from quarantine and restored to your inbox.
Mark Message as Spam
Suspected spam messages can have their subject line prefixed with a custom label, such as SPAM:. This enables you to download the messages alongside normal email while allowing your own mail client to apply additional filtering or folder rules.
Delete Spam Email
For maximum protection, spam messages can be deleted automatically before they ever reach your mailbox. With spam detection rates exceeding 99%, you can be confident that only legitimate email is delivered. Virus-infected emails are deleted automatically by default.
Managing sensitivity and monitoring success
Advanced Control
Allow Lists
Specific email addresses or entire domain names can be added to an allow list. Provided the sender’s IP address is not present on a known block list, messages from approved senders will always be delivered regardless of content scoring.
Personal Block Lists
You can block individual email addresses or entire domains. Any messages received from blocked senders will be rejected automatically, helping reduce nuisance or unwanted email.
Tolerance Levels
The spam filter uses a continuously evolving point-scoring system powered by thousands of detection rules. The higher a message scores, the more likely it is to be spam. Tolerance controls allow you to increase or decrease the sensitivity threshold used to classify messages as spam.
Spam Reports
When an email is identified as spam, the system can generate a detailed report explaining why the message was flagged. These reports are attached as text files and can provide useful insight into the filtering process.
Spam Statistics & Reporting
To demonstrate the effectiveness of the filtering system, we provide detailed graphical statistics on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. These reports show not only the volume of spam intercepted, but also which filtering methods were most effective — such as DNS block lists, content analysis, or virus detection.
DNS Block List Checks
DNS block lists help identify mail servers with a known reputation for sending spam, significantly reducing unwanted email. Different block lists apply different policies, ranging from moderate to highly aggressive filtering.
Block List Sensitivity
We offer three filtering levels, allowing you to choose how strict you would like these checks to be. By default, we recommend the “Basic” level, which includes trusted industry lists such as SpamCop, Spamhaus, and Barracuda.
Virus Protection
The majority of computer viruses are distributed via email, often resulting in security breaches, data loss, and operational downtime. Since there is no such thing as a legitimate virus-infected email, messages containing known viruses are blocked and deleted automatically by default.
Virus definitions are updated hourly to ensure maximum protection against newly emerging threats. While advanced users may disable virus filtering if required, we strongly recommend leaving this protection enabled at all times.