Protect Your Mailing and Distribution Lists

You can protect mailing and distribution lists from spam and viruses. These lists are addresses that deliver a message from outside your network to a group of people in your domain, such as partners@your_domain.com, or noon_cyclers@your_domain.com. Often, when users complain about spam passing through, they are receiving the spam through their membership in a mailing list.

To protect a mailing list from spam and viruses, alias the mailing list to an existing or new user account.

WARNING: Do not add the mailing list as a user account. Under these circumstances, the mailing list is treated as a user, and all members of the mailing list, including those outside of your organization, receive the notifications and quarantine summaries.

You have two options to protect mailing lists:

Alias the mailing list to an existing user, such as an administrator or the designated owner of the mailing list.

Considerations: The mailing list receives the same settings as the user—spam filters, approved and blocked senders, etc.—which may or may not be appropriate for the mailing list.

Create a new user account for the mailing list and alias the mailing list address to this account. You can choose to send the notifications to the designated owner of mailing list.

Considerations: The advantage of this method is that you can specify the filter settings for the mailing list. However, this is another user account to manage.

To alias the mailing list to an existing user:

1.	Select the user in the Administration Console.

2.	In the User Settings section, select Aliases.

3.	Add the mailing address as an alias.

The mailing list receives the same protections as the user. Only the registered user receives the notifications and quarantine summary.

To alias the mailing list to a new user:

1.	Designate an owner for the mailing list.

The owner is not required to be a member of the mailing list.

2.	Create a user for the mailing list.

Add a user to represent the mailing list. For example, info_mailing_list@jumboinc.com. This user should not have an email account on your mail server. This user account serves only for filtering and not for mail traffic.

The user can be added to any user organization. The filter settings for the organization apply to the mailing list, so this may help you choose the appropriate organization.

3.	Set the Notifications address.

Select the mailing list user. Under Settings, click Notifications. Add the list owner’s email address to the Notification address. This allows only the list’s owner to receive the quarantine summary, notifications, and password changes.

4.	Configure filtering for the mailing list user.

Select the mailing list user account, and configure Spam Filtering. Add any approved or blocked senders.

5.	Select the mailing list user, and add the mailing list address as an alias.

The mailing list receives virus and spam protection. The users on the mailing list do not receive notifications.