Page 54 - Mercury Manual.book

49 Content Control
Using the Content control dialog

Each content control set has an action, which is applied when a message is deemed to have
suspect content - this action can be to delete the message, to quarantine it for later examina- Exercise caution when re-
tion, to forward it to an alternative address, or to return it to the sender. You can have as many turning material to the
content control sets as you wish - Mercury will apply them in the order they appear in the list sender: most spam has
forged return addresses,
in the Content control configuration dialog: the first set that results in the message being quar- meaning that the material
antined, deleted, or otherwise removed from circulation will terminate content control will be returned to an inno-
cent victim.
processing for that message
Using the Content control dialog

To create a new content control definition, click the "Add" button - click here for detailed
information on the various settings associated with a single control set.

To change the values for a single content control definition, select the definition in the list
and click the "Edit" button.

To remove a content control definition, select it in the list and click the "Delete" button: Mer-
cury will ask you if you want to delete the list and rule files associated with the definition as
well as the definition itself - if you use the lists or rules in other definitions as well, you should
not delete them.

To adjust the position of a content control definition in the list, select it and click the "Move
up" or "Move down" button. The position of a definition in the list is important, because Mer-
cury applies them in the order they appear, and stops applying definitions to a message when
a definition results in the message being deleted or otherwise removed from circulation.

Content control definitions are stored in separate files with the extension .PNC in the direc-
tory where Mercury is installed. A definition file may include information about itself in the
Information on the selected set control in the editor by putting that information in plain text
in a file with the same name as the definition file, but with the double extension .PNC.INFO.

Editing a Content Control definition

A Mercury Content Control set consists of four separate parts, each of which is edited in its
own page within the Content Control editor dialog.

The "General" Page Use this page to change the name that appears next to the definition in
the list of definitions, and to define the types of mail to which the set should be applied.
The "Exceptions" Page Use this page to create Blacklists, which identify senders whose mail
should always be regarded as unacceptable, and Whitelists, which identify senders from
whom you always want to accept mail.
The "Message Tests" Page Use this page to maintain a set of rules that should be applied to
mail messages that are not covered by either a whitelist or blacklist. The rules allow you to
perform comprehensive tests on the actual content of the message, and can be linked together
to create chains of tests. Each rule can have a weight, and after all the rules have been applied,
Mercury adds up the combined weights of all the rules that matched the message: if the com-
bined weight is greater than a value you specify, the message is marked as acceptable.