What is the Gateway?

The Clever AntiSpam / AntiVirus Gateway stands as a first line of defense against virus-infected messages that may be harmful to your systems, and performs a series of tests to determine if an email message should be accepted.  We rely on ETrust AntiVirus from Computer Associates, with signature files updated hourly as they become available.  The AntiSpam system is in strict adherence to the SMTP Standards as stated in RFC-2821 (Request For Comment, Final Draft), and  accepts or rejects messages based on these guidelines, along with other filtering techniques that have been developed and refined over months of research and several hundred-thousand processed messages.  We continue to monitor these mechanisms and regularly update them to adapt to new circumstances as the junk email environment evolves.

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What is the short version of how it works?

By intercepting email messages during the transmission process and rejecting those that don't meet the standard.  We have a flow chart which shows you how the program works and that can be seen here.

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What is the detailed long version of how it works?

By intercepting email messages during the transmission process and rejecting those that don't meet the standard.  We have a detailed page located here with every specific function described and explained. 

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Won't some real messages get blocked.

Your concern is well founded, and in fact some will.  In nearly every case, this is due to some faulty configuration at the sender, so you must look there first.  Every rejection provides a reason in plain text to the sending system, so at the very least it will appear in their transaction log.  Some better systems will even carry that reason text back to the original sender in the postmaster bounce message they receive.

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We're about to switch to the gateway...what preparations do we need to do in advance?

We strongly suggest sending an advance email to as many customers and vendors as possible a few days before the switch, and include a link to the primary document and this FAQ.  Please direct everyone to these documents first, as most all questions are answered here.  Otherwise, there are no changes needed for mail clients that are already properly configured to send and receive mail.

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I just tried to send a message from home to my customer that's behind your gateway and it came back to me.  I know the address is right...now what?

First check your settings in your email client.  For each mail account you have there, the SMTP mail server MUST match the email address you're sending from.  You should not use an address of someone@mycompany.com when sending through your ISP mail account.  They won't match and will likely fail.  Change it to your ISP email address, or send mail through your company mail server, but don't mix and match.

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The message was sent through my company mail server, using my company email address, but still it was returned...why?

Ask your network administrator to check the mail server logs for the rejection reason.  Usually this is because some DNS record is missing or inaccurate.

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I'm on a dial-up ISP that apparently has port 25 blocked, so I can't reach my company mail server to route mail through them.  The only mail service I can get to is the one at my ISP, but I want my company email address to be used...what should I do?

Find another ISP that hasn't taken such draconian measures, or ask them to provide you a way out to your company network.  Some will provide that and some will not.  As an alternative, it may be possible to get your company mail service to accept connections from you on a different port, one that isn't blocked by your ISP.

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I don't have a network administrator; I do things myself and I know just enough to keep my systems alive...any suggestions?

Sure...get the logs handy and call the help desk and we'll try to assist you.  We'll do this one time for free, just to be a good net neighbor.  We also offer fee-based ongoing network support.

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The DNS was just fixed and a message I sent right after was still rejected for the same reason...what gives?

Give it time.  The response we got the last time might still be in the system cache, and it will expire eventually.  If you still get rejects in a couple of hours contact the help desk to have the cached entries cleared.

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I can send mail to everyplace else, so the problem must be at your end, right?

In actuality, probably not.  Many networks that don't operate a gateway have taken up the practice of summarily discarding mail based on a set of simple rules, and not generating any kind of return notification to the sender (which can be difficult since most junk mail has forged sender information anyway) so you may have no idea how much of your mail is being thrown out for the same reasons we're rejecting it.  At least now you know there's a problem and can see about fixing it.

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I'm not a spammer, why don't you just whitelist me and forget about it?

If we did that for everyone there would be little point in having the gateway and all the spam would be flooding in again.  The issues we reject for can be fixed in a matter of minutes, and will be much better for you and your mail delivery here and everywhere else.  Besides, as long as your mail looks like a forgery, we have no reason to accept it, whitelisted or not.  Even when you are whitelisted, you still have get through the initial phases of the process because we can't have spammers impersonating you and getting their junk through the system.

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Email is critical to my business... I can't miss a single real message!  Can't you just block the junk and deliver the rest?

The resources that would be required to hand process every piece of email for you would be significant, but not insurmountable.  Please contact us directly for a quote on a term contract for this service.  Otherwise, please realize that if your business model defines email as a crucial element, your plan is inherently flawed.  SMTP is a "fire and forget" protocol, subject to all manner of disruptions, faults, network outages, etc. and should never be relied upon for anything even remotely mission critical.  It's a tool of convenience, that's all.  It's generally cheaper and faster than a fax or overnight letter, and most of the time it works pretty well, but you should always have something else acting in concert with email to support your business activities.

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I just signed up online for some free stuff...when should I expect to get my confirmation email from them?

Depending on who you gave your email address to, maybe never.  There are a great number of websites that offer "free stuff" that are really just harvesting your email address to be sold to every spammer on the internet, despite what you think you read in their privacy policy.  There is no free lunch; there's always an end game for them.  If you really want that free stuff, get a throw-away freebie personal account with yahoo or hotmail for that, and then sit back and watch and see how much junk magically appears on a brand new account within hours.  These domains and networks are probably in our blacklist by now, and some of them we won't even answer DNS requests for.  Please also try to remember that the services we offer are targeted toward commercial business clients versus consumer individuals.  The commercial market segment is considerably less tolerant of personal use of company resources on company time, therefore the system is tuned to be more aggressive against non-commercial business-related content.

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My friend tried to send me an online greeting card but I never got it...what happened?

Please tell your friend that disclosing your email address to a third party without your approval was a breach in your privacy, regardless of good intentions.  Not long ago there was a very popular greeting card site that had very elegant top-drawer graphics and tug-the-heart-string messages, but it should have, since it was well funded by one of the largest XXX porn operations in the world.  Sure, the greeting card was delivered, but only to the end of confirming that the address was valid, and to invite the unsuspecting recipient to send a card of their own, giving them yet another email address, and so it cascaded.  Within days, the same people that got and sent all those greeting cards also mysteriously received all manner of junk ads and xxx porn promotions, many to children who got the original card from a well-meaning relative that didn't know better.  The whole reason the greeting card site existed was to provide fresh email lists to porn and spam promoters.  Please hear this...you have no right to give out anyone's email address, period.  Don't use those all too convenient "Email To A Friend" boxes on websites, and don't sign anyone up for anything online.  Instead send them a personal email through regular channels with the website link or information and let them decide what they want to sign up for.  You'll see tempting offers for movie tickets, restaurant coupons, etc. and all you have to do is "Invite A Friend".  Think about that a minute...there's a catch, right? Darn right. Would you give out your private phone number so easily?  Or anyone else's?

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I received a message with [FORGERY] in the subject line. What does this mean?

If the sender's email settings in their email program (Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, etc.) are incorrectly set, then the email will be labeled with a [FORGERY] tag in the subject line of the email that goes through our system.  Since forged email addresses are used by 100% of the spam / bulk email senders, the last thing anyone would want to do is have their real email look like a spammer's forged address.

Resolution:

Our clients can email the sender of the email that was tagged the following link to this article so they can see how to resolve the issue themselves. Just cut and paste this link into an email message you send to them to alert them of their email settings problem:   http://telesites.net/antispam/faqs.tele#message_with_[FORGERY]_in_the_subject_line then they will be directed to this same page and see the following fix for their settings issue.

The sender should check their email settings within their email program (Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, etc.) to make sure that the "POP3 and SMTP servers" are correctly configured. 

If your email service is provided by a email service (hotmail, yahoo, etc.) or your Internet Service Provider (cable, DSL, etc.) then you will need to check their web site or contact their tech support for the exact settings you should be using in order NOT to be forging the email address.  For example: the POP3 inbound server is entered as email.earthlink.net and the SMTP outbound server is entered as mail.hotmail.com.  If these two settings look different then this is most likely the problem.  A call to your Email Service Provider (in most cases your ISP) can get you the correct settings and resolve the issue very quickly.  Most companies have these common "server settings" listed on their web site. 

If the email is provided through a web site hosting company (your email is similar to your web site domain name - i.e.: name@YourDomainName.com) then you can get the correct settings from your web site hosting company.  In most all cases these two settings should look something like this: POP3.YourDomainName.com and SMTP.YourDomainName.com or sometimes match with both of them being something like: MAIL.YourDomainName.com. 

Once the sender has corrected these settings within the sender's email program you will see the results immediately as mail that was previously being marked as FORGERY will no longer be marked that way in the subject line when it is delivered through our email services.  

TELEsites.net provides this information as a courtesy service and the sender's problem has nothing to do with our services but is caused by broken settings within the sender's email program.  As such, we do not provide tech support to help resolve these issues.  The sender should contact their email service provider's tech support staff for assistance.  They can resolve the issue in only a few minutes.

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Someone tried to send me an email and they got a message back that it was undeliverable.  What can I do?

Send them to this section of this page by giving them the following link: http://telesites.net/antispam/faqs.tele#Someone_tried_to_send_me_an_email (cut and paste it into an email).  In almost all cases they can get your email with no problem.

The main reason we reject messages to our email services is mostly for severe DNS problems, attachments that aren't allowed and virus infected messages.  These messages are denied right at the main entrance into our system at the Anti-Virus Anti-Spam Gateway.  They automatically send a message back to the sender's system saying "undeliverable."  The message also contains all the information as to why it was undeliverable but different email services accept this information differently.  Some will send forward all the information to the sender while others will only forward a message with no reason mentioned just "undeliverable."  

For any rejection, the first place for the sender to look is in the "postmaster bounce" for a transcript which will include the rejection reason.  Regardless of whether the transcript is there or not, the sender will need to contact whoever manages email and DNS service for them and have that administrator or tech support person review the transcript or look in the mail server logs for the transcript of the failed attempt, and pursue corrective action from the rejection message. 

The rejection messages we send are intentionally vividly clear on what's wrong, at least to someone accustomed to dealing with email logs and DNS and domain configurations, which is why it's of key importance to get the administration person involved at the earliest point. 

With email not being delivered, a phone number needs to be available for the network admin to call for any additional information they need to resolve the issue.  You can contact our email server tech support staff at the following toll-free number 888-528-2771 (please note this is for this specific problem only and other support issues should go through the normal channels).  The senders should have their administrator or tech support person call and when they do we will look up the transaction record and advise them on what their options are. 

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