06/26/2007 Internet

Whitelist

When you install ChoiceMail, it creates a list of Approved Senders, also known as a Whitelist, based on your address book. For users of Outlook, Outlook Express and Eudora, this process is automatic. For others, it is a simple export-import function.

Email from anyone on your Whitelist is immediately delivered to your inbox.

If you send an email to someone who is currently not on your Whitelist, ChoiceMail automatically adds them to the list. You also can re-import your address book to update your list. And of course, ChoiceMail also allows you to add or delete names from your Approved Sender's list manually.

Blacklist

Are there senders or domains you know you don't want to hear from? If so, ChoiceMail makes it easy to add them to your Blacklist.

You can blacklist addresses or domains manually, using a simple dialog box.

ChoiceMail sends messages from blacklisted sources directly to the Junk Box, bypassing any further analysis or the registration process.

Unknown Senders

Some ChoiceMail users like to review their Unknown Sender mail on a regular basis, just to be 100% sure they haven't missed anything important.

From the Unknown Senders tab, you can approve or reject a message, a sender or an entire domain with a click of the mouse.

For most users, reviewing unknown mail takes only a few seconds a day. But if you get lots of spam, you may want to use rules - ones that we built in or ones that you create - to cut down on the amount of unknown mail. You can use rules to automatically approve certain types of mail you want or to send mail you know you don't want straight to the junk box.

In the free version of ChoiceMail, unidentified messages remain in the Unknnown Senders tab for 5 days. In all other versions of ChoiceMail, you can make this time period as long or as short as you wish. Once again, ChoiceMail puts you in control.

Custom Rules

If there are certain kinds of mail you want to receive (or block) even if you don't know the identity of the sender, ChoiceMail lets you create custom permission rules.

For example, let's say you're interested in elephants. You might choose to create a rule to accept any message with "elephant" in the subject line or body of the message.

The most common use for this feature is to accept newsletters or informational messages on topics of interest to you when you don't know or can't anticipate the exact source of the message.

Of course, many users find that they don't need to use this feature at all.

Mail Blocking Rules

If you get a lot of junk email, ChoiceMail can help you by automatically sending obvious spam straight to the junk box. To do this, we built in some unique, highly effective mail-blocking rules. These rules are inactive by default. You can choose to activate some, all, or none of them.

Unlike spam filters, the rules in ChoiceMail are are not the entire product, just an enhancement to make your life easier. They are designed only to block obvious spam. without affecting legitimate mail. Since ChoiceMail lets you choose which rules you want to use, you can automatically get rid of mail you definitely don't want to see.

Mail blocked by these rules is sent straight to the junk box. ChoiceMail does not send out a registration request. If you choose to review your unknown mail, this will make the task much easier. It also means you won't be cluttering up the Internet with registration messages for mail you don't care about anyway.

Registration Request

If ChoiceMail cannot identify a message after checking it against against your Whitelist, Blacklist and any rules you are using, it sends a "registration request" to the sender.

This short email directs the sender to a web page where the sender will be asked for his or her name, email address and reason for contacting you. The sender also will be asked to fill in a code that appears on the screen as a graphic, something a person can do easily but a computer cannot do at all.

This simple process eliminates almost all junk email for two reasons. First, spammers usually use invalid reply addresses and therefore never receive the registration request. Second, spammers depend on automation, and the registration response cannot be automated.



You can turn the registration feature off if you wish. But most of our users love it because it puts the burden of identifying unknown email back where it belongs -- with the sender.

Pop-up Notification

When a sender completes the registration process, ChoiceMail alerts you with a pop-up message. Choose whether to allow or block the sender from communicating with you.

Registration takes only a few seconds and is a one-time process. If you approve the request, the sender is added to your Whitelist, and the original email will be delivered to your inbox. If you reject it, the sender is added to you Blacklist and the original message is sent to the junk box. If you choose Delete, ChoiceMail will delete send the original message to the junk box but will neither whiltelist nor blacklist the sender.

Junk Mail Box

We are confident that ChoiceMail will deliver the email you want and block the mail you don't want. But unlike other anti-spam products, ChoiceMail delivers and extra measure of safety.

ChoiceMail does not actually delete messages that are blocked or have been on the Unknown Senders list too long. Instead, it sends them to the Junk Box.

If you are really concerned that you may have inadvertently missed a legitimate message, ChoiceMail gives you this last line of defense. You can always go to the Junk Box and search for it.

In the free version of ChoiceMail, messages remain in the Junk Box for 10 days. In all other versions, this is a preference that users can set. Once again, ChoiceMail puts you in control.

ChoiceMail One

Fully customizable, including custom registration message, and contains additional features, such as a smart away-message that only responds to approved senders. It lets you protect an unlimited number of email accounts in any format, including POP3 and webmail from AOL, Yahoo, MSN and Hotmail.