How to control SPAM
Winlink 2000 SPAM Control Options
(Found in WL2K_HELP category, check SPAM.CONTROL)
Updated July 24, 2008
AFTER AUG 1, 2008, THE WHITELIST FOR EACH USER IS MANDATORY. THE WHITELIST ONLY INVOLVES ADDRESSES FROM THE INTERNET AND NOT WINLINK-TO-WINLINK USER CALLS OR OUTBOUND MAIL FROM A WINLINK USER TO THE INTERNET.
ANY MESSAGE TO A WINLINK USER FROM THE INTERNET must be from a sender's address or domain name that is in the recipient's whitelist, OR AS AN OPTION, the sender must include the character sequence //WL2K in the subject line of the message. If //WL2K is found in the subject line, the message will be accepted and forwarded to all of the Winlink users of the message with an amateur callsign.
Example:
Subject://WL2K (then any other normal subject content to follow).
If the sender is not in the recipient's whitelist and no //WL2K is found in the subject line the message will be rejected with a reference to the Winlink WEB page where instructions for sending WL2K messages will be found.
Whitelist notices will no longer be created and forwarded to recipients.
There will be certain exceptions. Messages from the saildocs.com, sailmail.com, and other specific domains will be accepted unconditionally except where a recipient specifically blocks the domain name in their whitelist.
Under these conditions, unless the subject line contains //wl2k, you will ONLY receive E-MAIL messages that you have recorded in your own whitelist.
1. Each message you send to an Internet E-mail address from Winlink will be recorded in your Whitelist.
2. You may send a special message to the SYSTEM, giving it instructions for changes to your whitelist.
3. You may manipulate your individual whitelist via your WEBMAIL account.
To change the whitelist over-the-air or via Telnet, the special message should contain the information below, one line per individual instruction:
Examples are given below. These are NOT case sensitive
USING THE WHITELIST:
NOTE: Again, the Whitelist will contain all e-mail addresses sent FROM your Winlink e-mail address, and retain these Internet e-mail addresses for a period of 400 days from your last e-mail to that address. You may also send a special message to activate, delete, or reject an e-mail address. This is described below.
From inside the system, sending the following message To: SYSTEM with
Subject: WHITELIST will assist you in controlling your own individual Whitelist. In the message body, the following options are available. In the message body of this special message, you may put the following:
LIST: - will return a list of all whitelist entries for the user.
ACCEPT: jblow@somewhere.com - will allow messages from jblow@somewhere.com
to be accepted. You may send multiple lines, each containing one e-mail
address.
REJECT: jblow@somewhere.com - will reject any messages from jblow@somewhere.com. You may send multiple lines, each containing one e-mail address.
DELETE: jblow@somewhere.com - will remove jblow@somewhere.com from the your Whitelist. You may send multiple lines, each containing one e-mail address per line.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Domain Entries without the "@" will be treated as "domain names" only. For example if "ACCEPT: arrl.org" were entered, then ANY message from that "domain name" (arrl.org) would be accepted.
An example of such a message to control the Whitelist:
TO: SYSTEM
Subject: WHITELIST
-------------------
Accept: Joe@somewhere.com < This is in the Message Body
*******************************
Another example:
TO: SYSTEM
Subject: WHITELIST
-------------------
Accept: Joe@somewhere.com
Accept: Bill@someplace.net
Accept: Judy@noplace.org
Delete: joan@overthere.com
Delete: steve@someplace.net
Reject: ed@thatplace.net
Reject: nogood.com
Accept: sailmail.com
Accept: ARRL.org
Accept: ARRL.net
*******************************
Using Winlink WEBMAIL to control SPAM Options:
It is strongly recommended that each Winlink 2000 user set up a password for their Winlink account. This may be done in WEBMAIL since your WEBMAIL account will have a page that controls your Whitelist.
Airmail has an OFF and ON condition for the WHITELIST and the WHITELIST NOTICE. These are no longer meaningful since the Whitelist option is no longer optional.