INTRODUCTION
  
These instructions explain how to filter mail using Pacific Online's free web based email client, WebMail. Chances are you may have used WebMail while traveling or at a friends house, etc to check your email. What you probably do not know is that WebMail is very versatile, allowing you do to many things you can with a standard email program but from any computer, on any operating system, anywhere in the world that is connected to the Internet. 

One final note before getting started. You will need to use a computer capable of running Java, an active internet connection, and an active email address with Pacific Online (an @pon.net address). This filter will not work with any other service provider except Pacific Online as you are logging into your own Pacific Online email address and filtering email going to only your Pacific Online email address. 

If you are not sure if your browser can handle Java, check to see what browser version you are running; if you are using any version of Netscape 4.0 and higher, or Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher, Webmail will work fine. Any other browser then Netscape and Internet Explorer (the only two our technical support can assist with) may or may not work depending on how old the browser is. The technical help files that would have come with the program will  be able to tell you if it can run Java or not.

FILTERING INSTRUCTIONS
 
First, you will need a list of email addresses and subject lines you wish to filter and block out of your email. Once you have a list of items that you want to block out of your email, log onto the Internet and go into your web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator / Communicator, etc) and go to the site http://email.pon.net (type it in exactly as it is typed here). Once you get to WebMail log into your email using your username and password; your username is your entire email address, and your password is, of course, your email password. When you are successfully logged into WebMail look for the pull-down menu at the top-right side of the web page; the pull-down menu is labeled "Account Options". In the Account Options menu scroll down and look for "Change My Processing Rules" and click on it. The screenshot below shows a basic idea of what you should see if you are on the correct window.

On the Processing Rules page in the bottom right hand corner, find and click on the Add button. 

On the Edit Rule screen, under the Select Field heading click the pull-down box and select what you would like the filter to search for. For example if you wish to block a particular sender you would select From; if you wanted to filter by the contents of the message (the message body) you would select Body, etc. Next, click the dot next to either "contains" or "doesn't contain" depending on what you would like the filter to choose to do. For example if you chose "From" in the Select Field box and you wanted the filter to block a certain email address you would click the dot next to "contains". In the Phrase box you would enter what you want the filter to look for on incoming emails. For example if you selected "From" in the Select Field and "contains" and you wanted to block any email from aol.com, then you would put "aol.com" (no quotes) in the Phrase box; this tells the filter to find any messages that come into your email box that are from aol.com. Once you are done entering in the information you want to filter you MUST click on "Add Condition".

Once you click "Add Condition" you will see your filter appear in the "Rules" list. You can also add AND/OR options to your filter, but this is not normally something you would need to do so skip that section and move to the last portion of this window where the "Move the message...", etc area. Once your filter is setup, select one of the three options at the bottom of the filter screen.

The first option, "Move the message to this mailbox:" would move messages that the filter applies to into a certain mailbox. For example if you setup a filter to look for any emails coming from "support@pon.net" and you wanted the filter to take those messages and put them in a folder labeled "support". 

The second option "Forward the message to" would forward any messages the filter finds to the address you specify in the box. For example if you wanted any emails your filter finds to forward them to our abuse@pon.net email address this is the option you would use. 

The third and last option, "Delete the message" physically deletes any emails that the filter finds. You will not see the messages in your email as the emails will be deleted BEFORE they even reach your mailbox on the server, let alone your personal computer's email box.

ADDITIONAL SPAM FILTERING
   
There are two additional options you have at your disposal to eliminate Spam. One would be to forward all the Spam you receive to our abuse@pon.net email (please forward the emails as attachments) which gets added to our server-side filtering setup. This email box is checked regularly, but please be aware that due to the volume of emails sent to that box your request will not be replied to individually by a technician.

The second option is to visit our tools page and download some of the freeware SPAM filtering programs. Click here to visit the Pacific Online Tools Page 

On a final note, please be aware that all the work done at the server level and all the work you do setting up SPAM filters will only do so much. You may still end up receiving Spam despite all that is done. It is simply the nature of the beast - the Internet is a huge place and currently is very difficult to police against SPAM attacks. There are ways of getting around even some of the best filtering methods around, but fortunately these methods are hard to do for most of the common Spammer's. For the most part your filters and Pacific Online's filters should keep a majority of the unwanted email out of your system and servers.