Spam Filtering for Outlook 2003

Are you receiving lots of junk email? Then it’s probably time to change the setting in your Junk Email filter in Outlook 2003.

Configuration

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options. An Options dialog box displays.
  2. On the Preferences tab, under E-mail, click Junk E-mail. A Junk E-mail Options
    dialog box displays.
  3. Select the protection level you want:
    • Low (Default) – If you’ve never made any changes to your junk email filtering,
      this is your automatic setting. It filters out the most obvious junk email messages
      and is appropriate if you don't receive many junk email messages.
    • High – For those who receive lots of junk email, you can change the filter’s setting
      to High. Be forewarned, though, that you need to periodically review the messages
      in your Junk Email folder to avoid missing “good” messages.
    • No protection – For those who receive almost no junk email, you can select
      No Automatic Filtering. However, Outlook 2003 continues to evaluate messages
      by domain names and filter out any email addresses in your Blocked Senders List,
      and those messages continue to be moved to your Junk E-mail folder.

    Note: You can put names in a Blocked Senders List by going to the Blocked Senders
    tab in the Junk E-mail Options dialog box and clicking Add.

    • Safe Lists Only – This is the most restrictive filtering level and lets in only email from
      your Safe Senders and Safe Recipients lists (see tabs in the same Junk E-mail Options
      dialog box). The Safe Senders List automatically includes anyone in your Contacts, Global
      Address List, and, if checked, those with whom you correspond regularly. All others are
      treated as junk email messages.
    • Permanently delete – You also have the option of checking a box to permanently delete
      Junk email messages that are filtered out, rather than moving them to the Deleted Items list.

Want to import a list of over 800 known spamming servers and addresses?

  1. Download the blocked senders file here. (You may have to right-click the link and select "save link as..."), and save to a place on your computer that you can locate again (such as your desktop).
  2. In Outlook, click on to the Junk E-mail folder so you can see a junk email inside.
  3. Right-click an email. From the menu, select "Junk E-Mail" and then "Junk E-mail Options".
  4. Select the "Blocked Senders" tab.
  5. Click the button "Import from File".
  6. Select the blocked.txt file you downloaded.
  7. You're finished!

How to Get Office Updates

To make sure that you always have the best filtering possible, check often for updates to Office.

  1. To find an update, click Help and search for Office Updates, which takes you to the appropriate Office web page.
  2. Click Check for Updates. You are notified of any updates currently needed for your computer.
    (Note: An update for the Outlook 2003: Junk E-mail Filter was released in September 2004.)
  3. Check the updates you want and click Start Installation.

Note: This junk email filtering option applies only to Outlook 2003. It does not apply to Outlook Express or earlier versions of Outlook.

Outlook 2003 (for PCs) and Entourage 2004 (for Macs) are the officially supported mail applications at the University of Nevada, Reno, and both are available free of charge to faculty and staff as part of the Microsoft Office suite installed on all campus computers.