Spam complaints by even one of the subscribers can affect the reputation of the whole email stream including the sending IP. You need to first make sure that you have followed the practices like “unsubscribe link” to provide away, for the subscribers to discontinue emailing rather than hitting spam as the last and only resort. Secondly, you need to implement proper infrastructure to cope with the spam complaints. Feedback loops are also known as FBL, the way devised by most of the
major email clients to organize complaint reports and process spam complaints.
FBL is useful for both, sender and the ISP. It helps the sender to keep processing the spam to avoid being blacklisted. ISPs forward the complaint initiated by the recipient of the email to the sender of the email. It alerts the sender to process the spam, keep the list clean and avoid repeat sends on the same email. Instead of going to the blacklist directly, the spam reported message loops back to the sender.
MUMARA offers a seamless way to create FBL processing accounts and further use these accounts with the loops offered by major email clients like AOL or Yahoo etc. This helps to collect spam complaints and also facilitates the process of these complaint messages.
To setup a new FBL processing account, reach "Feedback Loop" from the main navigation menu, and click "Setup Feedback Loops". The table followed by Figure#11.1.1 discusses the details that you need to provide, in order to setup this new FBL processor.
FBL Name | As you can create more than one FBL processing accounts, you are required to provide a unique name of each account while setting up its details. The FBL name will be used to identify this account within the application and has nothing to do with the recipients/ subscribers or ISP. |
FBL Host | Fill in this field with the path to your mail server, where you want to collect and process these spam complaints from. It is usually the same server where you collect and process the bounced emails, and the path generally looks like mail.yourdomain.com. This would be the path of the domain for which you are setting this account up. This can also be the IP address of the mail server to which this email account belongs. The path should be accurate to connect properly. |
FBL Port | The above mentioned FBL host and this field with the following couple of fields are required to configure the FBL processing account settings, using IMAP or POP access protocols. Provide an appropriate port, if you have configured other than the default ports for IMAP or POP3 respectively. The default port for IMAP 143 and 110 for POP3 (Without SSL or Non-Encrypted). |
FBL Username | Provide here the username of the email account using which you want to process spam complaints. The username of spam mostly appears as [email protected], [email protected] or anything looks convenient to you. This is also known as Spam To email address, make sure you already have configured it into the server you have mentioned in the FBL host field. |
Password | To establish the verifiable connection with the above mentioned account to process the spam emails, provide the password associated with the Spam To email account mentioned above. |
Spam Folder | The folder to which you want to send the spam emails, in most cases this folder is INBOX, except for the rare cases. Like sometimes the user may have created a separate folder to collect spam emails only. By default, it is set to be the INBOX. |
Validate Certificates | Security certificates are the part of verifying the identity of the device or person if connecting to the mail server is using a self-signed certificate, select “Yes”, in the other case select “No” to proceed. Keeping this at “No” will not validate the security certificate. |
Use TLS | Transport layer security or TLS is security protocol like the SLL that encrypts the file to deliver the mail securely. If the connection to your mail server/spam server is using TLS to provide communication security, select “Yes” from the dropdown. Otherwise, keep this option at “No”. |
Use SSL | If the SSL is required to connect to the spam/mail server, select “Yes” from the dropdown to continue, otherwise keep it to “No” and proceed. |
Delete Emails | If you select “Yes” from the dropdown, the application will automatically delete the spam emails from the INBOX (Or from the folder selected for spam collection), each time after processing the spam. In the case of “Yes” you need to make sure that the particular email account or folder is only used for bounce processing and no other email exists in the INBOX or the particular folder. If the particular folder/ account isn’t meant to collect the spam only, then go for the option “No” and proceed. Select “No” and manually delete the spam emails. |
Processing | You have been offered with the two options to choose one of them, both post office protocol (POP3) and internet access messaging protocol (IMAP) are the protocols used to access the emails. Both IMAP and POP are different in working mechanism and scope like the POP3 is somewhat secure as it allows downloading of the emails from the server or checking of the emails using one computer/ device. While the IMAP allows using multiple devices, computers for the same process, therefore make it sure first which account is to be selected for FBL processing. |
Once you complete the above mentioned information, press “Reset” to reconfigure the account, or press “Submit” to save this account.
There is this third button called “Test Email Login” once clicked, the application will establish a connection to the server to verify the login information mentioned above. If the connection to the server established, the application will login to the email for spam collection, using the FBL username and password provided above, and if it finds the account information valid, it will return with a success message. An error message will be displayed otherwise.
