The mail blocking that ITS does centrally is designed primarily to protect against Denial of Service attacks. Connections from badly behaved hosts attempting to send mail are blocked. While this results in less unsolicited e-mail, spam or spammers are not specifically targeted by the blocks. No blocks are implemented based on message content. For details, see the E-Mail Blocking at U-M page.
Note that ITS anti-spam services such as PenaltyBox and Three Strikes (see Comprehensive Anti-Spam Services) generate temporary delivery failures for suspected spam messages; they do not block those messages.
Anyone who uses an @umich.edu address may sign up for opt-in mail blocking of mail from known spam sources. For details, see Using the Do Not Spam List to Reduce Spam (S4323).
To find out if a particular e-mail address, IP address, or domain is affected by the blocks listed above, use the E-Mail Block Status Check Tool.
General Computing | Contact Us | Computing on Campus | Wolverine Access | University of Michigan
October 18, 2009
Return to the Spam FAQ