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About Connection Management

If an upstream email relay exists between the Gateway and the originating SMTP host, certain spam defenses cannot be used. By specifying how the Gateway connects to the Internet, you determine the spam defenses that are available to use in your policy. This setting directly controls the effectiveness of the spam solution and, if wrongly configured, messages could be incorrectly blocked.

The following connection options are available:

• The Clearswift Gateway receives messages directly from the Internet.
• The Clearswift Gateway will not perform connection management checks.
• The Clearswift Gateway does not receive messages directly from the Internet but still performs connection management checks.

If your Gateway does not receive messages directly from the Internet and does not perform connection management checks, the following spam defenses are available:

• Spoof Detection identifies potential spam by determining whether emails are from an internal domain that has been whitelisted for spoof detection.
• BATV Address Validation employs Bounce Address Tag Validation (BATVBounce Address Tag Validation) to determine whether a message is likely to be spam.
• Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARCDomain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) verifies that messages are coming from the stated sender by referencing DMARC records.
• DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIMDomainKeys Identified Mail) verifies that messages are coming from the stated sender by referencing DKIM records.
• Validate Sender Domain identifies potential spam by attempting to resolve the domain of the sender to an IP address.

If your Gateway receives messages directly from the Internet, the following additional spam defenses are also available:

• Sender Policy Framework (SPFSender Policy Framework) verifies that messages are coming from the stated sender by referencing SPF records.
• Greylisting identifies potential spam by temporarily rejecting messages from unrecognized senders.

If your Gateway does not receive messages directly from the Internet but still performs connection management checks, the following additional spam defenses are also available:

• TRUSTmanager Reputations identify potential spam based on past spam-related activity from the sender. The anti-spam checks performed on incoming messages are determined by TRUSTmanager reputation.
• Real-time IP Blocklists (RBLs) identify potential spam based on the IP address of the sender being defined in an external RBL.

To configure Connection Management:

1. From the Policy Center Home page, click SpamLogic Settings. The SpamLogic Settings page appears.
2. Click the Spam Policy tab.
3. Move the pointer over the Connection Management section and click Click here to change these settings.
4. Select the appropriate Connection Management option:

• The Clearswift Gateway receives messages directly from the Internet.
• The Clearswift Gateway will not perform connection management checks.
• The Clearswift Gateway does not receive messages directly from the Internet but still performs connection management checks.

5. If The Clearswift Gateway does not receive messages directly from the Internet but still performs connection management checks is selected, enter the local hostnames and IP addresses of all Mail Transfer Agents (MTA) that receive mail for your organization directly from the Internet. Modify the MTA list as follows:

• Click New adjacent to the MTA List header. The Add an MTA page appears.
• Enter an MTA. You must enter the hostname and IP address in the form that it appears in the 'Received' header added by that MTA. You can view the 'Received' header in the raw SMTP data of a held message. Analyzing and Managing Held Messages for more information on viewing the raw message.
• Click Add to add the MTA to the list.
• To remove an entry in the MTA list, select the filename you wish to remove, then click Delete.

6. Click Save.