Many people out there know what e-mail blacklisting is but may not necessarily be familiar with whitelisting.
In basic terms, to blacklist means "don’t accept" and whitelist "accept" when speaking of e-mail. You could also say it as "block" and "not block" and it would mean the same thing more or less.
I will periodically check my Trash folder for e-mails mistakenly flagged as spam by the server. (I have all my Spam auto-sent to that folder for holding until I manually delete it.) It does happen from time to time and I have to periodically modify my whitelist so the mail server knows "when I see this originating e-mail address, let it through".
Using whitelists is easy
If you’re on a free web-based mail system like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail or the like, your Contact List is your whitelist. Any e-mail address you put in that list will be allowed thru.
If you’re using domain-based mail thru a web host provider, chances are it’s SpamAssassin enabled; your hosting control panel should allow configurable whitelist options on a server level.
If using POP-based mail, your whitelist is the Contact List is in the e-mail client (i.e. Outlook Express, Mozilla Thunderbird, Eudora, Apple Mail) you use.
Whitelists are not just for friends and family
My whitelist is rather long to ensure that all mails I want to get are never flagged as spam. This includes the e-mail addresses from my bank (for service notices), credit cards and other service providers.
Common e-mail addresses for popular services:
If you use YouTube: Add service@youtube.com to your whitelist.
If you use Google Alerts: Add googlealerts-noreply@google.com to your whitelist.
If you use PayPal: Add service@paypal.com to your whitelist.
If you subscribe to any e-mail lists: Generally speaking an e-mail list always uses the same e-mail address. Add that address to your whitelist.
Will whitelisting certain e-mail addresses increase the chances of spoofed e-mail?
No.
It’s the mail server’s job (or more specifically, the anti-spam software’s job via the mail server) to detect spoofed e-mails and flag them as such. So even if a particular e-mail address is on your whitelist, if the server detects a spoof it will not get to your e-mail inbox regardless.
But bear in mind that periodically a spoof will come thru; that’s just the nature of spam. What this means is to not always take whatever lands in your e-mailbox "as gospel", so to speak.
I cannot stress this strongly enough to always use common sense with e-mail. If an e-mail asks for a username, password, any fiscal information, personal information or the like, DON’T give it out.
Why use whitelisting at all?
With spam prevention there are two, and only two complaints about it:
- It’s not good enough.
- It’s too good.
Most people fall into the "too good" category. Some e-mails get sent to them that never land in the inbox because the mail server is a bit too "trigger happy" with spam flagging.
Whitelisting will ensure the e-mails you want to get are properly delivered. It’s not a perfect solution, but it makes your mail more manageable.
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