Rich Menga is PCMech's video guy, an author and part-time host of PCMech LIVE.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.
Subscribe To the PCMech Feed for more interesting posts and exclusive feed-only freebies. Our weekly newsletter will keep you up to date each week.
2/25/2008 6:41 pm
Great article Rich. Informative and to the point.
Thanks!
[Reply]
2/28/2008 11:38 pm
I have whitelist of my contacts but sometimes the email still ends up in spam folder.
[Reply]
3/1/2008 2:58 pm
One wonders how many people never really know the use of this. As for me, whitelisting works but blacklisting doesn’t.
[Reply]
3/3/2008 10:01 pm
Just ran across this posting and found the terms whitelisting and blacklisting, very discriminatory and degrading. For what its worth, I am white, and was upset to hear that you are all accepting this terminology without giving it much thought.
[Reply]
3/5/2008 4:46 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitelist#E-mail_whitelists
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacklist#Computing
Standard accepted computer terms.
While you’re reading that, check out the millions of hard drives that have “master” and “slave” directly imprinted in the steel.
I’m sure you’ll have many complaints to report to the entire industry.
In addition, you are being insensitive by using the term “white” to describe the color of your skin and you obviously didn’t give that much thought. You are a Caucasoid; not “white”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasian_race
I also suggest you pull your head out of your ass.
[Reply]