Quarantine designed
to filter spam
by Lindsay Sandham
The Metropolitan
Metro students returning to campus this fall will most likely find an
abundance of e-mails titled “user quarantine” in their campus
e-mail inbox.
Information Technology implemented the process, which quarantines external
e-mails as possible spam, June 28. The quarantine process is performed
by IronMail software, a program IT purchased for $75,000, according to
IT Assistant vice President Yvonne Flood.
The cost of this program is partially paid for out of student fees and
partially out of state allocated funds. The annual maintenance cost is
$17,000, Flood said.
IT enacted the quarantine process because the Metroconnect server receives
95,000 to 110,000 external e-mails per day, which substantially slows
down the system, according to Flood.
“(IronMail) filters out 60,000 junk mail messages per day,”
she said. She added that IronMail frees up a lot of computer resources
because it lessens the load on the e-mail server so the system runs faster.
“Every message is tested with about 10 different tests,”
said Clyde Hoadley, IT security and disaster recovery coordinator. “If
it’s something brand new or very customized, it may slip through.”
“There’s been a few complaints,” Flood said. “Some
people would rather get the spam.”
However, there have been a lot more complaints of people receiving too
much junk mail in the past, she also said.
One problem with the quarantine process is some people prefer to do Metro
business through other e-mail servers, but forge the e-mail address as
a Metro address. These messages are almost always quarantined.
“Some people prefer other e-mail servers such as Outlook, Netscape
or Eudora,” Hoadley said.
IT recommends that faculty and staff use the portal for Metro business
to avoid this problem.
Metro student Dante Alzamora said he has two e-mail addresses and he
only uses his Metro account for school and work.
“I think it’s (IronMail) good for my situation because I
don’t want any spam,” he said.
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