Barracuda
Frequently Asked Questions

What is Barracuda?
How does it work?
How do I know my email will remain private?
How is Spam filtered?
Where can I access the settings?
What is "Quarantine Inbox"? 
What happens to quarantined email?
What options are available under the "Quarantine Settings" menu?
What options are available under the "Spam Settings" menu?
What are Whitelists/Blacklists?
What is Bayesian Learning?

What is Barracuda?

Barracuda is used to filter all incoming email for the sau.edu domain (any mail addressed to YourNameHere@sau.edu).  Barracuda filters all incoming email for spam, phishing schemes, and viruses.

How does it work?

The Barracuda uses a combination of filters, lists, scanners, and definitions to score each email message. This score ranges from 0 (definitely not spam) to 9 (definitely spam). Using these scores, and Bayesian filtering , the Barracuda learns which messages to accept and which to block. Based on these scores, the Barracuda will take one of four actions:

How do I know my email will remain private?

Email by its design is somewhat insecure, and therefore not necessarily private. We do however take steps to ensure your email is private and secure once it reaches the Barracuda.

Access to the Barracuda web interface is restricted to secure connections. Connections using standard HTTP are not allowed, this ensures that all traffic to and from the Barracuda web interface is encrypted, and will remain reasonably secure. The Barracuda will also, after a 20 minute period of inactivity, automatically log your account off.
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How is Spam filtered?

All incoming mail is routed through the Barracuda Spam Firewall.  Spam is tagged, quarantined or blocked based on global preferences as well user preferences.    
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Where can I access the settings?

You can access your Barracuda Spam Settings at https://spam.sau.edu , using your SAU username and password that you use for your Email account.  Click here for detailed instructions.
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What is "Quarantine Inbox"? 

The Quarantine Inbox is meant to provide you with a user-friendly interface to the Barracuda where you can manage email that has been identified as potential spam, and has not been forwarded to your actual inbox. Think of it as a “temporary detention center”. It is a place the Barracuda stores email it suspects is spam and provides you, the end user, with the option to deliver it to your actual inbox, whitelist the sender, or delete it. It is also where you would train your Bayesian database using the "Classify as Spam", and "Classify as Not Spam" buttons. Click here for detailed instructions.
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What happens to quarantined email?

Quarantined email is sent to your Quarantine Inbox on the Barracuda, it is retained for 30 days.

Note: If email in the Quarantine Inbox is not acted upon in 30 days, it is automatically purged.
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What options are available under the "Quarantine Settings" menu?

The Quarantine Setting menu allows you to configure some generic quarantine options.  
1. Quarantine Enable/Disable is used to enable/disable the quarantine for your account.  If enabled, messages are quarantined on the server.  If disabled, messages that would have been quarantined will have their subject line altered and will be delivered to your inbox.
2. Quarantine Notification Interval controls how often a status email is sent informing you of your quarantine statistics (messages quarantined, messages blocked, messages delivered, etc.).
3. Quarantine Notification Address is where your Quarantine Notification emails will be sent.  This address is defaulted but can be changed at anytime.
4. You may change the interface language using this selection box.
Note: Be sure to save changes after modifications.
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What options are available under the "SPAM Settings" menu?

Spam Settings control how mail is scored and delivered.
1. Enable Email Filtering:  You may turn off your spam filtering, at any time.  To do so, turn this setting off (No).
2. Use System Defaults:  By default, your email will be scored based upon the system defaults (Tag Score: 10, Quarantine Score: 4, block Score: 7).  However, you may customize your scoring by turning this setting off (No).
3. Tag Score:  The score determines when the subject line will be altered.  Altered messages will contain the tag "[SPAM]".
4. Quarantine Score: The score at which messages will be quarantined.  A message scoring lower than this setting will be delivered.  A message scoring higher will be quarantined.
5. Block Score: Blocked messages will be rejected back to the sender.  This score determines when messages will be blocked.
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What are Whitelists/Blacklists?

1. Whitelists (allowed addresses) are lists that contain email addresses (username@domain.com) and domain names (domain.com) known to send valid, legitimate emails.  Emails being received from a user in this list will be scanned for viruses only.  If the email does not contain a virus it will be delivered directly to the inbox.

2. Blacklists (blocked addresses) are lists that contain email addresses (username@domain.com) and domain names (domain.com) known to send unwanted, unrequested emails.  Emails being received from a user in this list will never be delivered to the inbox.
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What is Bayesian Learning?

Bayesian Learning is a system to identify patterns.  In this case, it will identify your spam patterns (what you think is spam, what you think isn't spam).  The filter needs to be trained in order to be of any use. Click here for more information.
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