Barracuda FAQ

Q – How do I process my Quarantine email?
A – In your quarantine you will see several buttons, they all serve different purposes.
     Here are their individual explanations.

1. Deliver – Hitting this will deliver an email, it won’t whitelist it or write the information to the
    Bayesian database to learn for future reference.
2. Whitelist – This will add the users address to your whitelist as well as deliver the email through to your
     inbox. Once you hit this the address will appear in the whitelist under the preferences tab and all future
     mail from that address will be delivered straight through to you, this is recommended for legitimate users
     who are consistently caught in the quarantine.
3. Whitelist+ Not Spam – Hitting this will Whitelist the address, deliver it through to you and write the
     information to your Bayesian database.
4. Delete – This will simply delete that email from quarantine.
5. Classify as Spam - This will delete the email and write the information to your Bayesian database
     which tells the system what you regard as spam and what it should look out for in future.
6. Classify as Not Spam– This will deliver the email and write the information to your Bayesian database
     and tells the system what you regard as legitimate email and what it should look out for in future.


The best practice is to spend a few moments going over the emails and telling the system what do with them instead of just hitting deliver or delete, processing the emails with the whitelisting and classification options will greatly improve the filtering service for you.

Q – What is the Bayesian database?
A – The Bayesian database is a system of calculating the best way to filter your account for spam, through a scoring system it evaluates each email and decides whether it is spam or not. Each user is prewritten with the default server database which is updated daily but as each user has different definitions of spam it allows you to customize as you see fit. This is done via the Classify as Spam, Classify as Not Spam buttons. It can take up to 300 emails of each classification to begin fully understanding your requirements.

Q – What is the "Whitelist" button on the quarantine inbox?
A –"Whitelisting" will allow future emails from a particular sender to be delivered to your inbox, regardless of the content of the message. The next time the Barracuda service encounters that sender, the email will not be quarantined but delivered straight through.

Q – Does the Barracuda service allow us to "blacklist" anyone?
A –"Blacklisting" will cause future emails from a particular sender to be blocked from delivery to your inbox, regardless of the content of the message. To "Blacklist" a sender, from within your Barracuda quarantine, click on your "Preferences" tab, then click "Whitelist/Blacklist." Under the heading "Blocked Email Addresses and Domains" type in the address you wish to block, then click the "Add" button. Blocked email addresses are NOT delivered to your quarantine or your inbox.

Q – My "blacklist" is not working properly. What could I have done wrong?
A – Some list mailers use serialized addresses when sending messages. When you try to "whitelist/blacklist" an address and it doesn't seem to be working properly you can do the following to "Blacklist" a domain:

Inside the Barracuda quarantine, click on "Preferences," then choose "Whitelist/Blacklist." In the textbox for denied addresses enter: "baddomain.com" of the sending domain that you want to block, then click "Add."

Q – How often will I receive notice from the Barracuda service?
A – You will receive notice for every day after 16:00 that your quarantine contains spam. You will receive a quarantine message for each domain address that is being scanned. You can modify the frequency of this for each user of the Barracuda spam filtering service. Within your quarantine, click on your "Preferences" tab, then click on "Quarantine Notification." You can choose "Daily," "Weekly" or "Never." The default setting "Daily" is recommended.

Q – I use Microsoft Outlook - Is there a plug-in?
A – Yes, this is found on the home page http://barracuda.globalgold.co.uk go to the bottom of the page to download the plug-in. While the Barracuda is very good about learning about your spam, this will allow you to help the Barracuda learn quicker as each user has different requirements. The plug-in puts two icons on your Outlook tool bar. If you receive a message that you consider spam, then click the red 'spam' button and then the Barracuda will learn this type of mail is spam. If you receive a message that is definitely not spam, then clicking the green button will help the barracuda learn that also.

Q – How do I get into my Barracuda quarantine? Do I need a login and password?
A – The Barracuda service generates a random login and password that will be delivered to your email address upon receipt of the first quarantined email. But you do not need to login to your quarantine. Simply click on the link in the Barracuda message you receive once per day and it will take you to your quarantine.

Q – What is the URL for my quarantine? Can I bookmark it or add it to my favorites?
A – It is located at: http://barracuda.globalgold.co.uk You can bookmark or add this URL to your favourites list in your web browser, but you will be prompted for a login and password. The username is your email address and password would have been sent to you when the account was first set up. If you can’t find your password it can be rest as per the steps below.

Q – I've forgotten my password to get into my quarantine. Can I get it reset?
A – The easiest way to access your quarantine is to use the link at the bottom of one of the messages that says "click here" but you can reset it via the Create New Password link on the main login page, just enter in your email address.

Q – When I first attempted to check the quarantine list, I didn't have to enter any username or password. Now I do. What should I do?
A – Your quarantine is currently empty. As soon as you receive another spam message, you will get a notification from the Barracuda service. Click on the link at the bottom of the email to take you into your quarantine.

Q – How do I add spam that is getting past the Barracuda spam filter?
A – You can "Blacklist" a specific sender, but because most spam senders change the sender information, it is best to wait a day or two until the Barracuda service "learns" that it is spam and quarantines it accordingly.

Q – If I add an address to the "blacklist" in my preferences, what happens to mail from that address?
A –"Blacklisting" completely blocks the sender and no notification is sent to the sender or intended recipient.

Q – I accidentally clicked "deliver" instead of "delete" in my quarantine. What happens?
A – No problem. Future email will continue to get scanned. And if you accidentally click "Whitelist," you can go into your "Preferences" and click on "Whitelist/Blacklist" then delete all the "Whitelist" entries that got there accidentally.

Q – I have over 4 pages of quarantined messages. Do I have to delete them, one at a time?
A – No. Next to the "Date" column heading is a checkbox that will check all the messages on the viewable page. You can then select "Deliver," "Whitelist" or "Delete." If you have multiple pages of spam, you will need to click this checkbox on each page of your quarantine to select all items for your chosen action.

Q – What do I do with spam that makes it through? What process do I undergo to have the Barracuda service "learn" that a given message is spam?
A – The Barracuda service auto-updates spam definitions on a regular basis, working much like virus definitions. You may see some spam get through for a day or two before new definitions are learned by the Barracuda service. There will always be some messages that will get through the spam filter. We have tuned the Barracuda to catch as many as possible. You can continue to use filters in your email client to put these messages in the "trash."

Q – My last batch of Barracuda messages were all spam. I selected all the messages, and clicked "deliver" instead of "delete." Not only did I have those messages delivered, but now it thinks that they aren't spam. What should I do?
A – You will need to delete those messages yourself, but your actions will not affect the Beysian method of spam categorization used by the Barracuda service to recognize spam.

Q – Do I need any local filtering, in addition to the Barracuda?
A – No, you do not need local filtering. But you may need to modify your filters to allow the Barracuda spam notification to work properly.

Q – I've deleted something from my quarantine by mistake. Can you recover it?
A – No. Once you delete the item, it's gone. You may need to contact the sender.

Q – Would it be possible in the quarantine email to have it immediately jump to the web page when opened?
A – You will need to click on the link inside the email message.

Q – The "delete" link for my two spam messages is not active, so I am not able to delete them.
A – Try the "click here" link at the bottom of the Barracuda email message to delete the spam items from within the quarantine.

Q – In my Barracuda quarantine, is there a way to view an email before deleting it?
A – You may have noticed that when your mouse scrolls over messages they highlight with a dark grey bar. Just click once on the "subject," "date" or "from" fields and a preview window will open. This window will show you the header information and the first 5,000 bytes of the message in Plain Text format.

Q – I just spent a long time deleting a large amount of messages and now they're all back. I don't want any of them. What am I doing wrong?
A – The notification must have been generated around the time you were working on your quarantine. Check again, and those items should not appear.