SUMMARY

Troubleshooting global and mailbox filtering.

DETAIL

A filter is configured but it does not pickup anything

The first thing to check is if the filtering is enabled for the MTA agent.

To check this, navigate to this location in the MailEnable Administration program. Messaging Manager->Servers->localhost->Extensions, then right click on "Message Filter", select Properties from the popup menu and check that the Enable Filter Activity Logging option is ticked.

If a content filter has been configured to pick up a word in the message body (and the message has been composed in HTML text) ensure that the word to be filtered has been embraced with wildcard tags * in the criteria word list.

Verify if the filtering is functioning by checking the MTAFILTER-Report-date.txt log file. This will indicate what filter, criteria and actions were used on the message. This log file can be found by navigating to this location in the MailEnable Administration program:

Servers->localhost->Extensions->Message Filter->Logs->Filters

To further investigate, run the MTA in debug mode. This will display if the filters are being actioned and what actions are being executed.

More information on how to run the MTA in debug mode can be found here: http://www.mailenable.com/kb/content/article.asp?ID=ME020121

Filter actions are not executing
      
Ensure that the action to "Delete message" is not first in the actions list, as this will delete the message before the next filter action is executed. This can also cause spam notifications not to be sent to either the sender or the recipient.

Verify what actions are being executed when the criteria is met by checking the MTAFILTER-Report.txt. This indicates which filter was called, criteria used and actions executed.
        
A filter action to "Mark the message as SPAM" has been configured but messages are not being delivered to the Junk E-Mail folder

Ensure the option to deliver messages to junk with a header value marked as spam has been enabled. This option can be found under the postoffices properties window in the "Feature selection" section.

If the message is still received in the inbox, check if the filter is working correctly by checking the received messages header values. The criteria to "Mark message as spam" should add the following lines in the header details of the message. An example of the header value needed for Junk E-Mail delivery is:

        Example:
        X-ME-Content
        Deliver-To=Junk

Also, check if the folder is being created. Check the folders path of the destination mailbox the message was sent to.

        Example:
        C:\Program files\Mail Enable\Postoffices\(Postofficename)\MAILROOT\
        (Mailboxname)\Junk E-Mail

A virus filter has been configured, but viruses still get through to my inbox

Ensure the antivirus integration option has been enabled in the MailEnable Administration program. The Antivirus configuration window can be found by navigating to:

Messaging Manager->Servers->localhost->Extensions

Select "Message Filter" and in the right hand side list window locate the "MailEnable Antivirus Filter" item. Ensure that the Antivirus filter is enabled. If not, then right click on MailEnable Antivirus filter and select Enable.

Verify if the antivirus command line scanner is being called by referring to the antivirus log file, in the MailEnable administration program. The antivirus log file can be found at this location:

Servers->localhost->Extensions->Logs->Antivirus

Antivirus timeout error occurs in the filtering log file:>>AttachmentInfected::Error - Command Line Scanner Process needed to be forcefully terminated

This error usually indicates that there are antivirus command line processes timing out. This is usually caused from the timeout process registry setting being too low. This may also be caused by the MTA thread setting being too high. Thread settings usually depend on what system hardware is being used in the server. The higher the thread setting on the MTA the higher I/O usage the server will use, thus causing timeouts on processes.
        
To resolve the issue, raise this timeout setting to accommodate how long the process should wait for the antivirus command line scanner, before timing out. The registry setting found in this location:

        HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mail Enable\Mail Enable\Agents
        \MTA\Filters

Click on filters and in the right hand side preview pane you will find this regkey "Process timeout". 

A mailbox filter to move or copy the message to a folder has been configured, but the message is never delivered to the folder

Ensure the correct path has been specified when creating the action to move or copy to a folder. It is necessary to specify the whole path where the folder resides in. (Example: \inbox\inbox2\inbox3)

To verify if the mailbox filtering is functioning, refer to the post office debug log file which will indicate which filter executed and what actions were involved.

When trying to configure a message/subject content filter in web mail, the criteria is greyed out

This usually indicates that a system administrator has configured a message/subject filter for the user and has configured the filter to use a word template to refer to when criteria is met.

Filtering tab is not visible in the options of web mail

Ensure that the mailbox filtering option is enabled under the web mail properties located in the MailEnable Administration program. Expand the Servers->localhost->Services and Connectors branch and right click on WebMail to open its properties window. In the properties window it is possible to enable/disable mailbox filtering.  It is also possible to specify how many filters users are permitted to create.

MORE INFORMATION

Troubleshooting integrated filtering: http://www.mailenable.com/kb/content/article.asp?ID=ME020386

Server level filter agent troubleshooting: http://www.mailenable.com/kb/content/article.asp?ID=ME020348