University Computer Help Desk

Before You Begin

The Safe Senders list in Outlook helps you control which messages are treated as junk mail.

There are two reasons why an email sent to you would be treated as junk in Outlook.

• Illinois State University's spam filtering system evaluates incoming emails to determine whether or not they should be flagged as spam. If you use the campus IMAP mail server, emails flagged as [SPAM_ISU] are delivered to the Junk folder. If you use Exchange for email, messages flagged as [SPAM_ISU] will be delivered to your Junk E-mail folder instead. For more information, refer to 1672: Overview of spam filtering at Illinois State University.
   
• Outlook also has the ability to evaluate emails it receives to determine whether or not they should be treated as spam. When Outlook determines a message is spam, it puts the message in the Junk E-mail folder regardless of whether you use Exchange or the primary mail server.

Safe Senders List

To prevent emails from a particular person or organization from being put in the Junk E-mail folder, add the sender's email address (or a domain) to your Safe Senders list.

Adding an email address (or domain) to the Safe Senders list in Outlook works a little differently depending on whether you use Exchange for email or the primary mail server on campus.

• Exchange: The Safe Senders list is most effective for Exchange users. If you use Exchange for email, then messages which are determined to be spam are placed in your Junk E-mail folder. This is true regardless of whether it was the University's spam filtering system or Outlook that determined the message to be spam. By adding an email address (or domain) to your Safe Senders list, you ensure that messages from that address (or domain) are never automatically delivered to your Junk E-mail folder.
   
• Primary Mail Server: The Safe Senders list is effective for users of the primary mail server, but only in handling messages determined to be spam by Outlook itself. In such cases, having an address (or domain) on your Safe Senders list means Outlook will not put a message from that address (or domain) in your Junk E-mail folder. However, emails which were determined to be spam by the University's spam filtering system will be flagged as [SPAM_ISU] and delivered to your Junk folder. Since the Safe Senders list operates on the Junk E-mail folder and not the Junk folder, having an email address (or domain) on your Safe Senders list only alters Outlook's behavior. It will not prevent an email which has been flagged as [SPAM_ISU] from being placed in your Junk folder.

Email Address or Domain

You can add both email addresses and domains to your Safe Senders list in Outlook.

• Example of an email address: rrredbi@ilstu.edu
• Example of a domain: @ilstu.edu

Adding an email address to your Safe Senders list means that messages you receive from that specific address will not be placed in your Junk E-mail folder.

Adding a domain to your Safe Senders list means that messages from any email address on that domain will not be placed in your Junk E-mail folder. This is particularly useful if you implicitly trust a particular domain, such as ilstu.edu.

Please note that you should avoid adding large or popular domains such as @gmail.com or @hotmail.com to your Safe Senders list because of the sheer number of email addresses associated with those domains and because there is no way for you to be sure that spam messages will not be sent by addresses that use those domains. However, you could still add specific email addresses form those domains (example: rrredbi@gmail.com).

Add an Email Address or Domain to Your Safe Senders List

To add an email address or domain to your Safe Senders list in Outlook, do the following:

1. Do one of the following:
   • Outlook 2010 or Outlook 2011: click Home > Junk > Junk E-mail Options and then click the Safe Senders tab.
   • Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007: click Tools > Options. On the Preferences tab, under where it says E-mail, click Junk E-mail. Click the Safe Senders tab.
2. Click Add…
3. Enter either an email address (like rrredbi@ilstu.edu) or a domain (like @ilstu.edu) in the box.
4. Click OK. 

Outlook Contacts and Safe Sender List

You can make all of your Outlook contacts be treated as safe senders without having to put them in manually. Put a check mark next to the box that says, Also trust e-mail from my contacts. This option is enabled by default.