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Setting Up a WhiteList With Outlook Express 5

This paper is a tutorial describing how to set up a whitelist using Outlook Express version 5. The steps described here are specific to Outlook Express version 5 and may not be applicable to other versions of the software or to other email clients.

What Is A WhiteList?

A whitelist is a type of mail filter or rule that can be used to control the mail messages that are actually delivered to your inbox. A mail rule looks at certain parts of the message and, according to a set of conditions, which you set up decides what to do with that message. A rule can move messages to different folders, forward a message to other users or even delete the message. Most rules perform their actions by comparing the message with various lists; lists of words or phrases that you don't care to see, lists of users that you don't want mail from and, in the case of the whitelist, a list of users that you DO want mail from.

When you set up a whitelist, you are actually setting up a mail rule, which Outlook Express will use every time a new message arrives. If the sender of the message isn't in your whitelist, the message will be deleted. Since you only see the messages sent by users that you add to your whitelist, this type of rule is very effective at controlling unwanted junk mail. However, you need to be careful to maintain your whitelist and ensure that it contains the email addresses of all the people that you want to exchange mail with. It's quite possible that a family member or close friend will get online for the first time and send you an email message. Unless you know ahead of time and add that person to your whitelist, that message will be deleted when it arrives.

Getting Started

The first thing you need is a list of people that you want to receive mail from. If you have an Address Book set up in Outlook Express, this step will be easy. You'll be able to select the addresses for your whitelist right out of the Address Book. Most likely, everyone in your Address Book will be added to your whitelist. Otherwise, just create a list using a text editor or on a piece of paper. Make sure you have the full and complete email address for each person. For example, if you want to include Uncle Ned in your list, you'll need his complete email address. It will look something like uncle-ned If any of the people you want to include in your list have sent you messages in the past and you've saved those messages, you can look at them to get the correct email address. Don't forget to include support in your list; you may need that address to get assistance in the future.

Once you have the list of email addresses, you're ready to start setting up your whitelist.

If it's not already running, start Outlook Express. Click Message Rules on the Tools menu then click Mail. If you've had Outlook Express installed for a while and you've already created some rules, you'll see the Message Rules window as shown below.

Don't worry if you don't see this window; it just means that you don't have any existing rules. In this case, Outlook Express will bring you right to the New Mail Rule window shown in the next step.

If you have existing rules, you'll get the Message Rules window that should display all of your existing rules. Later, you'll need to examine some of the existing rules and possibly move some of them around. For now, just click on New.. to start creating the whitelist.

Creating the Rule

The New Mail Rule window is where you set up your rules. A rule is composed of one of more conditions as well as one or more actions to take when those conditions are true. Each rule also has a description as well as a name. By default, the names aren't very descriptive. If you have more than one rule, it's best to give each one a descriptive name. Click in the text field labeled Name of the rule: and enter whitelist as the name for this new rule.

Next, in the Conditions area, click the checkbox next to the phrase "Where the From line contains people". None of the other conditions should be checked but you might want to use the scrollbar to make sure. As the Action for this rule, select "Delete it".

Your window should now look like the example below. The description should read "Apply this rule after the message arrives Where the From line contains people Delete it". For now, the logic of the rule is the exact opposite of what you want. You want to delete the message unless it is from one of the people listed. This will be changed in a later step but first you need to add the list of email addresses that you've decided to accept messages from.

In the Description field, the phrase "contains people" appears underlined. Click on this phrase and bring up the Select People window.

Adding Addresses to the WhiteList

Take the list of addresses that you created earlier and enter them one at a time. After typing each one, click the Add button. If some or all of the addresses have already been entered in your Address Book, you can click on the Address Book button to select the addresses to put into the list.

Changing the Meaning of the Rule

When you've entered the last address, click on the Options button. The meaning of the rule needs to be changed so that the message is deleted unless it is from one of the addresses listed. If you accidentally forget this step, you'll end up deleting the messages you want to keep. The Rule Condition Options window is needed in order to set the correct meaning of the rule. Click on the circle next to the sentence "Message does not contain the people below". The rule should now be applied if the message does not contain the people below AND the message matches any one of the people below. After you verify this, click on OK. Then, in the Select People window, click OK again.

Finishing Up

You should now be back to the New Mail Rule window that should contain the completed whitelist. The description of the rule should read something like "Apply this rule after the message arrives Where the From line does not contain 'person1' or 'person2' Delete it." Check this over carefully and if necessary go back and correct any errors. When you are satisfied that everything is right, click OK. This will bring you back to the Message Rules window.

If the whitelist is the only Outlook Express rule that you've created you're all done. However, if you already have some other rules, there is one more step that you should do. Outlook Express will apply mail rules in order, with the first rule in the list being applied before the second and so on. If the whitelist rule isn't the first rule you've defined, it will probably be the last one that Outlook Express applies. This might not be what you want.

If, for example, you already have a rule to delete messages from MakeMoneyFast, you probably don't need that rule anymore. The whitelist will take care of that. However, if an existing rule moves messages from support to a support folder, you'll probably want to keep that rule. If there are any rules that you need to keep, you should probably move the whitelist rule to the top of the list so that it is applied first. Highlight the whitelist rule and use the Move Up button to bring it to the top of the list.

Maintaining the List

From time to time, you'll need to add to, remove from and modify addresses in your whitelist. Just bring up the Message Rules window and select the whitelist. Then click on the underlined portion of the Rule Description to bring up the Select People window. Make your changes then click OK to apply them.

Where Do the Deleted Messages Go?

When Outlook Express receives a message from someone not in your whitelist, it deletes the message by moving it to the Deleted Items folder. The sender of the message is not notified that you've elected not to receive messages from him. The messages are still delivered to you but since you've chosen not to see them, Outlook Express moves them out of the way for you.

The deleted messages are still taking up space on your hard drive, so from time to time you should clean them out. Click on Edit then click on Empty Deleted Items Folder to clear this out.

You might want to periodically review some of the messages in the Deleted Items folder to ensure that you aren't removing messages that you should be keeping.

Further Help

More information on Outlook Express is available via the Outlook Express Help menu. There is also help available from Microsoft's website at http://www.microsoft.com. For FamilyClick specific issues, please send email to support.