Precise Mail Anti-Spam (PMAS) Gateway

What is PMAS?

In order to limit the volume of spam* delivered to NJCU e-mail accounts, Information Technology has implemented anti-spam software on the e-mail server. The PreciseMail Anti-Spam (PMAS) Gateway traps spam, phishing and virus threats as mail passes through the university mail server. PMAS has a proven out-of-the-box spam detection accuracy rate of 98%. Each mailbox owner can decide how aggressively to filter for spam, and what senders to always allow or block.

How do I activate the service?

Use of this software is optional. However, as a safety precaution it is enabled by default. To turn the service off, simply go to https://mail.NJCU.edu and log in using your e-mail username and password. Click on "Set Your Preferences". On the Preferences page, click on the "Opt-out" radio button to disable scanning your messages. Then click on "Update Basic Preferences" on the bottom of the page.

OK, so it's enabled. How do I use it?

All your mail will be scanned. However, spammers take great effort to design spam that looks like legitimate email to fool both software filters and recipients. Consequently, some Spam will still make it to your Inbox folder. Rest assured that the majority of bad emails are being trapped by PMAS. However, the reverse is also true: Some legitimate mail will be falsely identified as spam. For this reason, PMAS does not delete mail that looks like spam. Instead it moves the email in question to a special area, called the "quarantined queue". You should review your quarantined messages weekly. If you get a lot of mail, you may want to check more often. Also, if you are expecting an important email from someone and it doesn't appear in your Inbox, check the quarantined queue.

To do this, go to https://mail.NJCU.edu/, log in, click "View Quarantined Messages", and scan the subjects. If you find legitimate messages in quarantine, click the checkbox next to each message, then click on "Release" to let it go through to your mailbox. When released, the system will also prompt you to add the sender's e-mail address to your Allow List. If you want all messages from this specific user to go through, click on the checkbox next to the address and then click on "Add Checked Items to the Allow List".

By default, PMAS checks the quarantined queue of every user for new messages twice each day and sends notifications to all the users who have new quarantined mail, as a gentle reminder to check the quarantine queue. After you've gotten into the habit of checking your misdiagnosed email, you can turn off these warnings on the PMAS Preferences page.

NOTE: Messages from listserv lists and electronic Newsletters should not be added to your Allow List this way. These messages should be added manually, replacing the name portion of the e-mail address with wildcard notation. See examples of wild card usage on the "Allow Entries" page.

For security purposes, please be sure to log-out of PMAS before you close the browser or before moving on to another website.

As always, please feel free to call the Help Desk at x4357 for assistance.

*What does "spam" mean?
There is a Monty Python sketch about someone going into a restaurant to order breakfast. No matter what he orders, part of the order is "Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam...". He argues that he doesn't like Spam. The waitress tries to placate him by offering him "Spam, spam, and spam. That's only got a little Spam in it." Early geek culture revolved around things like Monty Python, Star Trek, and Lord of the Rings. Spam became a metaphor for getting a lot of something you don't want and never asked for. (retrieved 9/13/11 from http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/788516/posts)