Managing global Always Block and Always Permit lists

Administrator Help | Forcepoint Email Security | Version 8.5.x

Maintaining lists of IP and email addresses that are either always blocked or always permitted can contribute to the efficiency of your email security system. Bandwidth and time can be saved when trusted mail can bypass some analysis features (including antispam, commercial bulk, and URL analysis).


	Note Mail from addresses in the global Always Permit list is subject to other email analysis, including antivirus analysis, message control, connection control, directory harvest attack, and relay control.

Managing the Always Block List

Add an IP or email address directly into the Always Block List from the page Main > Policy Management > Always Block/Permit. On this page, you can also add a predefined IP or email address list, remove individual entries from a list, export a list to your desktop as a text file, and search a list.

Messages from an email address that appears in both the Always Block and Always Permit lists will be permitted. Messages from an IP address that appears in both lists will be blocked.

Export IP or email address list

From the section IP Address List or Email Address List, click Export All.

Select a save location.

The list is exported as a text file.

Remove an individual entry

From the section IP Address List or Email Address List, select an individual entry and click Remove.

The selected address is removed.

Search a list

From the section IP Address List or Email Address List, enter a keyword in the text field and click Search.

Search results display in the list.

Adding an IP address to the Always Block List

Use the following procedures to add IP addresses to the Always Block list:

From the page Main > Policy Management > Always Block/Permit, click the Always Block tab.

In the section IP Address Block List, add a predefined IP address list; click Browse and navigate to the desired text file.

The file format should be one IP address per line, and its maximum size is 10 MB.

You can also enter an individual IP/subnet address in the field IP/Subnet address field. Click the right arrow button to add the individual entry to the IP Address List on the right.

Click OK.

Adding an email address to the Always Block List

Use the following procedures to add email addresses to the Always Block list:

From the page Main > Policy Management > Always Block/Permit, click the Always Block tab.

In the section Email Address Block List, add a predefined email address list; click Browse and navigate to the desired text file.

The file format should be one email address per line, and its maximum size is 10 MB.

You can also enter an individual email address in the field Email address. Click the right arrow button to add the individual entry to the Email Address List on the right.

Click OK.

Managing the Always Permit List

Add an IP or email address directly into the Always Permit List from the page Main > Policy Management > Always Block/Permit. On this page, you can also add a predefined IP or email address list, remove individual entries from a list, export a list to your desktop as a text file, and search a list.

Email from an address that appears in both the Always Block and Always Permit lists will be permitted. Messages from an IP address that appears in both lists will be blocked.

Export IP or email address list

From the section IP Address List or Email Address List, click Export All.

Select a save location.

The list is exported as a text file.

Remove an individual entry

From the section IP Address List or Email Address List, select an individual entry and click Remove.

The selected address is removed.

Search a list

From the section IP Address List or Email Address List, enter a keyword in the text field and click Search.

Search results display in the list.

Adding an IP address to the Always Permit List

Use the following procedures to add IP addresses to the Always Permit List:

From the page Main > Policy Management > Always Block/Permit, click the Always Permit tab.

In the section IP Address Permit List, add a predefined IP address list; click Browse and navigate to the desired text file.

The file format should be one IP address per line, and its maximum size is 10 MB.

You can also enter an individual IP/subnet address in the field IP/Subnet address. Click the right arrow button to add the individual entry to the IP Address List on the right.

Click OK.

Adding an email address to the Always Permit List

Use the following procedures to add email addresses to the Always Permit list:

From the page Main > Policy Management > Always Block/Permit, click the Always Permit tab.

In the section Email Address Permit List, add a predefined email address list; click Browse and navigate to the desired text file.

The file format should be one email address per line, and its maximum size is 10 MB.

You can also enter an individual email address in the Email address field. Click the right arrow button to add the individual entry to the Email Address List on the right.

(Optional) Configure the Dynamic Always Permit List. See Enabling the Dynamic Always Permit List.

Click OK.

Enabling the Dynamic Always Permit List

Enabling the Dynamic Always Permit List function allows some mail exchanged between a sender/recipient address pair to bypass antispam filtering. When mail between a sender to a recipient does not trigger an antispam filter a specified number of times, that sender/recipient address pair is added to the Dynamic Always Permit List. Antispam analysis is not performed on mail between this sender/recipient address pair. When a specified timeout period has elapsed, the address pair is removed from the list.

From the section Dynamic Always Permit List on the Always Permit tab, mark the check box Enable Dynamic Always Permit List.

Functionality is enabled by default.

In the field Occurrence, enter the number of spam-free email exchanges (from 1 to 5) required before a sender/recipient pair is added to the list.

The default is 1.

In the field Timeout, enter a value for the timeout interval in hours (from 1 to 720).

The default is 720.

(Optional) Clear the list manually; click the button Clear Dynamic Always Permit List.

If you disable this function, the list is automatically cleared.

Order of precedence

A specific order of precedence is applied for cases in which IP addresses or email addresses appear in multiple Always Block and Always Permit lists.

Duplicate email addresses or IP addresses are allowed on both the global Always Block and Always Permit lists, including mixtures of IP and email addresses. A warning displays when a duplicate entry is added.

Duplicate email addresses are not allowed on the Personal Email Manager Always Block or Always Permit lists. A warning displays when a duplicate entry is added. If you continue to add the email address, only the current list to which the email address is added will contain the email address. For any duplicates that existed in previous versions of Personal Email Manager prior to this behavior being changed, an automatic mechanism cleans up duplicates, leaving the particular entry only in the Block List.

In the case of email addresses or IP addresses included in multiple Always Block and Always Permit lists, the order of precedence is below:

Global Always Block IP List

Global Always Permit Email Address

Global Always Block Email Address

Global Always Permit Email IP List

Personal Email Manager Block/Permit Email Address Lists

Dynamic Permit List