How to Specify Recipient and Sender Exceptions for Content Filtering in Exchange Server

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007 SP3, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007

Topic Last Modified: 2009-04-01

This topic explains how to use the Exchange Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell to specify exceptions to content filtering. You can use the Exchange Management Console or the Exchange Management Shell to configure the Content Filter agent to bypass filtering of messages that are sent to specific recipients. You can use the Exchange Management Shell to configure the Content Filter agent to bypass messages from specific senders and sender domains. If your organization frequently exchanges messages with specific external entities, you will find exceptions to content filtering for specific senders and sender domain messages helpful.

Note:

Use caution when you specify large domain namespaces or senders and domains that are frequently spoofed by spammers.

Before You Begin

To perform the following procedures on a computer that has the Edge Transport server role installed, you must log on by using an account that is a member of the local Administrators group on that computer.

Also, before you perform these procedures, confirm the following:

• You have reviewed Anti-Spam and Antivirus Functionality to understand the general strategy for configuring all anti-spam agents so that they work together efficiently for your organization.
• You have read Configuring Content Filtering.

Specifying Recipient Exceptions

To use the Exchange Management Console to specify recipient exceptions for content filtering

1. In the Exchange Management Console, click Edge Transport.
2. In the work pane, click the Anti-spam tab, and then select Content Filtering.
3. In the action pane, click Properties.
4. Click the Exceptions tab.
5. In the Do not filter content in messages addressed to the following recipients text box, type the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) address.
6. Click Add to add the address to the exceptions list.
7. Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box, or click Apply to save your changes without closing the dialog box.

To use the Exchange Management Shell to specify recipient exceptions for content filtering

• Run the following command:
  Set-ContentFilterConfig -BypassedRecipients <SmtpAddress>
  

  For example, to bypass content filtering of messages that are sent to tiffany@contoso.com, run the following command:
  Set-ContentFilterConfig -BypassedRecipients tiffany@contoso.com
  

  Note:
  To enter multiple SMTP addresses, separate the addresses by using a comma as follows, for example: joe@contoso.com, jeffrey@contoso.com. The maximum number of recipients you can input is 800.

For detailed syntax and parameter information, see Set-ContentFilterConfig.

Specifying Sender Exceptions

To use the Exchange Management Shell to specify sender and sender domain exceptions for content filtering

• To bypass content filtering of messages that are sent by specific senders, run the following command:
  Set-ContentFilterConfig -BypassedSenders <SmtpAddress>
  

  For example, to bypass content filtering of messages that are sent by sender1@example.com, run the following command:
  Set-ContentFilterConfig -BypassedSenders sender1@example.com
  

• To bypass content filtering of messages from specific domains, run the following command:
  Set-ContentFilterConfig -BypassedSenderDomains <SmtpDomainWithSubdomains>
  

  For example, to bypass content filtering of messages from example.com, run the following command:
  Set-ContentFilterConfig -BypassedSenderDomains example.com
  

  To bypass content filtering of messages from specific domains and their subdomains, a wildcard character (*) can be used as shown in the following example:
  Set-ContentFilterConfig -BypassedSenderDomains *.example.com
  

  Note:
  To enter multiple SMTP addresses or domains, separate the addresses or domains by using a comma as follows, for example: sender1@example.com, sender2@example.com. The maximum number of recipients you can input is 800.
  

Adding Senders or Recipients to an Existing Content Filter Configuration

When you add new senders or recipients to an existing content filter configuration by using the procedures in this topic, existing senders or recipients in the content filter configuration are replaced with the new data.

To append senders or recipients to an existing configuration, you can create a variable in which to store the existing data. After you create the variable, you can then add data to the configuration. In the following example, the variable is $list.

This example shows how to add a sender to the BypassedSender property of the content filter configuration. You can replace the BypassedSenderparameter in this example with the BypassedSenderDomain parameter or BypassedRecipients parameter to add data to other existing properties on the content filter configuration.

To use the Exchange Management Shell to add a sender to the BypassedSender list on the content filter configuration

1. To create a variable to hold the BypassedSenders list, run the following command:
   $list = (Get-ContentFilterConfig).BypassedSenders
   

2. To verify that the $list variable contains data, run the following command:
   $list
   

   The Exchange Management Shell will return a formatted list of sender SMTP addresses.
3. To add entries to the $list variable, run the following command:
   $list.add("kwekua@contoso.com,tiffany@contoso.com")