Whitelisting Blocked Email Correspondents Not a Good Solution
When Rice uses blacklist services to block spam and phishing messages from the campus email systems, some legitimate messages may be returned to their senders because of poorly or mis-configured email servers.
When this happens, the correspondent usually receives a message from the Rice email system explaining why their message was refused (see inset).
Sample Explanation for Refused Messages
550 - Your email to Rice University was NOT delivered. Please use another communication method.
In addition, you may want to contact your email server administrator to resolve this problem for future messages.
If your message is critical, contact the Rice IT Help Desk at 713-348-HELP(4357)
Rice University blocked this email because your mail transfer agent
MTA) is listed on multiple DNS-based blackhole lists
The best solution for blocked messages is for the sender's email server administrator to correct their server's configuration and then coordinate the removal of their server address from the open source blacklist providers.
Some Rice customers may have heard colleagues talk about "whitelisting," but this is not a good solution.
Whitelist not a cure-all
Whitelisting means every email from a whitelisted server has free access into the Rice email system. For example, if one student or employee puts a junk mail sender on the Rice whitelist, everyone in the Rice email system would be open to receiving messages from this server. In addition, whitelists are difficult to maintain with accuracy due to the constant change our digital environment. Creating a large Rice whitelist defeats the goal of significantly decreasing the volume of spam and phishing email for Rice customers.
Opt Out Instead
Rice email customers who are concerned about missing legitimate messages may elect to opt out of the blacklist service and instead tune their spam identification tools (like DSPAM and email filters) to a more aggressive identification level.
