About black list and white list address formats

Acceptable input for black and white list entries may vary by the type of the black or white list, but may be:

• all or part of an IP address
• all or part of a domain name
• all or part of an email address

Domain name portions (for example, example.com) and user name portions (for example, user1) may use wild cards (? and *).

Table 61:Examples of valid black list/white list entries

Example	Description of match
172.168.1	Email from the IP addresses 172.168.1.0/24
example.com	Email from any sender at example.com, such as user1@example.com.
spammer@example.com	Email from the sender spammer@example.com
?ser1@example.com	Email from any sender name ending in “ser1” at example.com
*@example.com	Email from any sender at example.com
user1@ex?mple.com	Email from the sender user1 in domains such as example.com, exemple.com, or exumple.com
user1@*.com	Email from the sender user1 at any .com domain

The following formats are not valid:

• 16.1.0
• 16.1.0/24
• @spam. example.com

Configuring the global black list and white list

The System tab lets you configure system-wide black and white lists to block or allow email by sender. It also lets you back up and restore the system-wide black and white lists.

Use black and white lists with caution. They are simple and efficient tools for fighting spam and enhancing performance, but can also cause false positives and false negatives if not used carefully. For example, a white list entry of *.edu would allow all email from the .edu top level domain to bypass the FortiMail unit’s other antispam scans.

To access this part of the web UI, your administrator account’s access profile must have Read or Read-Write permission to the Black/White List category. For details, see “About administrator account permissions and domains” on page 290.

Domain administrators can access the global black list and global white list, and therefore could affect domains other than their own. If you do not want to permit this, do not provide Read-Write permission to the Black/White List category in domain administrators’ access profile.

To view the global black list or white list, go to AntiSpam > Black/White List > System. The page displays two links:

• Black List
• White List

To add an entry to the system-wide black list or white list

1. Go to AntiSpam > Black/White List > System.
2. Do one of the following:

• To block email by sender, click Black List. • To allow email by sender, click White List.

The dialogs that appear are identical except for the single line of description.

Figure 270: Configuring the system-wide black or white lists

3. In the field to the left of the Add button, type the email address, domain name, or IP address of the sender you wish to add to the black or white list. For information on valid formats, see “About black list and white list address formats” on page 615.
4. Click Add.

The entry appears in the text area.

5. Click the window close button (X) to close the dialog.

To delete an entry from the system-wide black list or white list

1. Go to AntiSpam > Black/White List > System.
2. Click either Black List or White List.
3. In the text area below the Add button, select the entry that you want to remove.
4. Click Remove Selected.

To back up the system-wide black list or white list

1. Go to AntiSpam > Black/White List > System.
2. Click either Black List or White List.
3. Click Backup.
4. If your web browser prompts you for a location, select the folder where you want to save the file.
   2. Click either Black List or White List.
   3. Click Browse, locate and select the file that you want to restore, then click OK.
   4. Click Restore.