How to block address?

[TorontoAlex]

Hi folks, new to the forum. Been using roundcube for a couple of years. Don't really like it but I guess I have no choice with my host. I googled the subject and can't seem to figure it out. I have recently been getting spam and get seem to figure out how to do the simplest task easily found on common email providers: block an email address. I'm sure I have to jump through hoops. Would be nice if there was an easy way I could select multiple emails and block all senders. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[SKaero]

Blocking sender should be done on the mail server not in RoundCube.

[ABerglund]

+1. Roundcube is an email client, has nothing to do with the mail delivery or spam filtering. That needs to happen on the back-end mail server. Contact your email provider and ask them what they provide for spam filtering.

[TorontoAlex]

Pardon my ignorance, but I don't quite understand what you guys are saying. I don't know what a back end mail server is. How does roundcube have nothing to do with mail delivering? I use it to send and receive mail. I can not use it to block mail? When you guys use roundcube, you don't have any option to block certain email addresses? You have to contact the email provider?

[SKaero]

RoundCube is a web based email client. Emails are sent using a SMTP server and received from a IMAP server. If you want to block an address or do spam filtering you need to do it on the IMAP server where the email can be refused that happens long before the email ever gets to RoundCube.

[TorontoAlex]

So what do you do every time you need to block an email address? You don't do it using roundcube? I still don't understand. I can do it with hotmail and gmail. Are they not web based email clients? This is normally a simple task. I feel like I'm not asking the right question here. Do I need to log in to cPanel every time I want to block an email address? Someone got a hold of my businesses email address and the spam has been getting bad.

[ABerglund]

Hotmail and Gmail are email "systems", not email web clients. The client and server are custom designed at great expense (by Microsoft and Google) to operate together.

Roundcube is a webmail "client" only. It only reads and manipulates messages on the actual email server, which is the part that sends and received your email. You can't compare Roundcube to Gmail, instead consider it a web-alternative to a locally installed client like Thunderbird. It can not "block" emails because it doesn't "receive" them - it only displays messages that have already been received by the email server.

Blocking messages must be done on the email server, which has to support allowing end-users (such as yourself) adding to the server's blocking mechanism (if any). The actual process varies depending on what email server software is being used. While we know you are using Roundcube as your email client, we have no clue what email server your email provider is running for Roundcube to connect to.

This is why we recommend contacting your provider - they will know what blocking capabilities their actual email server has.

[Mickel Therapy]

That's the thing with tech savy people, it's knowing how to communicating their knowledge so that non-tech savy people can understand what they are trying to say. 

I did a search in google which took me to this forum post and I too would like to know how to block spam via round cube (or whom ever is responsible for being able to do this)? You say that we need to contact the provider regarding this? How do you find out who the provider actually is (I know it's been said that this differs per person but any ideas would help)?

[SKaero]

You say that we need to contact the provider regarding this? How do you find out who the provider actually is (I know it's been said that this differs per person but any ideas would help)?

Who do you pay to get email? That typically is the best way to figure out who your provider is.

[bonsaipark]

You say that we need to contact the provider regarding this? How do you find out who the provider actually is (I know it's been said that this differs per person but any ideas would help)?

Who do you pay to get email? That typically is the best way to figure out who your provider is.

Hi, I'm also new to the forum, having just been surprised by an unannounced switch in web-based email clients.

This subject totally confuses me as well. If I have no control over message filtering, what is the "filters" tab in the settings menu all about?

I was at first excited by the possibility of clicking the "disable filter" box for the Spam filter, as the previous email web client was a joke. It sent copious amounts of hostile mail to my Inbox and lost much of my legitimate mail... it didn't just send it to my Quarantine folder... it disappeared it completely. From later correspondence, I've estimated that I lost 20-40% of my mail that way.  Pretty much stopped using email for anything at all important as a result. (Early on, I also accidently opened more malicious emails than I ever had without filtering in place, having gotten careless as a result of thinking "Nanny" was watching out for me. I never had a problem when I was vigilant and checked everything carefully myself, which is another reason I'd like to disable the filtering completely.)

As for contacting my provider, the last time I did that, they blocked my phone number. They don't want any contact with users... too busy! There's a person to whom I send a check, but they have no more clout with the techs than I do. They're just bookkeepers.

[JohnDoh]

This subject totally confuses me as well. If I have no control over message filtering, what is the "filters" tab in the settings menu all about?

The filters tab is added by a plugin - or extra function - that your provider has installed into Roundcube. There are a few different plugins which can add such a function so I can't say for sure which one you have but generally the idea is to allow end users to configure message files like "if the message is from x then put it into folder y".

Spam filtering is a different thing to message filtering, and the filters in the tab will likely only control what happens to messages which make it through the spam filtering and to your inbox and you'll see a rule like "if its marked as spam then put it into my quarantine folder". If could be that from your webmail there is no way to disable all the spam filtering (certainly there is no such function in standard Roundcube but your provider might have other plugins).

Since all email system are setup differently all we can do on this forum is direct end users like yourself to contact their provider since the provider is the one who controls the system and knows the setup and what the options are.

As for contacting my provider, the last time I did that, they blocked my phone number. They don't want any contact with users... too busy! There's a person to whom I send a check, but they have no more clout with the techs than I do. They're just bookkeepers.

That is disapointing to hear, if you are not happy with the service then may be you should consider changing providers.

[bonsaipark]

The filters tab is added by a plugin - or extra function - that your provider has installed into Roundcube. There are a few different plugins which can add such a function so I can't say for sure which one you have but generally the idea is to allow end users to configure message files like "if the message is from x then put it into folder y".

Spam filtering is a different thing to message filtering, and the filters in the tab will likely only control what happens to messages which make it through the spam filtering and to your inbox and you'll see a rule like "if its marked as spam then put it into my quarantine folder". If could be that from your webmail there is no way to disable all the spam filtering (certainly there is no such function in standard Roundcube but your provider might have other plugins).

Since all email system are setup differently all we can do on this forum is direct end users like yourself to contact their provider since the provider is the one who controls the system and knows the setup and what the options are.

Thanks for your very clear reply.

However, this is extremely disappointing. Once again, I have no control whatsoever over my email, and am subject to the whims of this miserable Nanny-state oversight. The "tweaking" filter you describe is of no use to me, as (1) No filter works very well at sorting (maybe in another hundred years the AI will be up to the task), and (2) The more folders email is spread around in, the more work I have to do to check it.

Great.  Who thinks this stuff up?

As for contacting my provider, the last time I did that, they blocked my phone number. They don't want any contact with users... too busy! There's a person to whom I send a check, but they have no more clout with the techs than I do. They're just bookkeepers.

That is disapointing to hear, if you are not happy with the service then may be you should consider changing providers.

There's not much else available in my area that's affordable. And I can't even contact the guy who collects the checks and does his best to handle support.  The techs - as they've done at least twice before, since I've been on this system - waited until he left on vacation to make this major change. (Problems with my ISP's email were why I added a Gmail account, but a few days ago that started having unresolved problems of its own. Nothing works.)

My average daily email these days is down to 10-15 pieces - if nothing else, I can always count on a daily Amazon ad, eBay watch list reports, et cetera. In the three days since the switch to Roundcube, I've received ONE email!!!

The system works, insofar as I can send test emails to myself from within the system and from Gmail, so I have to assume that my Overlords consider email from any source EXCEPT myself to be a security threat. (Kinda like Chrome now considering www.google.com to be too risky to allow me to view.)

I'm sick of this crap. Twenty years ago, the Internet was a fun place to be. I knew the guys who operated my ISP, and they were great. Now it's run by jackasses. I guess this is a generational thing.