Challenges
Clicking on the Challenges icon provides access to the Challenges window shown below. This window allows you to set-up your system to utilize the Challenge/Response capability.
How CHALLENGE/RESPONSE Works
Challenge/Response will allow you to challenge none, some, or all email messages that arrive in your Inbox from unknown senders (someone who has not sent you email before). Let’s assume that we have Challenge/Response set to all, then the system operates as follows:
- An email arrives to your system from an unknown sender.
- If the message is judged as spam or phishing it will be placed in the appropriate SonicWALL Junk Mail or SonicWALL Phishing Mail folder and no further action is taken.
- If the email is not judged as spam or phishing, then this email is placed in the SonicWALL Challenged Mail folder and the unknown sender is sent a Challenge email.
- The Challenge email is meant to determine if the sender is real and can Respond to the challenge or if the sender is fake (a spammer) and cannot Respond to the challenge.
- If the sender successfully Responds to the challenge, the original email, being held in the SonicWALL Challenged Mail folder, is delivered to your Inbox and the sender is added to your People allowed list so that subsequent emails from this sender will not be challenged.
- If the sender does not successfully Respond to the challenge, the original email will remain in the SonicWALL Challenged Mail folder until it is deleted at a later time.
Challenge/Response Levels
There are three different levels of Challenge/Response:
- High – Challenge Unknown Senders
SonicWALL Anti-Spam Desktop will challenge all emails that you receive unless they are known as good to either you (on your allowed lists) or to SonicWALL (known good senders). Any email message that is received and can be classified immediately as junk gets sent directly to the SonicWALL Junk Mail folder for later deletion and does NOT get a challenge issued. - Low – Challenge Uncertain Email
SonicWALL Anti-Spam Desktop will only challenge emails that it cannot determine with certainty are spam or are good. This is typically a small percentage of the email you receive. - Off –Never Send Challenges
SonicWALL Anti-Spam Desktop will not send challenge emails. Move the slider up to turn on email challenges.
Challenge Type Entries & Buttons
The Challenge Type section of the challenge window contains several options which will allow you to modify the challenge emails sent out to the senders of challenged email messages. These options and buttons are covered below.
Photo Challenge versus Permission Request Challenge
A Photo Challenge as shown below requires the person receiving the challenge to correctly select the number of items (in this case kittens) displayed in the picture.
A Permission Request Challenge as shown below requires the person receiving the challenge to simply press the Add me to the Allowed List button to successfully respond to the challenge.
Show Example Button
Pressing the Show Example button will display in a new browser window an example of the type of challenge message you will issue – Photo Challenge or Permission Request Challenge. These are only examples.
Personalize Button
Pressing the Personalize button will display a window similar to that shown below which will allow you to personalize your challenge message. The text entered here is included at the bottom of the already formatted challenge email that is sent out, this text does NOT replace the default message. It is not possible for the default message text to be changed.
Email Server Button
Challenges are sent via the default SMTP server of your computer. If this is not configured correctly or more than one server is used to send out email, then there may be issues with the outgoing challenges. If you need to specify the specific server that will be used to send out email from your system, then you can define this server as shown below.
Use this option carefully and only if needed.
- Enter in the name of the SMTP server you will use.
- If required (typically it is) click the box for My server requires authentication…, then enter your login credentials (account name and password).
- Click Send Test Email to see if a message is sent from your system and arrives a few minutes later to your system.
- Once you are certain this is set-up correctly, click OK to accept the new set-up.