Virus Quarantine

The “Virus Quarantine” section of the SafePoint system control panel is used to specify the type of quarantine which will be used for emails that are detected by the SafePoint Virus Scanning and Filtering engine as being infected with a virus, worm or other potentially dangerous attachment.

The SafePoint Virus Scanning and Filtering engine provides around-the-clock virus protection with up-to-the-minute defense against the latest virus and worm threats.

The SafePoint system identifies, blocks and disinfects viruses, worms and other and potentially dangerous attachment types before they are able to reach your mail server or email users.

All email messages are checked against a database of over 100,000 virus definitions. If a virus or other dangerous attachment is detected the SafePoint system will disinfect or “defang” (make safe) the contents of the email and deliver the message to either the Virus Quarantine mailbox on the system or to any other offsite email address you have specified in the Virus Quarantine section of the control panel.

The SafePoint Anti-Spam Firewall system automatically receives multiple updates of virus definitions up to several times per hour providing up to the minute defense against the latest virus and worm threats ensuring effective and accurate virus protection.

There are two options available to deal with email that has been detected as being infected with a virus, worm or other potentially dangerous attachment. These options are, “Deliver Via Email” and “Quarantine on Server”.

As the SafePoint Virus Scanning and Filtering engine is very accurate in detecting email messages which are infected with a virus, worm or other potentially dangerous attachment there is only a very small probability of any legitimate email being mistakenly blocked.

You may still wish to have access to these messages in the unlikely event that a legitimate email message may have been inadvertently detected as being infected with a virus, worm or other potentially dangerous attachment and therefore directed to the Virus Quarantine.

If this is the case it is recommended that you choose the “Deliver Via Email” option, which is the default setting on the SafePoint system.

This setting will deliver email messages that have been identified as being infected with a virus, worm or other potentially dangerous attachment to a “virus” email box on the SafePoint system which you will have access to via a web-based email interface at the “http://SafePoint.yourdomain.com/webmail/” URL.

You will be able to log into the web-based email interface on your SafePoint system and view all of the email messages that the system has “quarantined” in the “virus” mailbox.

If necessary you will be able to retrieve any legitimate email message that may have been inadvertently directed to this mailbox and forward it on to the appropriate recipient.

Alternatively, you can specify an off-site (not on your SafePoint system) email address anywhere on the Internet where the quarantined email can be delivered.

To do this you would replace the default “Quarantine Delivery Address” of “virus@localhost” with your own specified email address that you would like to have the quarantined email delivered to and update the system by clicking the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the screen.

The other option available with respect to the handling of email that has been detected by the system as being infected with a virus, worm or other potentially dangerous attachment is “Quarantine on Server”.

You would choose this option only if you are reasonably confident that no legitimate email messages of any significance will be detected as being infected with a virus, worm or other potentially dangerous attachment and delivered by the SafePoint system to the quarantine.

If you choose the “Quarantine on Server” option you will have no access to the quarantined email messages and they will be deleted by the system automatically on a regular basis (usually every 7 days).

In general it is recommended that the default settings of “Deliver via Email” to the “virus@localhost” mailbox on the SafePoint system be maintained.

As detailed previously, in this default configuration all email which is detected as being infected with a virus, worm or other potentially dangerous attachment will be delivered to a “virus” mailbox on the SafePoint System.


You as the SafePoint system administrator will have access to the Virus Quarantine via the “http://SafePoint.yourdomain.com/webmail/” URL by logging in with the username “virus” and the login password that you have been provided with on setup of your SafePoint system.

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